Mixing History

As a teacher, schools will give you strict guidelines on what you need to teach your students. It can be limiting from time to time; you may want to focus on a certain subject but the district wants you to instead teach the students about the Civil War for the millionth time. While this can be frustrating, you can actually use these guidelines to your advantage when teaching your students. All it takes is a little finesse and some work, but you can teach the students about up to 5 subjects in one lesson plan. Speaking as a student, I can't be for sure that this will work very well-I don't have a class to test it on; this can technically be a theory on how such a plan would work. However, I do know that this idea can't work with an AP teacher, whose job it is to teach a single subject like World History in 8 months; the district doesn't decide what they can teach, that's up to College Board.

To help out structuring what to teach about (basically mixing the subjects), we'll use example situations again (I really like those; it's useful in science as well as for this blog).

Let's say that Johnny is a history teacher. When he gets his lesson plans for the year from the district, he's upset to learn that it mostly only covers basic American/US history as well as only somewhat-modern world history. Because Johnny isn't an AP teacher, he doesn't have a choice in what he can teach (he has limits). What he really wanted the kids to learn this year is the growth of humanity in the Renaissance as well as the plight of the American natives throughout the period after 1491 (pretty specific, Johnny). Well, Johnny can do three things to help mix in what he wanted to teach with what he has to teach:

He can reference the events. Johnny has an opportunity here the use the periods in which he is given by the district to reference to the events he had in mind. For the American ones, that's easy. In what could be contained in a page of notes, Johnny could preface the American history unit with some facts about how the natives were horribly mistreated ever since Columbus set foot in the Caribbean. It's a little harder for the European history, but Johnny could try and teach how European architecture in the 1800s was a major change form architecture in the Renaissance period; away from the Greek and more towards Gothic. As you can see, he's now taught what he wanted to teach, but within the confines of the district's rules.
He can also use historical context. As you may have already noticed, historical context is a big thing in history class, but it's not just for the students to use. Teachers use it all the time to help explain how things happened where and why they happened, and Johnny can use this to his advantage. He could place the entirety of the American Conquest/Manifest Destiny era of US History within the context of native treatment (think Trail of Tears and Custer); basically, he would mention a major part of native history with every part of the corresponding American event. With European history, it's once again harder, but he could try explaining how the thought processes of the Renaissance helped influence the philosophical ideologies of the 1700s and 1800s; basically, more free thinkers in later Europe (which would lead to fascism and others) because of how earlier Europe accepted the Renaissance. Again, Johnny has now taught what he wanted to teach with what he was required.
Above all else, he could just teach them all. If a history teacher believes that a time period or event in history MUST be taught to students, then they should do it. The long term goal of historians is to avoid repeating past blunders, and if that means having the kids learn about the Battle of Hastings, then buckle up, kids. Johnny can decide whether he believes the American history and European history eras should all four be taught together, event though only two of them are required. As long as he can keep it confined to a unit's length, then go for it; if not, that's where the other two methods come in. All in all, history is long, and it is confusing; try to keep it as clear as you can without muddling your students' minds.

History may not be appreciated by even a school district, but that can't stop you from teaching it! Just make sure to be careful when deciding what and what not to teach, and you should be fine. Again, this is an untested theory, so if you're trying it out, pleas let me know! I wan this blog to be helpful, not harmful!

-Pharaoh Noh-Tyep