Teaching History
By Thyatira Thompson, CCP Board Member
Social Studies. My eyes gloss over simply thinking about the phrase. Forgive me for beginning this story with anecdotal evidence and my personal experiences. But surely I cannot be the only one who felt the way that I felt while sitting through Social Studies classes from my time in middle and secondary school. My memories of sitting in social studies classes are that it was often times the best sleep to be found, or the perfect opportunity to get work done for some other teacher’s class - a cardinal sin if you got caught.
Fast forward a few years and I found myself having crossed enemy lines, finding a calling as a high school math teacher. As a teacher, you learn quickly that a tell-tale sign your class may need to be spiced up a bit is when a kid (or two) is willing to do someone else’s work, unprovoked or without encouragement, when they should be spending their time comprehending the lesson you are currently teaching. Also, as a teacher, the goal is maximum engagement. Not having it is what keeps most teachers up at night as that is one of the main criteria (at least in Houston and New Orleans where I have taught) we are judged by.
As a student, no matter how hard I tried, I simply could not find interest in being fully engaged by whatever war we were discussing or explorer who “discovered” someplace that as often as not, had already been “discovered” by the folks who had been living there for millennia. And yet, in my teaching career, I found some of the best, brightest, and most engaging teachers, to be history teachers. I understand I am comparing apples to pomegranates when I am comparing my own history teachers in school to history teachers who were my colleagues. But there is just something different in hearing a critical analysis of historical events being shared on a personal level with colleagues versus what they, and, no doubt my own teachers growing up were hamstrung to present to a class.
Seriously, I challenge you to find a history teacher or a historian and ask them about certain events which fall along their areas of expertise and watch them light up explaining the intricacies and nuances of behaviors and ideologues which led to certain outcomes, and how those outcomes impact us today. I am emphasizing history teachers, not because all teachers aren’t faced with the daily challenge of keeping kids fully engaged, but because for decades, the way history has been and still is taught in this country is through a lens that glosses over the bad, eliminates the terrible, and promotes the do-good, moral-high-ground pretenses for our policies and actions in both domestic and foreign affairs - thus supporting the narrative that we tell ourselves and the world about who we are.
The result of this repeated narrative is a student with a severe deficiency and an unwilling ignorance, which brings forth truth to the quote by President Richard Nixon that “when information which properly belongs to the public is systematically withheld by those in power, the people soon become ignorant of their own affairs, distrustful of those who manage them, and—eventually—incapable of determining their own destinies.”
Truer words could not have been spoken. There is a fervor in the air about what is truth and what is fiction. Who gets to tell the stories which gets printed and what should be included, or excluded? Who is right and who should be canceled? How can we transcend themes that traditional history textbooks have pawned off on students, and be brave enough to tell everyone’s story highlighting our flaws and struggles along with our strengths and perseverance. Isn’t this a primary tool they will need as they move on to create a better country and a better world?
