The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend. (Robertson Davies)
Thinking about the musings from DAY 4: The Times They Are A-Changin’…
I believe that history does matter, (as of the 2020-2021 school-year, I have been teaching AP World History for 16 years and AP European History for 12 years), and that History Does Repeat Itself, Just Not In The Same Frequency Nor Intensity. In addition, I also believe the following:
1) Knowledge Is Power and;
2) Reading Is Fundamental.
One of the first assignments that my students do for me and due before the second day of class, is to take a political quiz. For several years now, I have had them go to the following website: https://www.isidewith.com/elections/2020-presidential-quiz and take the quiz, and email back their results. I inform them that the quiz, taken ‘as is’, should take about 10-15 minutes to complete. I also inform them that if they so choose, they can go into greater depth to get an even more accurate outcome regarding their scores. There are two more options that allows the quiz taker to go into much greater depth to come to a much more complete picture of how they view presidential candidates running for office every four years in the United Stated Of America:
1) By clicking on the ”Other Stances’ button, multiple drop-down answers are now visible, benefitting those who believe that not all answers regarding politics are black and white and;
2) The ‘How important is this to you?’ 5 point scale, allows the quiz taker to rank order their answers according to issues that they feel are more important to them than others.
I finish by stating that with me and my Type A personality and obsessive, compulsive disorder, when I completed the presidential, political quiz, I clicked on every ‘Other Stances’ button and adjusted the scale for every time ‘How important is this to you?’ came up.
Which of course, was after ever question and every answer, and took closer to 45 minutes….
As a Social Studies teacher, I believe that going beyond the typical yes/no response and going deeper is well worth the investment of their time.
Now, trying to convince a 15 or 16 year old the value of spending closer to an hour on a school assignment that in reality can be completed in about 10 to 15 minutes to complete, well topic is enough to start an entirely different blog altogether….
Upon arrival of the second day of class, I use the presidential, political quizzes that they completed to begin discussion regarding the concept of bias.
For the AP history courses, (World, US, and European History), I would contend that bias is perhaps one of the most important concepts that all students need to have mastered in order to be on their way to passing that exam.
Not to mention the fact that they are properly informed as to how to vote in an upcoming election….
My point here is simple. I teach to my students that in order to earn the grade that they wish to earn in my AP World History and European History courses, then they must familiarize themselves with key principles in my class:
1) History Repeats Itself, Just Not The Frequency Nor Intensity;
2) Knowledge Is Power and;
3) Reading Is Fundamental.
The Agricultural Revolution from approximately 8,000 BC – 3,500 BC was a pretty big deal for humanity.
The Industrial Revolution, beginning in the early 1700’s, was also, a pretty big deal.
Today however? Real-time as I type this? The Technological Revolution, (Information Age, whatever you wish to call it), is the third of the ‘pretty big deals’ of humanity.
As we have already found out in a short period of time during the Technological Revolution, the internet can be considered both a wonder of the world, and a scourge on mankind.
There is no doubt that the internet is a wonder of the world. As long as you have a technology device, (the students all have a district iPad given to them at the beginning of the school-year. In addition, maybe 1 student in a class, literally, does not have a cellphone. In other words, student cell phones and iPads, when combined with the ‘free’ WiFi in the school, accessing information from the internet has never been easier, at least for students in our school district.)
On the other hand, it is easy to argue that the internet is also a scourge on mankind.
If I left a 15 or a 16 year old to go and find articles to read to enhance their learning of AP World History on their own, once they entered cyberspace, they may never come back. (Or if and when they do come back, they may never be the same again.)
What sites are reliable?
What authors are reliable?
Is the content on those sites written by those authors reliable?
Can you answer those questions above confidently?
Also on the second day of class, time is spent discussing the concept of bias and its importance for AP World History and beyond. The students know that the Cable News Network, CNN, is biased, (to the ‘left’). The students know that FoxNews is biased, (to the ‘right’).
Or at least, that is what they think they know.
What many may fail to understand the first week of class is the fact that, I would contend, that all thoughts created by humans, are in fact, biased.
Mankind has been expressing themselves for around 10,000 years. Whether this expression manifests itself on a cave wall, cuneiform from Mesopotamia, papyrus from Egypt, oracle bones from China, a painting, sculpture, building, paper, or the internet, man has, and always will, express themselves.
I would submit to you that it is possible then to connect this expression, to the definition of bias.
Once I lay the groundwork for the concept of bias, what it is, and the importance of it in our classes, I then explain to them that I to have a bias, (agenda, motivation, intent, etc.), when I am trying to teach the content and analysis of 10,000 years of human history to them.
I tell them that their math, science, English, etc., teachers also are biased as well when they present their class content to them.
After all, if a teacher tells a student that it is their class that they believe is the most important class of the school day, is that not teacher biased, favoring their class over all the others?
At the end of the day, it is no easy task to detect bias. It is a high-level skill set indeed.
The trick for the student is two fold:
1) To be able to detect the bias and once detected;
2) What will that student do with that information, knowing that there is a bias, (agenda, motivation, intent, etc.), attached to it?
Do you know how to detect bias?
Do not feel discouraged if you don’t care enough about politics to do the https://www.isidewith.com/elections/2020-presidential-quiz political quiz. Do not feel discouraged if you have never really thought about how bias affects you and the world around you on a daily basis. Instead, find a way to become more involved with the world. Not through the eyes, ears, and writings of a blogger, reporter, or some famous author. Go outside today and take a 15 minute walk. Experience your own life through your own senses. With your own bias….
For we walk by faith, not by sight: (2 Corinthians 5:7 KJV)
Was today’s blog a little confusing at times? Was the content perhaps a little overwhelming? Did you feel lost not understanding some or most of the subject matter?
Those feelings are totally understandable and it is ok to have one or more of those feelings. Remember that you are reading Day 5: To Be Or Not To Be…Biased.
If you haven’t been in class since the first day of school…or when the project began…or when the contract was first signed, etc., these feelings make perfect and logistical sense.
Please feel free to go back to where all of this began: