“Moreover, the purpose of
history education is to prepare students for participatory democracy, these
displays [exhibition] have no particular relevance. Being able to display historical information
does not demonstrate that students have an expanded view of humanity, that they
are able to make reasoned judgments, or that they can deliberate about the
common good.” Barton & Levstik, 2004, p.114)
Barkton, K. &
Levstik, L. (2004). “Teaching history for
the common good.” New York,
NY: Routledge, Taylor, and Francis Group.
In chapter one of Teaching
History for the Common Good, authors Keith Barton and Linda Levstik discuss
the purpose and goals of history education in the United States. Participation in democratic society is cited
as the chief justification for history education in American schools. However, it is not simply the ability of
reciting name, dates, and places on a homework assignment or standardized test
that best prepares students for participation in our democratic society. Barton and Levstik state, “we believe
students will best prepared for democratic citizenship if they receive a
broadly humanistic education” (p. 35).
One challenge many teachers face in their classroom is one or few
students wishing to use the history classroom as the forum for their recitation
of names, dates, and places in the “belief that someone else will be better off
for knowing it” (p. 119). These types of
exhibitions seek to provide some sort of validity to the student at the cost of
silencing the rest of the class.
Furthermore, exhibiting students require that teachers must ensure that
their lessons include authentic intellectual work in order to help keep these
students challenged and engaged. What
about the fate of the exhibiting student?
How can teachers help exhibiting students to grow in their understanding
and confidence so that they do need to take over the class in order to feel
self worth?
In my seventh grade Social Studies class, I have such a
student. While he is generally a nice
person to be around in the hallways and around the school, in class he tends to
try to dominate conversations with tidbits.
In many cases, his interjections are helpful and add to the class. However, more often than not, his hand raised
usually means he will offer information that is unsubstantiated or irrelevant
to the direction of the lesson. His
offerings usually come from something he supposedly saw on PBS. When asked to back up a statement, his common
response is “I saw it on PBS”. In many
cases, he offers insight while also editorializing the information and passing
unjustified judgment. Keeping up with
him in class is taxing on me, as the teacher and facilitator of discussion, and
it also takes me away from interacting with other students. In one instance, the student offered that
‘Turkey is not welcome in the European Union because they are a Islamic country
and terrorists are Islamist”. This sort
of misinformation must be immediately corrected for both the exhibiting student
and with the rest of the class, thus often taking the class of course from my
lesson plan. As a teacher, I am happy
that I have a student actively participating in class. However, as a teacher, I struggle each day
with trying to open his eyes to expand his view of humanity. In my own practice, as a way of engaging the
student in a way to provide him with a way to exhibit in a productive way, he
has begun to research topics and he is given time in class to offer this
information from sources he can make reference to in the class.
