Loewen: Chapter 11

Reflection:

"The past is prologue"                              -– William Shakespeare

"American exceptionalism–the United States as the best country in the world–which starts in our textbooks with the Pilgrims, gets projected into the future."                                         –Loewen, 284


     Faith, Hope and Change. Progress. Buzz words in American thought and politics in our times. Loewen points out the unbridled hope that we as Americans consistently have effused, the archetype of progress that "bursts forth in full flower on the tetbooks' last pages."(282) I can concede that the typical portrayal of our country and it's history is one of hope and progress. Things have been bad, but they will get better. We are moving on to bigger and better things. Manifest Destiny has been regurgitated and repackaged. Though it is getting more difficult to believe, I do not agree with Loewen when he writes, "gradually the archetype of progress has been losing it's grip."(284) Just watch one of the latet presidential debates and you will hear the rhetoric of "getting us back on track" and "moving us into the future". Which track exactly are we on? What future are we moving in to? They speak as if we all know and it is inevitable.
     As well, Loewen addresses once again the end of American history textbooks. This time he asks the question why we do not address and question the future of America. The books almost all end with optimistic  hopes for our country. Yet, why paint such a picture? Why not rather end by bringing students up to current debate and problems and invite them to reflect on the America they will be inheriting and how they can use history to help solve these problems.

Big Question: How can I get students to end my classes with modern day problems and challenges and  challenge them to find answers in history?

Source: http://fwwsite.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wpcontent/uploads/2012/02/GECornCerealPreview.jpg

Link:http://www.dowwaterandprocess.com/launch/worldwaterday/map/index.html#misc 
 
     We take water for granted, but for many people it is life and death. This is an interactive map about global water issues.

Cantù: Chapter 11

Reflection:

" Perhaps the greatest contribution of the NCGE over the past century has been their creation of the national geography standards,Geography for Life, which were released in 1994"
                                                                                  ––Cantù chapter 11, section 2

    Geography must be one of the most hands-on and engaging topic in the social studies. In this chapter there are videos related to the wide breadth of geography: volcanoes,hurricanes, the solar system, oceans, navigation, global issues, stonehenge, the moon, planets, black-holes, the arctic, earthquakes, climate, weather, topography,maps, an so on. All of these topics makes for a rich seam of information from which to dig out the materials necessary to create exciting and engaging lesson plans.
     The NCGE, National Council for Geographic education, is dedicated to what they term geo-literacy or geographic literacy. The define geo-literacy as “the ability to rationally consider and make reasoned decisions about the interconnections between human and physical systems.” (1) The themes of geography are condensed into five domains: location, place, relationships, movement and region. To the end of fostering geo-literacy in these five domains, the NCGE has crafted eighteen national geography standards. 

(1) Cantù chapter 11, section 2

Big Question: Why is geography traditionally not taught past the middle school?

Source: http://assets.inhabitat.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/koen-olthuis-maldives-island5.jpg

Link: http://www.reachtheworld.org/games/geogames/Play-GeoGames.html
     This interactive site could be used on the smart board for small group geography competition.

Cantù: Chapter 10

Reflection:


"And it underscores what we already know about education – in the long run, it [economics] is the single best investment in stimulating the world’s economy."

 – Dr. Gary Becker, Nobel Laureate in Economics

     Economics. The dismal science. In chapter ten of Cantù's book the focus shifts from history to economics as he ventures into another discipline under the umbrella of social science. As a pre-service teacher, this is one of the subjects that I am most concerned about passing on the content test and of teaching. I am a history major and have only studied a bit of microeconomics and a bit of macroeconomics. In preparation for the content test, I ordered some books that overview the main concepts and thoughts of several social science disciplines, economics being one of them. I found the video links in section one to be short but informative.
     At the heart of this subject is the idea that economics studies not money, capital, nor theories, but choices. Economics is looking at the choices people make in light of unlimited wants and limited resources. Following this line of thought, the Council for Economic Education  (CEE) has created resources in line with their vision of “a world in which people are empowered through economic and financial literacy to make informed and responsible choices throughout their lives as consumers, savers, investors, workers, citizens, and participants in our global economy.”(1) To this end, the study of this discipline is to create educated citizens who can use their informed understanding to actively participate in our democratic society.
     The majority of this chapter is an enumeration of twenty standards in economics. Each standard is accompanied by a multiplicity of web-links to lesson plans using that standard. Listed here the twenty standards are:
1) Scarcity

