Comments on "Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts."
This article was quite thought-provoking. The concept that we ignore information that contradicts what we believe is very interesting. The idea that history is studied by psychologists is a new concept for me. History is something more complex than dates, facts, and events, however, I never went deeper in my own thinking, to include more than just the reasons for the occuraces in our past. The idea that we learn from our mistakes is what I thought of as studying history more thoroughly.
It sounds very intriguing to study people from the past in so many different lights and from so many different perspectives. I believe that most people like life to be clear-cut and either black or white. The reality is that life falls into the gray area between black and white. We can't compartmentalize events and happenings into neat little packages where everything has a label. Thinking about Abraham Lincoln as being racist is something that I never would have understood. Reading the article made me realize that when we read quotations it is important to understand the context in which the quotes were spoken. It makes me wonder about all events in history, and what we really know for sure.
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I agree that the concept of this article is really thought provoking. When we learn anything, we "adapt" it to what we already know, rather than learning it separately or apart. Then again, it makes perfect sense. We humans can't learn anything in a vaccuum. We must transform new knowledge into workable forms in our brains. We can't learn something new without attaching it to something else! As you said, we don't learn in black and white, and we can't fit everything into a perfect little box containing a particular set of knowledge. I suppose what I liked most about this article is that researchers realized this, studied it and proved it. Maybe now that we are aware of it, we can try to teach and/or learn differently. It's going to be a challenge though!
P.S. - sorry for the "Sra. Juana" tag, and not "maggie". I'm using this same blogging web site for my students, and I only have one sign in name!
I also found the idea that we ignore information that contradicts what we believe very interesting. I always knew about selective hearing, where we only hear what we want. I didn't know that it could occur in reading. I wonder what else we ignore.
It seems like we do have this reductive bias. We try to fit events to fit our world view. Placing events in context and examining events from multiple perspectives are ways to think more openly. For example, Inherit the Wind is reopening on broadway. It's important to understand that the play was written during the Red Scare and that events from the Fifties are combined with events from the Twenties, and these events are different than the current evolution debate. This is an example of the web-like understanding that people need in order to understand events.
In regards to your question "Thinking about Abraham Lincoln as being racist is something that I never would have understood. Reading the article made me realize that when we read quotations it is important to understand the context in which the quotes were spoken. It makes me wonder about all events in history, and what we really know for sure.."
We must teach history in context. I think that is where the article is trying to ask us to choose between a textbook and in-depth investigation of a single topic. The article talks about the wrongs in current teaching methods by social studies educators, but does not take a practical look at the time constraints. I would love to devote an hour to investigating a particular topic the fact of the matter is I don't have the time. What I will offer, that the article doesn't is an answer to how to teach history in a 21st century classroom. History has themes that can be found throughout. These themes include, conflict, movement of people and goods, revolutions, turning points etc. If we teach students those themes then integrate the content we are not teaching in a vaccuum, but enabling students to use their knoweldge, because the themes are still present, to relate to historical events that we must uncover. Not that this answer will solve all of the problems of a SS teacher, but this fourm and topic gave me a chance to get on a soap box- of which I will step down now.
I really enjoyed this article as well - it really made me think! I found it interesting that we find it so hard to alter our thinking, even when presented with evidence to the contrary. We tend to look at history through the lens of our own experience in the present.
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