Helping History Survive: Resources for Teens Who Love History

Reenactments and living history museums tend to be full of families that love history. Mom and Dad show their kids how cool history is and a young age and their interest in history grows on its own. Recently I have noticed a trend in the older generation retiring. They are selling their historical clothing and promising that they will now spend their time relaxing and playing with the grandkids instead of playing in the field.  That may mean that the toddlers of today will be historians tomorrow. But as for right now, the current youth doesn’t seem to be replacing the veterans.

 I didn’t have a family into history. So I know how hard it is. I couldn’t participate in events until I was in college. I didn’t have the money or the means to get to events, but I did know what I was missing. In Middle School, a homeschool family was nice enough to take me to a living history museum with their daughter.  They knew that I liked history and it was such a kind offer. 

It’s hard to imagine, but families not into history don’t really know what’s out there. My family knew I liked history but they didn’t really know there was history stuff available. Unfortunately, once we found out stuff was available, most things were only open to children, if their parents participated and were there to watch them.  My parents both worked so history events went on the backburner until college. 

So what can be done to encourage the new generation? For starters, if you have the means to bring young people along with you, please do. That can mean a lot to a child or teen that loves history. If you can’t bring someone to far away events, try local events or town history days.   

One of my fondest memories from Middle School was that my friend invited me over to make costumes for a trip to the Renaissance fair.  We went to the fabric store and found a pattern that we liked and we bought broadcloth. We spent a whole day laughing and sewing and ended up with some badly sewn but wearable dresses. On the day of the trip, we felt like the belles of the ball. 

If you don’t have the means to take others with you, try to make your materials available to them.  Lend out the historical fiction that is probably collecting dust most of the year. See if your local library has good books you could suggest to a teen. Really any little thing could keep that passion going. 

If you are a young person into history but have no way of participating in any history events, spend this time feeding your interest. If you go to school, use the library to read books on the subjects you like. Listen to history related podcasts and watch videos.  Don’t let your passion die. When people find out that I am a reenactor they generally tell me that they used to love history but their interest waned in their teen years when many other things seemed more important. 

Utilize what you do have at your disposal. Ask the librarian for books on the subject you are interested in. Ask your teachers at school for information on a topic you find interesting. Use the internet to find information. The important thing is to keep feeding your interest.

 

Resources for teens who love history:

Podcasts:

- Stuff you missed in History Class

-Civil War Tours

Books:

Historical Fiction:

- The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

-  Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

-The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane (Free Online Ebook.)

-Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Nonfiction: 

-To Be a Slave by Julius Lester

-The Civil War Chronicle by William C. Davis

-The Reenactor’s Handbook by

- Hardtack and Coffee by John D. Billings (Free Online Ebook.) This one was written by a Civil War veteran about army life. It has great images.

-Johnny Reb and Billy Yank by Alexander Hunter. This is a long but entertaining read written by a Civil War veteran. (Free Online Ebook.)

What are your suggestions? How can the history field do to make it more beginner friendly or what can be done to encourage people who can't participate? 

I Will be Student Teaching!

 Altogether, Anne went to bed that night in a rather pessimistic mood. She slept poorly and was so pale and tragic at breakfast next morning that Marilla was alarmed and insisted on making her take a cup of scorching ginger tea. Anne sipped it patiently, although she could not imagine what good ginger tea would do. Had it been some magic brew potent to confer age and experience Anne would have swallowed a quart of it without flinching.

“Marilla what if I fail!”

“You’ll hardly fail completely in one day and there's plenty more days coming,” said Marilla “The trouble with you, Anne, is that you’ll expect to teach those children everything and reform all their faults right off, and if you can t you’ll think you’ve failed.”

--Anne of Avonlea (1909)

I know that my blogging has been limited lately but I've been preparing for student teaching. While I won't be blogging about my experiences in the classroom, I do hope to continue blogging in general. Hopefully I'll get back on a schedule and the posts will be more frequent.

The good news is that I have a lot of new things to share. I have been doing a lot of research over the past few months and will finally get around to posting a lot of it. The bad news is that I am as nervous to start teaching as Anne was. I'm sure everything will be fine once I am settled in. As for right now, I'm still very nervous. A lot has been happening very quickly.

Wish me luck!

I Feel Like I Made the Wrong Choice

The first year was fun; it was just like high school. The second year was fun too. The third year started to get irritating and now I have no life.  The more I think about it, the more I feel like I made the wrong choice by choosing college. The assignments are arbitrary but time consuming, the class material is nothing new and some of the students are frequently as informed as the professors. It’s unnecessarily stressful and meaningless and primarily a business.

   

I want to be a researcher, but I feel college has poorly prepared me for this occupation. In an effort to make us more “well rounded” it has limited our usefulness. Instead of developing a collection of skills that may be useful in the history field we are practically turned into one-trick ponies. Our degrees are so limiting when they should be opening opportunities for us.  I am disappointed that a history degree does not even touch on archiving, artifact conservation, transcription, or writing history.  Shouldn’t we be prepared for things we might encounter in history-based occupations?  Instead we have to pay extra money and spend more time to develop these skills in other ways.  

Not only do I spend a majority of my time on meaningless school related tasks but I see all of the things that I can’t do because I chose college instead. I wish I had more time to spend with my family and friends. I see the beautiful works of art, costumes, and writings of my friends and wish I just stayed home. I do these things when I can, but it is slow going. I feel like I am never accomplishing anything and have nothing to be proud of. College is pretty monomaniacal; I wish I could develop my other talents and explore my other interests too.  

Then I think of all of the things I can’t do because I have student loans.  It is my goal in life to travel and do volunteer work. But, by the time my student loans are paid off, I will probably be too established in one area to pick up my life and move frequently.

Many people talk about the great experiences that they had in college but I haven’t had a particularly enriching college experience. I also think that if I had $5,000+ to spend each year on great experiences, I would wager that I could probably come up with some pretty enriching experiences. I do love history and researching but did I make the right choice? These sacrifices are the things that no one ever tells you about and unfortunately, I won't know for sure whether I made the right choice until years after I graduate. 

***The photos were from a recent trip to Valley Forge National Historic Park which was part of a college assignment but was welcome because it gave Andy and I some time to hang out and spend some time outside, which college hasn't been allowing a lot of time for.         

Common Mistakes that New Researchers Make

Thanks to the digital age, primary documents are quickly becoming available to anyone who wants to access them. Unfortunately, a growing issue that is a result of this accessibility, is that people who have never researched anything before are unknowingly sharing unsound research with others.  It is great to have so many people interested in evaluating history for themselves without the lens of a historian but there are some common pitfalls that new or amateur researchers make.

Common Mistakes to Avoid:

-Not doing enough research and making theories.  Some people find one piece of evidence for something to support a claim and end their research. One piece of evidence is not research; it is a piece of data. Research is the culmination of a lot of evaluated data. (See next mistake.)

-Finding one source that gives evidence for something without evaluating the source. When one researches thoroughly, they find evidence and spend a lot more time studying the source of the evidence. How common a view would it have been? How widely spread was the publication? Did the author have any ulterior motives? Does the information only pertain to a certain area, religious or political group, or country?  Was the piece supposed to be satirical? 

-Having a firm hypothesis and making the research fit the hypothesis. This includes not including research that would negate your thesis. Ethical researchers will make note of the evidence that goes against their theories as well as the evidence that does. This is so readers can evaluate the source documents themselves and see if they agree with a researcher’s conclusions. Good researchers use “working hypotheses” which can change when new information is uncovered. Good researchers must be willing to change their views. There is no shame in being wrong but there is shame in trying to skew research to fit a hypothesis. 

-Ignoring research done by others. It is very important to be cognizant of the research that others have done on your topic. It is not good manners to ignore the hard work that others have done before you and it is silly to present your research to your field if you have nothing particularly new to share. Your research should build on or negate the works of others as well as introduce new information, if possible.  Reading the works of others alerts you to resources you might not have find yourself and keeps you up to date.  

 I'm sure there are more but these are the ones I notice most and remember doing myself. I am very much a supporter of amateur historians because they typically research things that are very interesting that don't tend to get a lot of professional attention. I like to encourage people to try their hand at research if they are inclined because local history and material culture tend to only get attention from amateurs and it is some of the most interesting history to learn about. But we have to keep the research well founded, bad research gives amateur historians a bad reputation.      

It's School Time Again

School will be starting up again, and even though it has been rainy, the weather is starting to feel like Fall. I have been cramming to finish books I have to read for my new classes, which has been difficult as I have a lot of personal reading I'd like to get done.

The problem with assigned reading is, even if the book is good, it still has been "injected" into your reading list instead of getting there "organically." :D Those books on my list have to fight for their position on the "to be read" list and they can be carelessly shoved out of the way by an assigned book.

I've been busy trying to get all of my school things together and out of the way before the stress of classes starts. I still have a lot of school stuff to buy and my temperamental internet hasn't been working because of all of the storms.  A lot of people do "spring cleaning" but I always do my heavy cleaning right before classes start so I don't have as much distraction from my work. My schedule this semester is kind of crazy and it seems I will be spending more time traveling to class than in class. Right now is a hectic time for everyone but I can't wait to see everyone in the next coming months. 

P.S. I am pressing "publish" before my internet decides to stop working again. 

School Again

I have finally been to all of the classes I will be taking this semester and it really seems like a lot of work! I am taking a lot of my education and teaching courses.

Things here have been really hectic with the weather. The snow and ice have made school and travel a complete nightmare.

College is a very strange place. I'll never understand the "college experience." For people should be experimenting with budgeting, cooking, studying, working and overall living on their own, a lot of the students seem to be not practicing any of these things at all.

Throughout the sememster, many students never learn to budget their time and end up missing assignments. Some students only show up for class a few times a month.
Many students spend way too much time socializing, going to parties and hanging out with friends. Not to even mention underage drinking and other illegal activity. 