2) Marginal cost/benefit

3) Allocation of Goods and Services

4) Role of Incentives

5) Gain from Trade

6) Specialization and Trade

7) Markets - Price and Quantity Determination

8) Role of Price in Market System

9) Role of Competition

10) Role of Economic Institutions

11) Role of Money

12) Role of Interest Rates

13) Role of Resources in Determining Income

14) Profit and the Entrepreneur Growth

15) Role of Government

16) Using Cost/Benefit Analysis to Evaluate Government Programs

17) Macroeconomy-Income/Employment, Prices

18) Unemployment and Inflation

19) Monetary and Fiscal Policy

 20) (One appears to be missing)


(1) Cantù, Chapter 10: Section 1


Big Question: How does the analytic approach of economics differ in key respects from approaches appropriate for other related subjects such as history and civics?

Source: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidYtFL6BxtuMOhB-C0KJ1xesOdvdSFdl9lA0gNdPFJ7hiD4dGvXwd7kGo-L4UuB9wdjni2xTSEKOGF3FunPODJMvAZox2F_0vLdnS-HWMBpwErs8JxABdBEBlhmb5rcF0R2X36SPyQsmCy/s1600/dismal_science.gif

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0nERTFo-Sk

     Fun video on youtube to reinforce ideas about economics and two leading people in this field.

Loewen: Chapter 10 and Cantù: Chapter 9

Reflection:

 “It has been recognized since the founding of the nation that education has a civic mission: to prepare informed, rational, humane, and participating citizens committed to the values and principles of American constitutional democracy.” 

                                                                        

 ––preface to the National Standards for Civics and Government

"It cannot be doubted that in the United States the instruction of the people powerfully contributes to the support of the democratic republic."                                            

  ––Alexis de Tocqueville 

      Chapter nine of Cantù's book focuses on investigating the goals of civic education and is replete 

with yet more websites and links to helpful web material for the modern social studies teacher. The

introduction starts off with this quote from Thomas Jefferson that informs the understanding of social 

studies education: 
          I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people 
          themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with 
          a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their
          discretion.
Jefferson's ideology runs deep throughout modern American education: people, given the right information and the choice, will ultimately make the right choices and be able to govern themselves. Ergo, the key is teaching. 
     I do not wholly subscribe to this line of thought. It is not my observation in life, nor in the study of history, that people as a whole are rational creatures. For example, how can one explain the vices to which people are prone such as: drinking, smoking, drugs, and sexual promiscuity to name a few given the known dangers associated with these activities. A person fully motivated by rationale motives would understand that smoking leads to cancer, excessive drinking to cirrhosis, drugs to a multiplicity of problems mentally, socially, and physically, and sexual promiscuity to disease and pregnancy, yet "rational" people continue engage in these practices. I do believe that education is a part of making good decisions, but I do not believe it is the panacea.

Big Question: If education truly is the foundation to a stable democracy, why is it not fully funded and encouraged for all citizens?

Source: http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/c0.119.403.403/p403x403/589_452145054823736_827897166_n.jpg

Link: http://www.worldology.com/Europe/enlightenment_imap.htm

     The ideas of the Founding Fathers are steeped in Enlightenment thinking, this site is a good interactive for the Age of Enlightenment.

Reflection: 

"We see things not as they are but as we are."

