Free Essay Sample on The Challenges of Teaching History

Introduction

History is an important subject that addresses vital lessons from the past and whose value surpasses national, regional, and cultural boundaries. Schools should teach this subject to help students gain profound gratitude for learning relevance. However, in deeply divided societies teaching history becomes a more significant challenge as contending teams of historical narratives are closely linked to a sense of victimization and the groups’ identities. The technique in which schools navigate and enhance ancient descriptions through history education partially defines the roles of those who control the institution’s play in supporting social reconstruction or conflict. Thus, this paper aims at examining the history curriculum controversial across the globe, what history should teach students and its importance to nations and the world.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

History Curriculum Controversy around the World

History in institutes faces substantial challenges, regardless of the vast popularity of the past in the extensive culture. The history curriculum experiences controversies in the methods of teaching ethnic studies across the world. Ethnic studies aim at challenging the prevailing curriculum concentrating on the history of individuals in diverse minority ethnicity. Oliver stressed that in the U.S., there exist no national history standards to identify the historical topics or figures explained in the classroom, leading to wildly fluctuating state necessities. According to a CBS report, 16 states mentioned that the Civil War was due to the rights of the states, while 7 indirectly cited slavery in their education standards (00:05:39-00:05:44). The inequalities of history education do not expose the children to a more significant curriculum. For example, Senator Tom Cotton said that institutions should not obtain support from the government if they teach curriculum regarding the 1619 project of the New York Times as it portrays slavery in American history (00:04:27-00:04: 29). Hence numerous people are misinterpreting the value of the past by either a very much purpose or accident (00:05:15).

In the world today, the numbers and modifying demographics of the minorities in the U.S. are much visible. According to the Boston Review (n.p), Lorgia García-Peña (LGP) believes that individuals still face colonialism and slavery as people are handling systemic violence alongside immigrants of color and black persons. For instance, in the year 2017-2018, a report showed that in elementary schools, 79% of the teachers were whites, while 21% represented blacks (00:11:23). These demographics raise complicated queries for a curriculum that intends to teach a sense of belonging and citizenship as well as inculcating national identity in a progressively diverse country, an interconnected and globalized. The observed tension, and presumed inconsistency, amid issues of diversity and equality, has led to a substantial shift away from the founded multinational consent in learning to a strongly centralist agenda in which gradual relegation concerns of ethnic and racial equality. According to Boston Review (n.p), universities should employ faculty of color from the oppressed communities by maintaining and rewarding them for the additional generated labor to fill the gap of ethnicity. Thus, the disparities in the history topics bring inflexibilities in the American classrooms.

The Areas in Which History Should Teach Children

History should teach about supremacy. Children go to school to learn about the globe, such as people who oppressed, dominated, and colonized various societies. The white dominance determines the things taught to children, what people regard as values, legitimate knowledge, and sacred canons. Individuals view life histories as intellectual gifts. An imperative part of decolonial education is the acknowledgment that struggles against colonial battles have a long account across the globe, enabling people to perceive themselves as a section of a specific legacy (Weems, and Decolonial 5). Studying the life histories of the named and unnamed individuals whose particular participation may be unrecorded in the colonial accounts are substantial in the historical struggles.

Also, history should precisely structure American progress. According to the Boston Review (n.p), LGP believes that the knowledge that people think they possess is racialized, biased, and incomplete. When history talks about the revolutions, independence, and birth of certain nations, individuals believe they comprehend the exact names and dates of the people who steered those movements. According to the Boston Review (n.p), tutors must train learners to question everything they study to help them recognize the silent words in the syllabus. Identifying silent words in the classroom can offer a safe environment for students to express their ideas, ask questions, listen to other learner’s suggestions and manage challenging topics of U.S progress, establish a common civic culture and learn the merits and demerits of living productively in a progressively multicultural society.

