What do we consider modern history? Is it something that happened a decade ago, two decades, or even just a day ago? Whatever the case, if it can be considered in the future an event significant enough to be in a history textbook, it is modern history-no matter how large or small the event was. But the real question is this: how do we discuss recent history? How do you go in front of a group of students and teach them about something they already experienced (some more than others)? By 2019, there will be seniors in high school who may not have even been born when 9/11 happened-is that modern history to them? So many questions and so little answers; discussion seems almost impossible without the latter. However, there is an easier way to re-teach modern events to students, without having to devise the perfect way of going about it: just talk to them about it.
Many of my teachers would skirt around modern political or social issues when they would come up in a classroom, as well as modern history and which side of the story you tell (was the Iraq War necessary to stop terrorism or used by the US to extort oil?). Yet some of my teachers would just pause, take a breath, and TALK to us about it. Really, just talk. You'd be surprised how much someone pays attention to a peer, or someone who speaks to them like a peer. I learned the most from history teachers who wouldn't sugarcoat anything-no "Hollywood" type endings, no correct point of view; they'd just let all of the information flow. For instance, 9/11 came up in Global Geography one day a few years ago, back when all those documentaries were coming out about it every month(side note: so glad that this year I didn't hear the Twin Towers mentioned ONCE on the date-that shows that we're starting to move on as a country from the disaster). Our teacher, Ms. Osborn, made the rest of the class a discussion time, where we just all shared our stories about our experiences with the day; it wasn't much, considering we were all 2 or 3 when it happened. But Osborn's story was both funny and sad; she recalled how she didn't panic, but went to go fill up her car (it was getting low) and saw, in her words, "cars that were lined up across the entire road". She explained that many people naturally panicked about the attacks, but thought that it was the end of our trade with the Middle East, which they assumed meant "no more gas". She further explained how, as she sat in line, the price per gallon literally changed before her eyes every few minutes-several gas companies were taking advantage of the disaster and profiting off of the panic. Did you know that? I didn't, and I wouldn't had Osborn not told me.
Do you see how just talking helped me and others learn more about modern history? I have a first-hand account (Osborn) of the event, and a new understanding of what all happened during that event. Had this been in a textbook (the entire day is a paragraph in the last chapter of Bentley's World History textbook), I wouldn't've learned anything like this-only a few dates and an opinion of some old dead guy (no offence Bentley, wherever you are). This is what I hate about textbooks. The degree of separation from the events in modern history is so noticeable, it would hit you in the face were it real; the writers always treat it as some thing that happened long ago rather than recently and that we should just move on from it.
But we can't just move on! The whole point of history-teaching it, learning it, studying, prodding, dissecting it-is to keep reminding ourselves of what NOT to do in the future! That's why we have those Holocaust Survivor seminars: we don't want another Holocaust. That's why we have the 9/11 documentaries, hated as they may be- we don't want another 9/11. In the community, these things are widely known and accepted; in the classroom, the textbooks are almost forcing the teachers to keep the present day out of the picture. This is why I respect teachers who go out of their way to make sure the students know about what is happening in the now: it will get them prepared for what is going to happen in the tomorrow.
I'm sorry if this turned into a rant about the condition of history textbooks; this subject is important to me because I want the future generations to be safe about what they do and how it affects everything else. If you're looking for the teaching point, here it is: Talk with your students about modern history, don't teach it. Rant over.
-Pharaoh Noh-Tyep
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