––Anaïs Nin

     In chapter ten of Lies, Loewen writes about the disappearance of the recent past. He describes three divisions of people in African culture: those living, those recently deceased (sasha), and those deceased long ago (zamani). Those more recently deceased, the sasha, he terms the "living-dead". By this he means that a person has died, but they live on in the memory of those still living who remember them personally. Several reasons given for the lack of "living-dead" in modern school textbooks are: lack of courage to write about them while they can be challenged by other people, lack of time in classes to cover older material and newer, and because textbooks are tertiary sources, not enough secondary sources have yet been written. 
     Last week I was scanning a textbook at Quest Charter Academy and I definitely noticed what Loewen was talking about. The majority of text ended with World War Two, everything from there on grew increasingly terse and hurried. In my opinion, the main reason not much attention is given to most recent history is because frankly, this material is not included in teaching standards or standardized tests. The majority of testing is on older history, or those in the category of zamani, not the sasha.
    The biggest take-away from this chapter is the international good-guy image we have of our country. Since we do not delve deeply into studies of the more recent past, we do not understand some of the modern problems we have, and why we are perceived the way we are globally. For example, the majority of students have no understanding of the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan in 1979, how we trained and funded and used Osama bin Laden and rebel forces to fight a proxy war with Russia. So, in 2001 when bin Laden bombed the twin towers, most Americans had no idea why, and were left to assume. Instead of being able to understand our mistakes in history, we merely blamed Osama and Muslims for this "rogue" attack. A lesson in sasha history would have gone a long way in understanding 9/11.

Big Question: Given the limited class time and material that needs to be covered, how can recent history be given its proper place in school curricula?

Source: http://i.qkme.me/35swzx.jpg

Link: http://www.timeforkids.com/

     Time site that has video, articles, and photos for kids to interact with current and recent events.

Prezi

Part of preparation in teacher education is learning how to prepare teaching units and lesson plans utilizing various frameworks. I am currently preparing a unit on the achievements of the Aztecs, Incas, and Mayas that I hope to be able to teach in my classroom this semester. One of the assignment requirements is to use four different lesson plan frameworks: Trumph's Eclectic, Hunter's Mastery Learning, Left and Right Brain Format, and Four F's (no, not a reference to this semesters mid-term grades!) Here is the URL to the digital unit outline I created in Prezi. http://prezi.com/mbekjg41xjof/unit-outline-mayas-aztecs-incas/

Cantù: Chapter 8

Reflection:

“History, like theology or natural science, is a special form of thought.”
                                                                                     –– R.G. Collingwood

     Cantù proclaims in this chapter, "Before we ask students to investigate past human activities, however, we need to frame or limit their investigation. In other words, we need to determine how best to approach a particular issue." The approach is going to be tailored to our assessment of our students': prior knowledge, learning intelligence, skills, and self-efficacy. From this assessment, as a teacher it is our job to create lesson plans that scaffold students understanding and ability to answer the three basic questions of historical inquiry: what happened, how did it happen, and why did it happen?
     Included in this weeks material were a series of Biography video vignettes. I learned a lot and really enjoyed them. Being that they are concise, short-3-5 minutes in length, and well produced, I can see myself using these in my class from time to time. Following is an example of one about Michelle Obama.
     I singled out the quote in the beginning of my reflection because I feel it best describes the purpose of the rest of the material in this chapter. I will not regurgitate the content of the chapter. Suffice it to say, Collingwood, a philosopher of history, plants his feet on the side of history as a science because he sees it as having a special form of thought. It is not only looking at evidence: it is looking at the evidence and using our historical thinking to interpret it. Hence, as an educator, the form of historical inquiry and content standards are the guides leading us and our students into the science of history. As I see it, this is the science historical thinking, though the outcomes are not aways measurable and repeatable. Therefore, more than merely a science, I also believe history is an art.

Big Question: Given the short period of time we will have with our students and the reality that we will not likely be able to implement every good resource, tool, and standard, what is the most critical historical thinking skill and content standard that we cannot afford to miss?

Source: http://gcsehistory.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/cold-war-cartoon.jpg

Link: http://www.pbs.org/onlyateacher/timeline.html

     This site links to an interactive timeline of education in the U.S. for a little twist on education.