“Once upon a time . . . ” That opening for many favorite children’s tales captures the two main meanings of history—it’s the story of people and events, and it’s the record of times past. To better understand what history is, let’s look closer at each of these two meanings.
The Story in History
Unlike studying science, we study history without being able to directly observe events—they simply are no longer in our presence. “Doing” history is a way of bringing the past to life, in the best tradition of the storyteller. We do this by weaving together various pieces of information to create a story that gives shape to an event.
There are many possible stories about the same event, and there are good storytellers and less good storytellers. Very rarely does one story say it all or any one storyteller “get it right.” A good student of history, therefore, tries to determine the true story by looking to see if a storyteller has backed up her story with solid evidence and facts.
The history with which we are most familiar is political history—the story of war and peace, important leaders and changes of government. But history is more than that. Anything that has a past has a history, including ideas, such as the idea of freedom, and cultural activities, such as music, art or architecture.
Time in History
Time in history is a kind of relationship. We can look at several events that all happened at the same time and that together tell a story about a particular part of the past. Or we can look at the development of an idea over time and learn how and why it changed. We can consider the relationship between the past and the present, or the future and the past (which is today!). The present is the result of choices that people made and the beliefs they held in the past.
As they prepare to study history, children first need basic knowledge about time and its relationship to change. They need to learn the measures of time, such as year, decade, generation and century. And they need to learn and think about sequences of events as they occurred in time. They need to be able to ask, “About when did that happen?” and to know how to find the answer.
The main focus of history is the relationship between continuity and change. It’s important, therefore, that our children understand the difference between them. For example, the population of the United States has changed greatly over time with each wave of immigration. As new groups of immigrants entered American society, they brought along ideas, beliefs and traditions from their native lands. These new cultures and traditions were woven into existing American culture, contributing to its pattern of diversity and making our democratic system of government even stronger. That system continues to evolve to better realize its original purpose of safeguarding our basic human rights of freedom and equal opportunity.
Parenting viewpoints from parents in the trenches, because parenting doesn’t come with a manual. In addition to