History should offer students the capacity to link the periods from the past to the present. Remembering the historical narratives can deliver a new acknowledgment of the contemporary. The strangeness of the past allows individuals to observe in the ancient periods enabling a person to look at society from a distinct perception. Making sense of other communities inspires empathy for diverse cultures around the globe. Children begin thinking and reading regarding a topic by asking questions generating a substantial dialogue that enables people to think about globalization, economy, and race from a different view. Thus, history should simultaneously help individuals situate themselves in the present. Oliver avers that institutions should teach history in an age-appropriate method; hence third-graders probably should not learn about the southern strategy of Lee Atwater’s speech of 1981 (00:24:44).

Besides, history must offer the learners an opportunity to rethink about ethnicity and race through the diverse methods of racialization and establishment of knowledge. For instance, George Floyd’s murder has enforced a difficult national discussion regarding the presence of the United States, which is challenging to converse successfully without re-evaluating its past. History lessons do not link the historical dots to the contemporary period, such as the wealth and wage gaps between the black and white Americans. It should paint a detailed image of how technology, society, and government functioned during ancient times to help children comprehend the present world. Therefore, history must teach children methods to approach the future, enabling them to learn from previous faults of society.

Importance of History to Nations and Globe

Teaching history enables individuals to determine any disparities that may occur. People may bring protestations taught in history to fight corruption, gender inequality, and racism. Ethnic studies aim to challenge the power structures and enabling learners to battle systemic racism in an institution. According to Boston Review (n.p), protests in the universities or colleges are exhibitions of transforming theory into practice hence bringing to life the celebrations obtained from the writings and readings. Besides, demonstrations help in raising awareness, challenge the status quo, and augmenting voices resulting in structural modifications. Protests tend to express the truth to power, acknowledging that ability can aid in the required changes.

Teaching history aid in the dismantling of white supremacy in the institutions and the positioning of dominated knowledge across the globe. The ancient Western education tradition to enhance colonial perceptions as official versions of the truth, civilization, being, and freedom, it is imperative to disrupt the reorganization of desires dynamically (Weems, and Decolonial 5). There exists a lack of education in white supremacy history. The willingness to moderate the slavery horrors has made children acquire limited knowledge regarding supremacy. People should see the Constitution as pervaded and intimately connected to racial inequality legacy and slavery. Oliver claimed that ‘American history that disregards white supremacy is a white supremacist history of America’ (00:26:54-00:26:55). Teaching ethnic lessons in the history curriculum provides people with knowledge concerning ancient things. Therefore, the history curriculum offers constraints and opportunities for thinking about concerns of ethnic and racial equality as well as diversity.

If history does not pass the appropriate knowledge to children, learners will have the incapability to differentiate the effects and causes of the existing gaps. Teaching about the past provides contemporary learners with opportunities to comprehend the aspects that impact the development of perspectives and knowledge constructions hence participating in critical thinking. Oliver cited that Trump’s behavior can fit into the systemic racism of the American country (00:24:26). Thus, if the children do not gain enough knowledge regarding the past, they will never have the opportunity to comprehend the present.

Conclusion

In conclusion, individuals perceive the progress of historical progress as inevitable and constant. History can undermine or support the goals of memorials, tribunals, and other transitional justice instruments. If learners get exposed to ethnic studies in their history curriculum, they will be more equipped to manage the reality of a nation’s past, particularly in gradually diverse communities. Syllabus content in the history curriculum should contain real-life situations from the past to the present, enabling students to gain the appropriate knowledge. Institutions should be well equipped with the necessary resources to augment the teaching of history.

Works Cited

Boston Review. (2020). Decolonizing the University. http://bostonreview.net/race/lorgia-garcia-pena-mordecai-lyon-decolonize-university. Accessed 15 September 2020

Oliver, John. ‘Last week tonight. U.S. History: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO).’ YouTube uploaded by LastWeekTonight, 2 August 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsxukOPEdgg&t=1507s

Weems, Lisa, and Decolonial Feminisms. “Decolonial education at its intersections.” Encyclopedia of educational philosophy and theory (2016): 1-6. Doi: 10.1007/978-981-287-532-7_532-1. Accessed 15 September 2020.