|
The difficulty
of deciding what content to include in history courses is discussed
more fully on the Chronological Narrative page of this web site.
See: The
History Wars:
10/9/01 studentsfriend.com
reply You're right, no Greek tyrants and no Solon in the SF. Any narrative of history is about making choices, and no two narratives are alike with the possible exception of some textbooks which are competing with one another to be all-inclusive in an attempt to satisfy diverse constituencies and thereby woo textbook selection committees. The SF represents my choices about what I consider to be the most important elements to be included in a world history course. Your choices most certainly will be somewhat different. My choices are based on reading several overviews of world history ranging from high school and college textbooks, to van Doren's History of Knowledge, to Keegan's History of Warfare, to Barron's SAT preparation book in World History, to the transcripts of the PBS college telecourse The Western Tradition and others. Still, if you were to read the very same material, your choices would be different. I try to limit the detail in the SF to material that is necessary for understanding the larger context of human experience. Yes, Solon and the tyrants advanced the cause of democracy, but what were the conditions that permitted democracy to take root in Greece? Solon and the tyrants are facts that could be remembered by students. But, they are proximate causes of democracy, not the underlying causes. The underlying conditions include a tradition of individual independence to which the SF refers. As to the African kingdoms, why do we want to learn about them? Is it useful to know that successful kingdoms existed in Africa before Africa came under European domination? This is noted in the SF. Did these kingdoms have a significant influence on our culture or the modern world? That influence, I believe, was limited. So, coverage of Africa in the SF deals more extensively with other factors that have continuing relevance such as the major contribution to Western culture made by the arts of sub-Saharan Africa and the near-destruction of African culture by European imperialists, and the present-day political instability and ethnic unrest that resulted to a large extent from European intervention. Nonetheless, if I had a significant population of African-American students in my classroom, I would want to include more information about sub-Saharan culture to provide these students with a greater understudying of their cultural heritage. The Student's Friend is meant to provide a framework for studying world history, a skeleton to be fleshed-out with additional activities and explorations. If I had African-American students, such activities would undoubtedly focus more heavily on African history and culture. But, I have no African-American students...Hispanic, yes, Native American, yes... no African-Americans. One thing I like about the SF is that it is not a printed textbook. If you or some other teacher would like to add topics about Solon or Shaka Zulu, you may easily do so. I would hope you might share your additions with others on the SF website, and in this way the SF will become more useful to more teachers over time. Do you know that the SF can now be downloaded in six word processing formats? That gives you the capability to modify the SF right on your computer. |
...........© 2001 - 2007 michael g. maxwell - maxwell learning l.l.c.
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The difficulty
of deciding what content to include in history courses is discussed
more fully on the Chronological Narrative page of this web site.
See: The
History Wars: © 2001-2006 Michael G. Maxwell |
10/9/01 studentsfriend.com
reply You're right, no Greek tyrants and no Solon in the SF. Any narrative of history is about making choices, and no two narratives are alike with the possible exception of some textbooks which are competing with one another to be all-inclusive in an attempt to satisfy diverse constituencies and thereby woo textbook selection committees. The SF represents my choices about what I consider to be the most important elements to be included in a world history course. Your choices most certainly will be somewhat different. My choices are based on reading several overviews of world history ranging from high school and college textbooks, to van Doren's History of Knowledge, to Keegan's History of Warfare, to Barron's SAT preparation book in World History, to the transcripts of the PBS college telecourse The Western Tradition and others. Still, if you were to read the very same material, your choices would be different. I try to limit the detail in the SF to material that is necessary for understanding the larger context of human experience. Yes, Solon and the tyrants advanced the cause of democracy, but what were the conditions that permitted democracy to take root in Greece? Solon and the tyrants are facts that could be remembered by students. But, they are proximate causes of democracy, not the underlying causes. The underlying conditions include a tradition of individual independence to which the SF refers. As to the African kingdoms, why do we want to learn about them? Is it useful to know that successful kingdoms existed in Africa before Africa came under European domination? This is noted in the SF. Did these kingdoms have a significant influence on our culture or the modern world? That influence, I believe, was limited. So, coverage of Africa in the SF deals more extensively with other factors that have continuing relevance such as the major contribution to Western culture made by the arts of sub-Saharan Africa and the near-destruction of African culture by European imperialists, and the present-day political instability and ethnic unrest that resulted to a large extent from European intervention. Nonetheless, if I had a significant population of African-American students in my classroom, I would want to include more information about sub-Saharan culture to provide these students with a greater understudying of their cultural heritage. The Student's Friend is meant to provide a framework for studying world history, a skeleton to be fleshed-out with additional activities and explorations. If I had African-American students, such activities would undoubtedly focus more heavily on African history and culture. But, I have no African-American students...Hispanic, yes, Native American, yes... no African-Americans. One thing I like about
the SF is that it is not a printed textbook. If you or some other
teacher would like to add topics about Solon or Shaka Zulu, you
may easily do so. I would hope you might share your additions
with others on the SF website, and in this way the SF will become
more useful to more teachers over time. Do you know that the
SF can now be downloaded in six word processing formats? That
gives you the capability to modify the SF right on your computer. |
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