Book Review—Hist 5340—Brynne Bona-Miner
Title: Thinking Historically
Author: Tom Holt
Published by: The College Board 1990
Pages: 56
Whenever I tell anyone that I plan on teaching history to high school
students as a career, I get two reactions. The first is the automatic groan
that most people feel is an appropriate response to any mention of high
school or teenagers in general. The second can almost be quoted, “I would
Love to study history, but I can remember it was soooo boring in high
school!” And I can believe them, almost agree with them. I want to do this
for a living and I vividly recall feeling the exact same way. The question
that Tom Holt raises in his book, Thinking Historically, is essentially, why
does it have to be that way? Holt looks at the misconceptions that students
have about history: that it only pertains to someone else, that it’s dry and
tedious, that it’s all about rich dead white men. His proposal is that we
need to rework the way that we even think about teaching history before any
of those thoughts can change. Throughout the book, Holt focuses on how to
involve students in the curriculum, changing them from passive recipients of
data into active formulators of events.
The crux of Thinking Historically is that in order for students to be
interested in and truly learn history, they must be involved in it. They
must become historians themselves, not merely students in a history class.
This cannot be achieved through reading a textbook and choosing A, B, C or D
on a multiple choice exam. It takes more effort from both the teacher and
the student, but it is exponentially more rewarding and meaningful.
The problem is, how does one teach kids how to be historians when they are
disinterested in the class, not to mention school and life in general? By
allowing them to use a skill that they’ve been honing throughout their
adolescence, the ability to question. These kids are asking about the
validity of the words of their parents, of their friends, of the media, and
yet we expect them to submissively accept the information that we put on the
chalkboard. Instead, what should be happening is we should be using that
questioning spirit, allowing them to realize that history isn’t only what
happened at least fifty years ago, it is what happened yesterday or five
minutes ago, and more importantly, it is what happened to them. Each
student needs to be able to realize that they all have a part in history
that is just as valid as the religion of Ancient Egypt or the origins of the
slave trade.
One way to promote this spirit of questioning is to add differences to your
classroom. If all your class is centered on all of your students reading
the same textbook, it isn’t likely that they are going to find all that much
to connect to. Textbooks are specifically designed to do that very thing.
They are meant to appeal, or at the very least, not to offend the broad mass
of population. Probably more correctly put, they are meant to appeal to a
broad mass of politicians, many of whom are white, wealthy and close to
dead, and everyone likes to read about people who are just like themselves.
By adding just one outside source document, one opinion that isn’t that of
the majority, one discussion on the reasons for and the consequences of an
action, and you have included those very students who feel the most
disenfranchised by traditional history.
Another of the issues that Holt raises focuses on the errors in judgment
about high school students in general. Instead of treating them like the
majority of people, as warm bodies meant to fill a room, inconsequential
because they don’t care about school or education or values, Holt explains
that all students can be helped to be involved in school, and can find
something to appreciate in the subject they are studying. It could be
argued quite persuasively that students need a general background in a
subject before they can start to question it, before they can become
interested in having a dialogue about it. By the time students reach high
school, they have that background, and more importantly, they should have
the skills requisite for being good historians. They can question, they can
discuss with their peers, they can bring sources from their own lives and
add to the classroom experience of others.
One of the most important parts of this equation that isn’t really
mentioned by Holt is the need to ensure that all of your students feel
comfortable enough to share and to question in your class. If you start out
the year telling your students that this is going to be their class, that
they are going to learn to be historians and then don’t say another word
about it because you are so busy lecturing for 90 minutes a day, they aren’t
going to become any more involved in the subject. Secondly, if your
students aren’t comfortable enough with each other to share themselves, to
show possible vulnerabilities, they aren’t going to progress nearly as much
as they would have if you had taken the time to assess the climate of your
classroom, to know your students and help them know each other.
Another thing that many people would probably list as a defect of Thinking
Historically is the fact that it makes very little mention of the strategies
necessary in implementing this in your classroom. First of all, I don’t
think that his intent was to provide us with a structural model of how to
change your teaching style, it just couldn’t be done in the 56 pages of this
book. What Holt hopes to do, I believe, is to inspire some currently
practicing teacher to the point that they look at their current teaching
style and amend it to include the sections of history that they are
neglecting. I think Holt realizes that most teachers would be offended if
they were told how they should do things, and their experience in their own
classroom is much more valuable than what he could tell them in a book.
I think that what this book does to change my conception of teaching is
that it shows, quite methodically, the ways in which traditional history has
fallen short, and what can be done to remedy that. I graduated from high
school in 2001, not too long ago, and I had teachers who taught by the text,
and every once in a while we’d get a PBS movie and maybe a discussion, but I
think it is so important for us, as the up and coming teachers, to be able
to gain experience that is different than what we experienced as students.
It is so key that we are able to see what is going to work, and what won’t,
and how to adjust our teaching to stimulate our students to be interested in
learning.
I think that Holt did an excellent job at highlighting what needs to be
changed with the way we think of history, and allowing teachers to take
their own route in getting there is even more impressive. By looking at the
points that he makes about history and motivation, and synthesizing those
ideas with your current conceptions, every teacher can grow and improve,
perhaps inspiring that one student that just can’t be touched by traditional
history, or who doesn’t feel as if they belong in history, when in fact they
are making it as they go about everyday activities.