Comments on: Shedding Light on the Underground

By: Steve Jones

Steve Jones — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 19:59:00 +0000

I find topics like this absolutely fascinating (you can see my blog here) - we've much to learn from books like these and totally agree with the comment above - we must strive to teach students to think critically and to challenge common-held beliefs and assumptions.

By: gene conrad

gene conrad — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 01:48:17 +0000

Memory is perhaps the most important of our realities. In a way it is a sea of shifting sands: each time we access it, the memory is altered. Memory continues to evolve. One great point made during NEH is to question carefully what we read, what we are told. Teaching students to think critically, to question, to challenge with respect, is one of the highest skills we can give them.

By: prykken

prykken — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:49:33 +0000

Having taught history to high school students for nearly 30 years, it is apparent to me that we need to introduce our students to the whole concept of “memory” as we embark, particularly the idea that we tend to choose our memories or choose those that we hold most dear and they are both informed by, and inform our world view. This seems, of course, especially true of issues related to race. I teach in a school with a significant Native American population and we need to deal with this responsibly in our classrooms. Additionally, as Fergus Bordewich so wonderfully illustrates, this is is incredibly complex.