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This thread is inspired by domergurls OP in the "History Channel Rocked" thread, q.v.
Just how much authentic history is a child (in this case, age 7) able to absorb, and what useful strategies might be involved in raising a child with with a sound sense of history?
When reading domrgurl, I recalled that my own 7-year old often surprised me with how much he was picking up from material that was preseted from an adult perspective. Should history be "childed down", or should it be presented with all the full facts, but perhaps in a format or medium that will hold the interest of a child?
Yes, "childed-down" but not "dumbed-down". Age appropriate material can keep kids interested.
Real history can be taught to children using innovative teaching, learning aids. Hands-on activities, play-acting, the use of interesting audio-visual materials can bring life to the subject.
I would say that you can help young children understand history by adding a heavy dose of geography. If they do not know where in the world Assyria or Zululand are/were, it has no relevance to their modern world. Perhaps the best tool is a little globe, because one can spin it and point to any spot, and explain to them how far away this is from that--something never as effective on a flat-paper world map no matter what format it uses.
Another valuable tool is to make analogies relating real events to the kind of things children experience. For example, slavery:
Imagine being permanently grounded. Imagine being required from early childhood to mop and clean the bathrooms and mow the yard at school. Imagine having to learn to read in sneaky secret ways when no one was looking, like in the supply closet. Imagine your parents also required to do work for no money, very hard, until late--so hard they pretty much just come home and fell asleep. No one gets an allowance, just enough food and clothes (which mom has to sew herself, no trips to Old Navy) to avoid starvation and nudity. No one can leave. If anyone misbehaves, someone in the family might be sold away and never come back. Or someone might get a bad whipping--like a thousand spankings at once.
Everyone, even the oldest, has to address all non-slaves (even children) like a young child addressing a very respected adult. The only fun you get is when it's just you and your family and other slaves, and then everyone can sing and joke and relax; or when you're in church. Because of this, you've developed a style of church singing (and singing during boring work) that lets you say what's in everyone's heart but you can't just blurt out unless you want big trouble. It's ironic that some kids today hate school, because during slavery, slave kids would have given up their favorite thing to be allowed to be in school, and slave parents would have given their own blood to make it possible. In some cases they did.
Every time I hear a young person complain about the teaching of history, the complaint is that it's boring and doesn't relate to their world. I think we have to relate it to their world.
This thread is inspired by domergurls OP in the "History Channel Rocked" thread, q.v.
Just how much authentic history is a child (in this case, age 7) able to absorb, and what useful strategies might be involved in raising a child with with a sound sense of history?
When reading domrgurl, I recalled that my own 7-year old often surprised me with how much he was picking up from material that was preseted from an adult perspective. Should history be "childed down", or should it be presented with all the full facts, but perhaps in a format or medium that will hold the interest of a child?
When I was a child, my father took me to the museum and made me stand before the bust of bonaparte.
I remember standing gazing my eyes at napoleon's bust.
Then I rented ladybird's biography of napoleon from the kiddo library. A library which my dad forced me into because I was wasting summer holidays playing road cricket with other lads.
My love for history grew out of sheer admiration of these guys and the great battles they won. It was romance.
Today I understand them for the tyrants they were too. But the admiration is always there as well.
It's basically how much parental figures inculcate stuff into young minds.
"You need to read history to make history" - Bonaparte
I have often thought about how I would teach history. I think historical trivia works just as well as a key, as does nistorical significa. The goal of education should not be to teach facts, but to teach how to look them up, and to foster a desire to do so. A classroom discussion about the most insignificant but fascinating little detail can trigger more inspired inquiry than the most earth-shaking turn of events. A teacher can inspire more enthusiasm with a discussion of the candidacy of Eugene V. Debs, than of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
This thread is inspired by domergurls OP in the "History Channel Rocked" thread, q.v.
Just how much authentic history is a child (in this case, age 7) able to absorb, and what useful strategies might be involved in raising a child with with a sound sense of history?
When reading domrgurl, I recalled that my own 7-year old often surprised me with how much he was picking up from material that was preseted from an adult perspective. Should history be "childed down", or should it be presented with all the full facts, but perhaps in a format or medium that will hold the interest of a child?
I don't think specific historical knowledge is as important as historical perspective. Most of us aren't professional historians, we can't and won't memorize all the nitty-gritty details. But we need to have a sense of history, real history, not pseudo-political propaganda you see on history channel. The first step is to recognize and acknowledge the complexity of history as opposed to constructing a history, a world that come straight out of moralistic fairy tales. The nation's media has become more and more like tools to brainwash citizens of this country, the views espoused by them are dangerously simplistic, way too moralistic and often tinged with political and religious absolutism. It's not healthy, and frankly it's the biggest threat to a healthy democracy as far as I'm concerned. The most important thing I want my kids to learn regarding history and politics is a sense of realism. I'm sick of ideologues. I wanna him/her to look at the world, and the history human being has experienced as they are, not as something they need to validate their ideology.
Teaching kids history is a very challenging. At young ages, they have no life experience behind and the biggest obstacle is putting time in perspective. For a 5 year old, 50 years ago is eternity. It is not uncommon for them to ask me if my grandfather lived at the same time or immediately after the dinosaurs. Insisting to teach them historical dates makes no sense.
The best way is to engage in story telling. Kids love stories and their brains retain even minute details fantastically. They also like the story to be repeated which gives it more credibility. Stories that we have been told in childhood, remain with us for a lifetime.
As their brains and life experience grow, they can put things in right perspective and relate to history as adults.
I recalled that my own 7-year old often surprised me with how much he was picking up from material that was preseted from an adult perspective. Should history be "childed down", or should it be presented with all the full facts, but perhaps in a format or medium that will hold the interest of a child?
The fact that your own child, at the age of seven, was picking up material from an adult perspective, proves that history doesn't need to be "childed down." Quite the contrary, the less of that going on, the better.
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