| |
|
Makeover
Column II: Engaging Students to Think Deeply about Political Choices
James A. Diskant, Ph.D.
|
|
In my first column, Engaging Students
to Think Locally and Globally |
|
|
(July
2006), I argued that the creation of community needs to be at the center
of any history class. If we assist students to understand different communities,
students can begin to understand how their personal views of community coalesce
with others or, if they disagree with one another, that the conflicts that
emerged are based on divergent values. They can also understand how peoples'
desire to work and live together or their inability to do so affects almost
all historical events. Then students can move to the next step of community
life to make and understand political choices. |
1 |
Politics—which
is clearly an important aspect of almost any institution—are often
badly understood. On the one hand, many textbook authors give lip service
to the notion of civic education and describe political developments as
things that students need to "know." At the same time, however, they treat
politics as though they are only acted out by leaders—whoever they
are— rather than by most ordinary people. As "political history" is
too often presented, political actors are amorphous or out of touch with
most peoples' lives. This also means that many of the labels that adults
take for granted—including democracy, authoritarianism, and the like—make
less sense to teenagers. Consider the following definition:
n 1: social relations involving
authority or power [syn: political
relation] 2: the study of government of states and other political
units [syn: political
science, government]
3: the profession devoted to governing and to political affairs 4: the
opinion you hold with respect to political questions [syn: political
sympathies
|
2 |
What
are high school students to make of this? Some—particularly those
who are naturally curious—will learn the material and ask countless
questions. Others will learn it to get good grades. But most students, in
my experience, fade out and wonder either quietly or aloud: "So, what?"
"Who cares?" "They are all corrupt" or other simplified observations about
the irrelevance of this aspect of their history education. I remember in
graduate school being thrilled to study "people" and swore that when I taught
history I would never expect my students to memorize names and dates of
alleged important political leaders. Of course that vow became impossible
once I began to teach. Rather, I realized that I needed to teach this subject
differently.
|
3 |
|
As adults—whatever
our political beliefs are—we know that political decisions do matter.
We know the potential, as well as the dangers, of political leadership.
We know from both history and current events the importance of understanding
and making political choices that enhance or limit human behavior. While
it is debatable whether teachers should share their political opinions with
their students, few would disagree that teachers need to assist students
to hold and defend the opinions that they have. |
4 |
|
Hence,
the topic of this column is about making politics engaging in the classroom.
First, political history needs to be personalized. Second, it needs to be
made relevant to teenagers. Third, it needs to be made historically realistic
by highlighting real discussions and debate that are connected to peoples'
visions of community, and by using primary sources. Finally, and most importantly,
it needs to be taught in a manner that focuses on decision making so that
students can work on the important skills of making choices. In order to
make this teaching engaging, interactive methods of instruction, including
role playing and other decision-making approaches, are essential. |
5 |
|
In
order to accomplish each of these four goals, the creation of a community
of learners is crucial, as well as using a case study approach which highlights
the ways people shape political developments at the local level where
communities originate, at the national level where people come together
to meet their needs in more complicated ways, and at the international
level where leaders work come together across borders. This column will
focus on 4 cases—all of which allow students to grapple with these
issues in interactive and engaging ways:
1.) Kongolese leaders' decisions
around contact with the Portuguese in the 16th century,
2.) Chinese leaders' decisions
around continuing or discontinuing exploration in the 16th
century,
3.) French workers and peasants'
decisions to support or oppose Robespierre, the radical French leader
in the 18th century, and
4.) Christian Germans' decisions
to support or oppose the German government's laws that limited the participation
of Jewish Germans in clubs and other institutions. |
6 |
|
The National
Center for History in the Schools has some of the most superb curriculum
units available online (www.sscnet.ucla.edu/nchs
). The one on the evolution of the slave trade in the Kongo and the degeneration
of Kongolese politics during the 15th and 16th centuries:
Kongo: A Kingdom Divided allows students to understand what happens
in a tragic situation by role playing both real and fictional characters
while also wrestling with the difficulties of political decision making.
The culminating activity focuses on the ramifications for politics in the
Kongo as a result of the corruption that the Portuguese helped to create.
In a fascinating role play, students act out the corrupt situation and what
this meant for local decision making. Whenever I do this unit with students,
I get the sense that the ugliness of political choices becomes clear. It
then opens up a discussion on what could have happened and why it didn't
happen, as well as why the situation has become so awful for all involved.
|
7 |
|
Another
opportunity to work on these issues comes from the unit developed by Jean
Johnson: Trade in the Indian Ocean: Should China End Zheng He's Treasure
Voyages? (www.askasia.org/teachers/lessons/plan.php?no=63&era=&grade=&geo=)
in which students role
play advisors to the Ming Court of the 15th century to determine
whether overseas exploration should continue. Through role play and a
close reading of the documents, students are able to develop alternative
possibilities of political life in China. It works well in a debate format
where some students can present different points of view and others vote
on their merits.
|
8 |
|
A third
case are the events of the French Revolution. There are numerous document
collections available (I use excerpts from: The French Revolution,
pp. 1-35, John L. Heineman, ed., Readings in European History: A Collection
of Primary Sources, Dubuque: Iowa: Kendall/Hunt, 1994). Too often the
radical leader Maximilien Robespierre is portrayed at a "tyrant" who was
responsible for the "terror" and yet he was the only major 18th
century leader to meet radical needs: free the slaves in the French colonies,
allow peasants to keep "their" land without compensating landlords for it,
and set up social welfare programs in French cities. By focusing on these
issues from slaves, peasants, and workers' perspectives, students can decide
for themselves which perspective makes more sense. |
9 |
|
The final
case looks at developments in Nazi Germany from a local perspective. The
two documents that I use can be found in Heineman's collection: "Resolution
of German Swimming Association, 28 April 1933" (p. 346) in which the Association's
leaders decide to limit the participation of swimmers to "Aryans" and "A
Parent writes to State Education Ministry of Hamburg, July 1935" (p. 347)
in which a confused mother (a Nazi supporter) requested that a German girl
with a Jewish father be penalized for allegedly "taking" more milk and for
having a leading role in the class. While both are short documents (the
first is a paragraph in length and the second 3 paragraphs), they both allow
for fascinating discussions for a confluence of local and national, lobbying
and coercion, in a way that students can easily find understandable. They
both undermine the notion that state politics is out of reach of people
and that leaders are the only political actors. |
10 |
|
In each
of these four cases—the Kongo in the 16th century, China
in the 16th century, France in the 18th century, and
Germany in the 20th century—politics does not just meet
the definition presented above, but comes alive. In this way the truly interesting
part of politics—decision making—becomes clearer to students.
It is essential that students be able to see that process is also important
and that not all outcomes are predetermined. Students care about the outcomes,
as they identify with some of the players involved, and care to make political
decisions that will affect them. Then "real" civic education can happen
and students can learn from one another. |
11 |
|
|
|
Biographical Note: James
A. Diskant, Ph.D., teaches at the John D. O'Bryant School of Mathematics
and Science in Roxbury (Boston), Massachusetts, and was a Program Associate
at the former World History Center at Northeastern University in Boston,
from 1999 until it closed in 2003. He continues to keep the Center's ideas
alive through teaching, facilitating workshops, and participating in a
Book Group, and hopes that the Center will find a new home in the Greater
Boston area in the near future. He can be reached at james.diskant@verizon.net
|
|
