14. How educators in the present are teaching history
This interview we conducted with an Elementary School teacher in North Carolina sheds some light on how educators are tackling history these days.
“I remember being taught history. We would have competitions about who could remember the American Presidents’ names. But I couldn’t tell you a single thing about those presidents and now because I have no context, I don’t remember most of their names either. It didn’t leave a long impression with me, because as a child, I was taught a name. Not a person.
I had a professor in college that taught us about Abraham Lincoln. He told us that he wrote so much on the Emancipation Proclamation that by the end of it, his signature was terrible! He had written so much that day, that by the end, his hand was cramped up and could not properly write his own signature. Teaching children about history can be complicated, so teaching them that George Washington had wooden teeth is going to create a folklore myth instead of an actual person. When you teach kids, it doesn’t have to be small enough to understand, it needs to be inspiring, interesting and engaging. Memorization will not teach children. Telling them that Abraham Lincoln cared so much about creating the Emancipation Proclamation that his hand was unable to properly sign gives them a visual they won’t soon forget. It teaches them that this was such an important document that he couldn’t stop until it was done.
Dressing up as a character from history could even be a good tool! I know a history teacher that would dress up as a historical figure and wouldn’t respond to his own name all day. And I know he made a lasting impression with his students. Engaging and having conversations with them as the figure taught them more than memorizing a name and date.”