How schools decide what to teach in history classes


I always did well in school, and occasionally I learned a few things, but most of what they asked me to memorize and later repeat I've forgotten. And that's just the nature of school - it needs to have tangible things that can be measured, and creating a test that asks "When was the war of 1812 fought?" allows for this. And that's why a history class in school is really just a series of things that students are asked to memorize until a test, and really nothing more. For people like me, it can spark an interest, but those people are rare, and considered weird. I wanted to learn more, and after all these years I'm still working on it.

History fascinates me, and to my surprise I'm also interested in anthropology. I had to go look up the definition to be sure, and here it is: The study of human beings and their ancestors through time and space and in relation to physical character, environmental and social relations, and culture.

It's a huge subject, and no matter how long I live I'd never be able to do more than scratch the surface of understanding human beings, which is what anthropos means. But I like learning, and time-traveling, and pondering all of the things that people do, from the big stuff like wars to the little stuff like how they cut their hair fascinates me. And come to think of it, why did people start cutting their hair, or shaving it? OK, you see what I mean - this stuff drives me to find out more.

If I were to teach a class about the history of Phoenix I'd have to decide what was, and wasn't, important. I've taught classes before (in computer graphics) and there's a limited amount of material that you can cover. And that means that stuff has to be thrown away, or ignored, for lack of time. Seems a shame, but that's just the way it is.

But I'm not teaching a class, or will there be a test here. I'm simply exploring, which brings joy to my life. I'm not "cramming for an exam on World War II", and if it looks like that to you, I'm so sorry, because your interest has never been sparked on that. How about the Roman Empire? No? California in the days of Zorro? How about how people lived during the Ice Age? As you can see, my interests are varied, and I go from being fascinated by something to getting tired of it with the pace of a three-year-old.

If I sat through a full semester if an American history class and there was no mention of Phoenix, or Arizona, I'd probably be disappointed, but I would understand. There's a lot of material to cover, and a semester is a very short time. But I've got all the time in the world now to continue exploring, and there's a wonderful library near me, the internet at my fingertips, and I have no intention of ever stopping, or even slowing down.

Thank you for history adventuring with me! No, there won't be a test.

Image at the top of this post: road construction on 16th Street at Camelback Road in the early 1970s, Phoenix, Arizona.
If you like pictures of old-time Phoenix, please become a member of History Adventuring on Patreon. I share a LOT of cool old photos there, copyright-free, with no advertising. If you like Phoenix history and would like to help support my efforts to preserve and share precious digital historic images, please consider becoming a patron. Thank you!

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Comments

  1. kirkdooleyDecember 28, 2021 at 11:30 AM

    When people ask me why I'm so interested in history, I usually reply with a statement that could have come from that great baseball philisopher, Lawrence (Yogi) Berra: "How can you know where you're going, if you don't know where you've been?"

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