A few weeks back, I wrote a post covering History and Geography of the state of Connecticut USA which is my current address and its parallels in the History and the Geography of Pune India which is my permanent address. It was well appreciated by friends and as well as experts. In fact, it was published in the overseas supplement of leading Marathi daily.
Connecticut: Sadashiv Peth of USA
They say a child is the father of the man. During this course of writing the post, I learned all the CT and New England History lessons from my daughter Riya. Same Riya of the old who did not enjoy History taught in Pune with a striking exception of Std IV history which taught them in the blandest and politically correct version the History of Shivaji Maharaj. Though a latecomer in the US system (as a high school freshman) after a course in Western Civilization in Freshman year she opted for AP US History and got a maximum of 5. She took extra efforts to know the local history of the town and also was interested in chapters of the American Revolution, Civil war, the Civil Rights movement, and so on.
The point of this blog is not about Riya but about stark differences in the way we teach history in India and how they taught her in the US. If we want to create youngsters who can make history you need to educate them and make them understand the history and be a part of the progression of Humanity. Here I do not want to get into any debate about nationalism or anything about the dividing lines of History. I know some people think that not teaching History will erase conflicts. Though I do not want to argue this line of thoughts I want to highlight some positive things we can learn from the US system. There is a huge debate even in the US about the wrong focus of the US to exclude controversial topics. But even that is beyond the scope of this post.
I had read HG Wells as a teenager. I watched a few movies like Back to Future which focused on hyperlocal history or series like Making History which focussed on American revolutions. I also watched a few fantasy Romcoms like Kate and Leopold, Knight of Christmas. I conclude that the best way to teach history is through Time travel. As a teenager, I wanted to invent the machine and pack it in my rucksack and then climb Rajgad and set the console to the year 1650 to experience the best thing that happened in modern Indian History. I then wanted to set the console to various years from 1857 till 1947 to witness sacrifices made by real patriots like Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, Pal, Bhagat Singh, and his team, Azad, Savarkar, Patel, Netaji Bose just to mention very few among the score of unknown heroes. I wanted to get the feel of the general atmosphere then. I also wanted to witness the golden era from the 10th century BCE till 10th Century CE. This was the time when India was the center of the world with the highest % GDP of the world and had centers of Knowledge and civil rule. This golden era was plundered by the invaders and corroded by internal divides created for personal gains by few and unscientific tempers systematically implanted among masses creating ignorance.
The next best thing to Time Machine as a tool is to understand how they teach here in the USA. Students are first introduced to a stand-alone history class in 5th or 6th grade. US History, World History, and Geography are taught here. In these grades, they do have projects, but they are grade and student appropriate.
In the Highschool, Courses vary by the high school- private or public. But the base desire of the State to produce informed citizens is a common factor across the school. The US systems offer courses that build upon each other and electives. Students generally are required to take a minimum of 3 years of Social Studies credit and they are required to pass Civics and US History to graduate. They offer Western Civilizations I and II, United States History, AP Euro, AP US, AP Gov. and Politics, Psychology, Current Events, Civics, Law and Order, and Advanced American Studies. (AP is Advanced Placement ie college-level courses)
The scope of the Western Civilization course starts from Greek and Roman Empires, covering the middle ages and then Renaissance and Exploration of the New World. American History starts from Pangea's to Beringia Strait where humans theoretically entered American Continents, Indian History, Colonial Era, Colonies, American Revolution, Civil War, World War, Civil Rights movement, Cold war, 9/11, Economic Depression. The teaching methodologies include Projects, Roles took by students in history, Socrates' seminars, Exams, assignments also are thought-provoking as against memorization we have in India. It would be very interesting to follow your child doing all this as a parent.
Luckily Riya had a great teacher Mrs. O who had taken it upon herself to ensure that the students are provided with a sound foundation in terms of historiography and understanding historical bias. In her own words as she kindly agreed to be quoted for this blog.
" This is a natural extension of my own experiences at the college level. Informed citizens must be able to evaluate information presented to them with a critical eye. This is an important life skill and is why I place such importance on it. I have been told before by my students that this is the first time that they have been told that “history is what historians say it is.” I have included links to 2 articles that I make all my USH kids read.
We discuss these items in Socratic Seminars (Debates). This is where we hone our critical thinking and argumentation skills, especially in APUSH. These discussions are a consistent feature throughout the school year in each of my courses" Says Mrs. O as fondly called by her Students.
It is an expectation by the State that the curriculum is updated regularly. Courses are revised every few years. However, teachers make small changes to how the curriculum is delivered on a regular basis based on individual reflection and collaboration with teachers teaching the same course. Government Departments typically guide the revision process with administrative oversight. In order to meet their standards laid by accreditation bodies, courses throughout the school are reviewed and aligned to a common template that is grounded in the school’s vision of the graduate.
The ruling governments here have a say in the matter as we have in India. For example, All high schools must offer the one credit, a full-year elective on African American/Latino History beginning in the fall of 2022. Connecticut Government is developing an African American/Black and Puerto Rican/Latino Course of Studies by Jan 2021
No wonder students find History interesting and equipped to analyze history independently as compared to what we have government-sanctioned chapters and dreadful memorization techniques we require from students to exhibit during the examinations.
Despite all the efforts taken by all teachers, boards, government bodies, etc, some people are very critical about US education. Such controversies are usually about a prescribed set of historical facts, subjects, and themes about America that students ought to know, be it American Exceptionalism or the civil rights movement. They also feel there is a perceived downplaying of worthy subjects such as the Constitution and a lack of attention to “exemplary people and events.”Students don't really know more about events like the Louisiana Purchase, the judicial precedent set by Marbury v. Madison, reasons why Loyalists opposed independence, and so on.
In India, we have a significant gap in the description of the Golden Era I mentioned between 10th Century BCE till 10th Century CE. Though the Scope of Indian History is very huge compared to the US History or even Western Civ for that matter, we need an innovative approach to be able to create that understanding and outlook in the young minds to chose his/her area of interest in History.
My favorite author PL Deshpande has created an abnormal character named Haritatya who is a person living history or history personified. He imbibed those glorious chapters of local history into the impressionable minds of the author and his friends during their childhood. Children in the Haritatya's neighborhood were really enthused to learn about History just like all of us who went through Maharashtra state curriculum in Std IV.
We in India are quick to imitate everything from the US, let's try to do that by learning how they teach History. Going as per much controversial slogan in the Indian context: let's Make History Great Again.
We in India are quick to imitate everything from the US, let's try to do that by learning how they teach History. Going as per much controversial slogan in the Indian context: let's Make History Great Again.
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