Failures Of History Education In Public Schools

Dave From Jamaica calls to discuss the tragic state of history education around the world. How do we combat this, and how do we make
the subject of history—which is important part of contextualizing what's going on right now—more interesting to young minds?

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[stephencody]

As a former History teacher I did a few things; related historical events to current events, made them look into their history, made historical figures failable and showed they weren't perfect, showed how ordinary people were responsible for more than they're credited for, and showed how what passes for "common knowledge" history is often lies and misunderstandings. This all helped. Watch HS kids perk up when you tell them 3of the 4 faces on Rushmore (land back) smoked weed. That gets heads up and ears open. Then you tie it back into the "boring" taxation stuff.

[cindytwo]

To paraphrase Mark Twain: don't let your schooling interfere with your education.

[mrbadguysan]

This is 100% the case, college professors often state that they have to deprogram people; highschool history is taught so poorly.

[TheBohunk]

I am 68 and I can still remember how history was taught back in the day. It was heavy on dates instead of teaching history and how it affected things.

[iammrbeat]

Whenever someone tells me they think history is "boring, " I tell them that they actually love history. When they push back, I follow up with asking them to tell me about something awesome they did recently. After they excitedly tell me about something they recently did, I reply "see, you do love history. You just told me something about the past, and you were excited to tell me about it." History is ALL OF OUR STORIES about the past, including the very recent past, not just the long ago stories of the rich and powerful.

[SLC-Smudge]

Did anybody else think that thumbnail of Ben Stein was an aged Sam Seder for a nanosecond?

[DivineArbalest]

American social studies teacher here. Part of our big struggle is that school districts also don't value us. I don't have curriculum, I don't have many resources beyond a textbook. Everything I do in class is something I had to make. The head of social studies in my district is often ignored by higher ups. I also have mandates from the district on projects I'm supposed to do and so many topics I have to cover in 180 days. We also are the subject most districts regard as "what coaches teach." We rarely test over it and so it isn't stressed like English and STEM would be, especially since funding isn't tied to it. EDIT: should also add that history education's function--in the eyes of schools and government--is instilling patriotism, not in actually learning lessons from history.

[grev.]

i appreciate how thoughtful the callers are on this show.

[alexandraa]

The teacher makes all the difference — my AP modern world teacher was so incredible. We make tshirts about him at the end of the year. He made it fun.

My US teacher was a hippie and told it like it is. It was summer school, so it was condensed. I’m realizing more than ever how much more robust my history education was. I’m very thankful and it motivates me to advocate for a better understanding of how the world works really.

[zwilnik]

History education focuses on names and dates. That's dull. History is full of stories are interesting. So teach the stories, not lists of names and dates.

[Yungrexy]

*"Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it"* - Churchill

[Sohbek]

I was thinking about this earlier. One way to put it is this - too much of history in school asks "What?" and not "Why?" The "why" is much more important than the "what" (though the what is still important of course).

[tachoudhury]

Could not agree more. History is one of the most important subjects for learning critical thinking. In my high school modern history class, I learned how to do source analysis. And now it's embedded into my way of thinking about *everything*

[Alltime]

When I was in high school in the 1970s every time the kids learned real history our conservative parents who are now eighty year old Trump voters would freak out and swarm the PTA meetings. When they were kids they learned about Thomas Jefferson without hearing about his slaves just like they learned about George Armstrong Custer and his last stand without having to hear about how he massacred whole villages of mostly woman and children. That kind of stuff really pissed the old people off a lot. I could actually see the school dumbing our education down just to placate them. That was at the beginning of the culture war and conservative activism to dumb down subjects like history was one of their earliest victories.

[bengallup]

The old fashioned focus on names of leaders, dates, and rote learning is largely to blame for the subject sometimes being boring and pointless. Newer teaching methods in Canada have shifted focus to provide context, explain different perspectives, and critically analyze past events, and this model of teaching is much, much better and more engaging. I was lucky and got the newer style of history lessons in school, and I loved it.

[vader]

Based call. Very valid question. History must be learned and remembered. How can we combat systems when we don’t know the past, often involving darkness?

[JohnHall]

My US History teacher back in the 80's in Indiana taught us that the civil war was about state's rights and not slavery.

[movdqa]

We taught our kids history starting with when they were young and it was quite difficult because of context. Kids grow up with indoor plumbing, food in the fridge or pantry, access to weather forecasts, access to medical care, access to information and communications any time of the day or night, and the ability to control the temperature and humidity in our homes. So it is hard to get across the idea of scarcity, or the dire conditions that existed in the past where people didn't have modern supports that underlie our psyche as we go about our daily lives.
In terms of making it interesting: you have to figure out what is interesting to the child and use that as a driver. Or you can use standard materials but use what you know about the kid's interests and understanding for reference points.

[lindseystein]

In high school, I had a teacher for US history who made things interesting and fun. I already liked learning about history, so that also helped. The issue I have is that the curriculum is so watered down and sanitized.

[EndPoliticalCorruption]

I think the main problem is that children don't have _real_ lived experience, making it difficult to understand motivations, intertwined interests, economic structures, social psychology, and corruption (both grandiose and banal). So rather than understand why things unfolded as they did, they're left with just what and how, which can be rather shallow and disjointed.