I’ve always been saddened by the bad rap that history gets from most students. I was always a part of the rare few that thoroughly enjoyed all of my history classes. Now, as a social studies teacher, I cannot afford to just be merely saddened by this phenomenon, I must do something to help reverse it.
A good starting point would probably be trying to understand why it is that I enjoy the subject. First and definitely foremost, I see this discipline as a nearly infinite number of personal biographies that interact with each other to form our history. History is nothing more than the amalgamation of personal biographies. When you break it down like this, the focus becomes on people, not dates or places. In my opinion, people’s stories are much more interesting and captivating than the dry facts that many history classes are built around.
The historical figures that live large in our textbooks and lessons were humans just like you, me and our students. They may have lived in a different time period but they experienced the same emotions and concerns that many of us face on a daily basis. I think the more that we can stress the humanity of these historic people the more we can help our students relate.
Reading a series of biographies on Theodore Roosevelt is what got me thinking about this topic a little bit more deeply. I’m not sure how a student could not find this person absolutely fascinating if they were forced to grapple with Teddy at some sort of personal level. I know that most students would balk at having to read a biography as an assignment, let alone in their own free-time, but there must be some way as teachers that we can help bring these people alive in our classrooms.
History is written through the lives of incredibly interesting people who did incredible things. They had very real and familiar emotions, desires, vices, and motivations that are not foreign to our students, regardless of the era in which they lived. It is absurd to me that a discipline built by incredible individuals has the reputation of dry facts and rote memorization. What can we do as a profession to bring the power of biography alive?
What have you done to bring the power of biography alive in your classroom? What individuals have you focused on as you do so?
Would HS students find an impersonator interesting or hokey? There are folks who do an amazing job bringing historic figures to life… not sure how HS students would react.
I was wondering the same thing. I think they might act like it’s lame but actually find it pretty entertaining.