History Education Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Michael Serber

"Abraham Lincoln is my name
And on this slate I wrote the same
I wrote it down in haste and speed
For fools like you to stop and read"

From the slate board to passing notes, to text messaging under the desk, students will find creative uses for classroom technology, even a young Abraham Lincoln.

Technology, the accessibility of primary sources, the advent of smaller schools with more autonomy, and increasing opportunities for professional development have been key components in the educational revolution.

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History has been at the forefront of this movement. Through easily accessed documents on its website, <http://www.gilderlehrman.org>, the Institute has made the use of primary source documents essential to the teaching of history. Consider a letter from George Washington that calls for an end to slavery in “slow, sure or imperceptible degrees,” or a letter from Lucy Knox to her husband, General Henry Knox in which she writes, “Tho I hope you will not consider yourself as commander in chief of your own house but be convinced … that there is such a thing as equal command.” When teaching the Constitutional Convention, what could be better than a comparison of the preliminary Pierce Butler draft with the final draft? The preamble of the former begins, “We the people of the states of…,” while the latter begins with the immortal words, “We the people of the United States….” The increased use of primary sources in the classroom has helped to build both analytical skills and historical knowledge. Yesterday’s teachers would have longed for such easy access to primary sources.

Today, under the auspices of the Gilder Lehrman Institute and Collection, with its more than 60,000 documents, a multitude of primary sources, teaching modules, lesson plans, and scholarly essays are available online and free of charge. Together with other websites that provide primary sources, access to information has never been easier. Secondary school history teachers also receive support from the OAH Magazine of History. Writings on America’s past by outstanding scholars, related illustrations, and articles on teaching strategies assist teachers in incorporating historical concepts into class lessons. As an added benefit, the Gilder Lehrman Institute provides a document related to the theme of each issue. Thus, the January issue on American Religion has articles by Robert Fogarty on religious movements and Thomas Hamm on teaching religion and the First Amendment, and an exchange of letters between the Quakers and George Washington concerning freedom of worship. As new teachers enter the field such instructional support will become even more important

From the slate board to the chalkboard, to PowerPoint presentations, smart boards, and computers, technology has paved the way to greater accessibility. No longer is it necessary to write key provisions of the Articles of Confederation on the board or even to duplicate mimeograph stencils. Today’s teachers can go right to the source and often bring up the document image itself. None of this should take away from the teachers of a half-century ago. Their goal was the same, but the process involved a painstaking and time-consuming assembly of far-flung resources. In resources, today’s teachers are truly living in a golden age.

Classroom teaching has also been transformed by changes in educational theory and school structure. As the twentieth century dawned, the theories of Frederich Taylor dominated the structural design of large organizations including education systems. Thus, concepts such as specialization, centralized control, and top down supervision were considered the keys to educational improvement. It was no accident of course that much of this occurred at a time when large organizations such as Standard Oil and U.S. Steel dominated the marketplace.

In the 1960s these theories began to give way to those espoused by Elton Mayo, who emphasized human relations, group identity, and democratization in the workplace, and by M.B. Katz who called for greater autonomy for individual schools. These theories, as well as the shift to smaller schools, would take years to achieve but today constitute a growing movement in urban centers.

Another significant change in education today is the growing number of organizations that provide content and pedagogy support. The Gilder Lehrman Institute’s one week summer seminars are led by outstanding prominent historians such as Gordon Wood, David Blight, James Horton, Ken Jackson, Ira Berlin, David Kennedy, Gabor Boritt, and Jack Rakove. In the past, teachers could chose from summer institutes provided through the National Endowment for the Humanities, which still offers excellent opportunities for learning. The expansion of the Institute’s summer programs, which provide books, room and board, and a teacher stipend, has enriched learning opportunities available to teachers. As a consequence, interested K-12 teachers now can study with noted historians in order to enrich their understanding of American history.

In recent years this trend has been further enhanced by the federal government, which has established Teaching American History Grants to promote better teaching of American history. Conceived by Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, these competitive grants provide school districts with up to a million dollars for a three-year period. The goal is simply to improve the teaching of American history by increasing teacher knowledge of events, individuals, or themes associated with American history. As a partner on many Teaching American History Grants, the Gilder Lehrman Institute provides materials, staff development, site visits, and talks by historians to enhance teacher knowledge and teaching skills.

In short, from the closed classroom in the 1930s and 1940s to the beginnings of change in the 1960s, to the plethora of resources available today, change has swept the teaching profession. The view of teaching as a lonely, isolated endeavor in which teachers jealously guarded their lesson plans has undergone significant change.

If we have examined history education yesterday and today, the question remains: what of history education tomorrow? Of course, technology will continue to play a primary role. As a force for education, technology will bring history and historians into classrooms around the world. Steven Mintz of the University of Houston and Columbia University has been a driving force as chair of the OAH Committee on Teaching to move the OAH to develop historians’ podcasts, which can be downloaded from the OAH and the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s website. This will enable and empower teachers everywhere and at every level to develop their academic expertise and teach American history more effectively. It will also serve as a student resource for assignments, classroom debates, and research papers. Like all technological developments, learning will be shared by teachers and students alike.

There are challenges on the horizon. Technology competes against itself as young people become accustomed to using technology more for recreation than learning. Students and their parents now spend a considerable amount of time engaged in interactive computer games and listening to their iPods. The challenge will be to develop learning activities to compete with game technology. But technology can also engage students on a larger scale than ever before. In just one example, The New York Times recently reported on Professor Walter Lewin of M.I.T. Professor Lewin teaches physics, and now reaches interested individuals around the globe through the video taped lectures provided online at no cost through the Open CourseWare system located at: <http://ocw.mit.edu/>. Thus, even as I write, globalization has come to education.

The movement toward small schools or small learning communities will continue to grow. The smaller organizational structures provide the supervision, support, and close interaction that many children need to thrive. These small communities often develop program designs that allows for increased time on tasks. Before, after and during the school day more time can be allocated for learning. Much of this can be seen at the Academy of American Studies in Queens, New York, the first magnet school in American history in New York City. The school is a partnership between the Gilder Lehrman Institute and The New York City Department of Education and is representative of the Institute’s forty schools and programs, and Saturday academies across the country.

Even as we move into the twenty-first century, meaningful instruction and learning will depend, as it always has, on the teacher. Whether students sit together in a brick and mortar classroom, or join together through the web, the teacher will remain at the center of the learning universe. These teachers will have the responsibility of molding minds, building research skills, encouraging acceptance and toleration of differing points of view, and imparting a love of learning to their students. Our challenge for tomorrow is to provide the level of support that will enable these teachers to succeed.