A short personal post, first written here on August 13, 2005, then reposted here on January 16, 2006…
When I was in elementary school back in Belgrade (grades 1 through 8) I had the most horrible history teacher. She was an example that stereotype of “dumb blonde” is sometimes correct. She was hired, I assume, because she was the Barbie-doll trophy-wife of the then mayor of Belgrade.
For four years I did not learn anything about history. I managed to get all 5s (equivalent of As) until the very end of eighth grade – almost everybody in class did. And nobody learned anything.
In middle school (grades 9 through 12, equivalent to high school in the USA) I had, at first, a tough old history teacher. He called me up to the blackboard one day to ask me some questions. I did not really know much, I admit. He looked down at the big red class book and said something like this:
“I see you have all fives in every subject possible – language, math, geography, biology, physics, chemistry – what is so hard about history?”
I said:”Well, remembering all those millenia, centuries, years, dates, names of kings, emperors and military leaders”.
He looked stunned: “B-b-b-but….what is left if you eliminate all those?”
Me: “Well, the interesting stuff – the story”.
He mumbled something about the need to memorize facts anyway and gave me a (barely) passing grade. Still, from that moment on he liked me (and that was important one day a couple of years later when I got in trouble in school – he saved me). He had to follow the curriculum and he was too old and set in his way of thinking to ever be able to teach “the story”, but I think he appreciated my sentiment.
The remaining three years of middle school (in Yugoslavia, the term “high school” is reserved for vocational education, e.g., two-year technical schools, reserved for those who did not manage to pass tough entry exams into the University – there is no such thing as college) I had a great history teacher. She obviously loved history. Although she had to teach the curriculum, which meant memorizing trivia, she managed to weave a story anyway. My problem was that, by that time, I was hopelessly unprepared – I had no background because I have not learned anything up till then. I got fevers several time trying to study history for her – it was hard work.
I so wish I had decent history education back then. I feel the gaps and holes in my history education every day, especially in long comment-threads on smart blogs. I spent a lot of time learning history of science (I took FOUR graduate-level classes on this!). I am trying to make up by reading history books, but that is not the same.
I have recently finished “Marriage – a History” by Stephanie Coontz. Not just that it is a marvelously written story, as well as well documented piece of academic history, but I also learned so much from it about details of history that are completely un-related to marriage. Not to mention that the whole story is starting to make sense. I can now see how pieces join together to form a bigger jigsaw puzzle. I can see the relevance of history to today’s world.
Why is history not taught that way from the very beginning? Also, are there any general history books out there that I may like and find useful in patching up the holes in my knowledge?