Best way to learn history: Travel to places where it occurred
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In My Humble Opinion
Jodi McDade
I have been on an incredible journey that is reaching back to the founding of our great country, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the War to End All Wars (World War I), and World War II. It is absolutely amazing the amount of history that has been packed into our short 246 years of existence, but history continues to grow daily.
With that thought, why don’t we continually add history classes to the curriculum to include the additional history being created? When I was in school (and, yes, I’m old) we had state history in fourth grade, civics in seventh grade and American history and world history in high school. I understand now that textbooks usually ran 5-10 years behind current day, but, now that technology has replaced so many textbooks, it seems like that time lapse could be shortened.
Of course, history is told by the victors in a conflict so it’s also difficult to say if the history being taught is truly accurate.
While visiting the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., recently the question came up about if this was being taught in schools these days. There was no other way to describe the Nazis and their treatment of “non-Aryans” than just outright demonic. Only very sick-minded people could come up with the horrors these people created.
A young man came up and said that he was a history teacher and HE was teaching it to his students. As we were talking I noticed how many young people (even elementary kids) were there with school groups or their families. That in itself made me feel better about it.
But I had also recently heard that people were claiming that “The Diary of Anne Frank” was now being called fiction. I started reading that book in probably fourth or fifth grade and have read it at least three separate times. Since I loved to read, I learned a lot of history just by reading biographies and books written by people who had been personally involved in a part of history. Thank goodness I developed a love for both reading and history at a young age and have carried it with me throughout the rest of my life.
Then, after a visit to Ellis Island, I had a new respect and awe about all of the emigrants who came to America to flee the atrocities and conditions people in Europe and other countries were experiencing. These people came to become a part of America, but they had to come under the existing immigration laws of that time.
Back then, they had to have a certain amount of money with them, have family or another sponsor here to help them, and could show they could support themselves. We did not have welfare and free everything back then This is as opposed to the current waves of illegal immigrants who are now coming into our country with absolutely nothing, not having to really prove who they are, and who are being given food, clothes, housing, and free everything.
The very best way to learn history is by traveling to places where it occurred. Seeing it up close and personal makes it more real and understandable. I still prefer to also read books written by the people who tell the stories of what they saw and experienced. I wish all kids could learn to love reading so they could open the doors to so many different things.
The downward spiral in the reading and literacy scores in Alabama are very concerning, and I hope that somehow the very first priority to teach will return to what it was in my day. If you can’t read, you can’t understand or learn anything else. You have to be able to read science books, history books, math books, etc. And it is up to the teachers and administrators in our elementary schools to insure all children are reading at grade level when they leave the third grade.
Statistics show that the best chance for future success in school is for a child to be reading well before going into the fourth grade.
As we go into the last three weeks until a very important election, it would be nice to think that we had a majority of educated and informed voters to select the people who will represent us in our different levels of government. We are going into the “silly season” of the election, and the mud will start slinging while any possible story will be told against the opponents. Don’t believe everything you hear or read in the news. It will be over soon – for better or worse. It’s up to you.