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veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526 |
is that it always seemed to me as if someone took 100 million hole-punch circles, dropped them in a tornado, and then the teacher takes the class around to visit a very few of those indivual circles and then takes us to a mountain top and says, "Now, see the pattern?"
"Woids kinnot exPRISS my disatisFECKshun."
Never once have I had a history class that was not accutely unpleasant.
OTOH, I can say the same thing about music. It's not clear to me whether the fault was with the teachers or the stubborn student or some combination. In any case, I'm at least aware now that history doesn't have to be such an miserable and uninformative experience. There are some writers who are at least able to go into the whirl of circles and trace out a few constellations of information and a few threads of knowledge in that mess.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
There are some writers who are at least able to go into the whirl of circles and trace out a few constellations of information and a few threads of knowledge in that mess.
That's the beauty of it.
(And maybe it's holographic).
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Joined: Mar 2000
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027 |
history is boring because what is essential to it is extracted and kipped before the pulp is served up in schoolrooms for the delectation of closing minds.
- Well, unusually harsh words from your side  . I suspect that history is only becoming interesting to people as they get on in years, observing the striking changes around them, and trying to explain. Youngsters, living mainly in the present, simply haven't developed the "organ" for it, yet. (our history teacher quite literally despaired of his task)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
> Youngsters, living mainly in the present, simply haven't developed the "organ" for it, yet. interest is wasted on the old?  (not calling you old, insel. <hug>)
formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I think that scool textbooks try to present history as a list rather than a story.
I think if they added depth to the characters, it would be more interesting. These were real people, they should make them three dimensional.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
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deleted: too emotional
Last edited by inselpeter; 04/03/06 09:14 AM.
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
i've always like history, and i remember the exact moment, it became wonderful.
i was still in my teens (just) already married, and a friend, (of my then husband, really) helped me pull my knowledge together..
he said pick a year, or 10 year period... i was slow, so he said--1860 to 1870--give or take..
what was happening in US? Easy--civil war, reconstruction.
in England? easy again, queen victoria on the throne, beginning of industrial revolution..
in Europe? well here, my knowledge was scetchier.. Ireland? the famine, german, some sort of political unheaval, Italy, more political stuff (and really this was US history --there was mass immigration from these countries into US, so it was sort of a back door knowledge)
in asia? china, japan? Boxer wars! (where did that come from.. Oh yeah, and gold was discovered in california, and there was chinese immigration (and railroad building going on in the west) Japan? Perry opened it (1859? so really slightly out of range, but... and again, this was american history to me, (not world history)
Arthur was impressed. and now he said --think about it..
gold in california--what did that mean to world goings on?
(westward expansion, as people went west to find gold, industrial revolution, meant more railroad building, (which meant coal mining (and developement of unions) and steel mills, and steam engines for ocean traffic (it was a long hard trip round the tip of south america.. which created a need for a faster route (and the start of the idea of a canal.. Wait..didn't the idea of canal come from what the french were doing in suez? looking for a faster way to orient? (again close in time, but out of range..)
and cities in US had rapidly changing populations.. mass immigration from several european countries, (and new conflicts.. poor, illiterate, irish (catholics!) and dark, southern italians..(more catholics!)--and the rise of anti catholic (and anti semitic) feelings.
and technology of different sorts coming out of china (china --the dishes) and technology going into Japan..
suddenly, all the seperate, endless facts of 12 years of schooling became a whole.. i saw the seperate peices, and how uprising, wars, famines in place A resulted in changes in place B, how technology that was just developing, (fancifull stuff!) suddenly became vital.
ships still had sails, but often they had steam engines too.
distances become measured in time.. (how long did it take to get from NY poverty to the gold fields of california?
take a train to Missouri, and overland by older technology from there.. ) and where did the miners get their laundry done? china! it was faster to ship it so far west it became the east!
i was strongest in US history, but.. there were so many things going on in US were influenced by world events.
and US stuff was influencing world stuff.-- the french supported the south in US civil war (they wanted cheap cotton for their mills) the english, the north, (they were already looking to india for cotton for their mills, and were quite happy france was having trouble getting cotton!)
Oh the wonder of it.. and its true for every year/decade.
Ok, the further back you go in time, it make more sense to look at 50 or 100 year periods of time.. but everywhere, at everytime, what A did, effected B, and what B did, effected A! i developed a world view.
(i always like to read history books with an atlas on hand, to be able to see on a map, the places, and routes. now, i went to another level entirely, and looked to see, if not a total world view, at least a broader veiw.. and its like juggling balls. its hard to keep track, and you can't look away for a moment. patterns change in an instant, and sometimes --disaster!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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like James Burke - Connections
formerly known as etaoin...
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Joined: Jul 2003
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Quote:
like James Burke - Connections
YES! I have been itching to mention "connections". A great concept, well executed on the page and on the screen.
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Joined: Jun 2002
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
formerly known as etaoin...
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