Today we talked about historical significance and continuity and change. The information posted on yesterday's blog pretty much sums up the aspects of each of those concepts so I'm not going to re-post that info here. Instead, I'm going to talk about the activities we did for each concept.
For historical significance Dr. Seixas had us do a "historical significance freestyle" activity. The directions were to choose 5 to 10 most significant events from world or Canadian history. Present and defend those choices. Also decide on criteria for your defenses.
My group decided to work on world history. Our criteria: an event affecting a large number of people and a turning point in history.
Without further ado, here is our list:
1. Fire!
2. The wheel
3. printing press and the printing of the Bible
4. creation of gun powder
5. Industrial revolution
6. discovery of electricity
7. Wright brothers (flight) and Henry Ford (moveable assembly line and transportation)
8. harnessing the atom and the atomic bomb (manhattan project)
9. computers
I can't remember one of our events...but we had 10. What would be on your list?
Some people in the institute wrote very generic things such as the agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution, etc and did not name specifics. Others named specifics. It is interesting to note as well that people took various perspectives while completing the assignment. Some wrote about militarism and war, others wrote about social issues, others economic, and others political. Some a mixture of all of the above.
For continuity and change, we were charged with coming up with a handout/worksheet teaching the concept. I don't have our example, because someone else in the group saved it on her laptop and did not email it out.
We also went to Fort York today. Dr. Seixas keeps mentioning the War of 1812 and its importance in Canadian history. The guide at Fort York did as well. It's interesting to note however, that Fort York was not built prior to 1812. It was built in 1814 or so.... so it is interesting to think about how the Canadian government and the people talk about the importance of the fort in the war however, it did not exist at the time. Huh.
We also went to a pub and talked about historical consciousness. It was an interesting discussion which lead to the question, do we have a collective narrative of history in our country? Do we need to teach one to the young people in the country to get them to feel like they are a part of the country?
With that, I'll leave you. Ponder those questions and let me know what you think.
We used to have a collective narrative. Imperfect as it was, it at least guaranteed that most people understood basic dates and events in American history. We did away with that collective narrative as being only from one perspective. Now we have multiple individual narratives and no thread tying it all together.
ReplyDeleteI find it curious that there seems to be no mention of religious events in the lists -- and yet the birth and life of Jesus Christ has been a major factor in the history of the world ... as has the development of the rest of the world's religions.
Finally, I caught part of a radio program about the War of 1812 (which lasted until 1815 on the American end, so maybe it's OK the fort wasn't built until 1814), which talked about how it was as or more important than the Revolutionary War in solidifying America's place in the world -- interesting.
Glad you are able to be at this conference, Stephanie. Sounds as though you are filling up with lots of good stuff to share!