I hear girls in the halls talking to their friend about how "so and so" is cheating on his girlfriend and how stupid people were acting at that "underwear party" on Friday night (I would not believe such a thing existed if I hadn't heard people talking about it myself.)

Something that astonishes me even more is the pure number of girlfriends and boyfriends, I hear fighting over the phone. I can't imagine that people stay in relationships where every call is a fight.  Has the standard of relationships been set so low that people think that daily fighting is "normal?" I know not every day in a relationship is perfect but shouldn't there be more perfect days than not?

I even overheard a girl telling her friend that her father was so mean because he wouldn't let her boyfriend sleep over because he was afraid they would sleep together. She then said that it was pointless because her mother already knew that she had already slept with him and was keeping it a secret from her husband to protect her. This girl said she didn't want to lose her father's trust. I felt like asking her why she does things that she is not comfortable telling her parents about. If she wants to have her parents trust, why deliberately break their trust?

Whatever happened to movies and popcorn on a Friday night or study groups? Some of this stuff is just too much and the worst thing about it is that they really don't seem happy. Many of them are regretful. Why is this behavior cultivated and promoted around educational institutions? Maybe this is a case of "it's always happened at college and it only seems more prevalent now." So, what do you think? Has college always been this way?

School is Almost Here!

Ugh! School is about to start again. Where did the summer go? School is hard because I won't have time to study the things I like as I am free to do in the summer. In school they tell you what and how and when to learn. How stressful!

Today certification is everything. I know we want to make sure that everyone is qualified for the job that they wish to do, but I think we have gone a little overboard in recent times.

Remember, in days passed, that many things and jobs were learned by apprenticeship. Little Timmy would show up at the shop with the rest of the men. At first, Tim would only sweep the floors and help customers out with their purchases. But soon he would learn how to stock the shelves. In a few months he would be cashiering and helping his aged employer with ordering. In less than a year he would learn the ins and outs of commerce and business. As anyone who has learned a new skill can testify: 10 minutes of hands on experience is worth years of a traditional school course on the same subject.

Of course, there are certain jobs that people need lots of traditional classes and hands on experience to be good at what they do, such as doctors; however, I am going to school to be a teacher. Remember when all you had to be able to do to be a teacher was to be able to read, write and do simple math? Not so anymore. We have to take classes on "lesson planning," "time management," "Spanish," (which I am notoriously bad at) and even "childrens arts and crafts." I truly believe that one week in a classroom will teach you more about these things than 4 month in these classes. Why do we make it so hard and time consuming to learn things?

I think the worst thing about it and probably the thing I feel guilty about is the fact that I feel no more qualified to teach now than I did my freshman year of high school. I'll end my rant here and applaud all of you who did not fall into the "everyone has to go to college" trap. I know many perfectly intelligent, caring and capable people who never set foot in a college--not that they couldn't pass, I know they could easily, they probably could teach college classes! I'm sorry about this post, but school just makes me so sad. :(

The New England Primer: Colonial School in the Northeast

In the Early Colonial period, religion was the backbone of education.  In 1642, the Puritans in Massachusetts passed a law which used elected members of the colony to oversee  education to make sure that children were receiving an appropriate education and that they understood the laws of the colony. Many colonies followed the model that the Puritans set. 

 





 
 In 1647, the Puritans passed the Old Deluder Satan Law which was designed to make sure that all of their citizens were able to read the Bible to protect themselves from Satan. To make this possible, the law required that every town with fifty houses to pay a teacher to teach reading and writing. Also, every town with at least one hundred houses was required to erect a grammar school to prepare boys for higher learning.


 


By 1683, William Penn made a law which fined the parents of children who could not read and write by the time they were twelve, five pounds. A lot of money back then. While educating slaves was not illegal yet, few were educated. Some African schools were erected by Quakers but elsewhere in the colonies, few were taught. 


Schools during the American Colonial period were typically one-roomed buildings built by communities or churches. School boards were elected by the community and they built the school as they saw fit without any regulations. Each school board chose their own teacher and set their own tuition costs. Teaching was a predominately male profession, with men making about one hundred pounds a year and women teachers only making thirty percent of that. Some schools even had their teacher board at students' houses to reduce financial strain on the teachers. Many students also paid their teacher in foods and other farm goods.


 In the schoolroom, boys and girls had separate benches. The children were of mixed ages and girls tended only to stay for a few years, so they could learn home skills. Since school took place only in the winter and months when children weren't needed on farms, the students were expected to bring wood to feed the fire. It was very rare for students to have textbooks. Normally the schoolmaster had the only textbook. Children typically had a horn-book (pictured top, left,) which was a small paddle of wood which had a lesson printed on it which was then covered by a thin sheet of cow horn to protect the print. Horn-books could be threaded with string and worn around the neck.

Paper was scarce so most work was done verbally. Reading, writing, religion, and spelling. Latin grammar schools for boys only, taught Greek and Latin. Students were expected to memorize and recite their lessons, which were usually a religious rhyme. Copy-books taught nice handwriting, which was considered more important than good spelling as many words of the time were spelled phonetically. 







Learning handwriting by tracing over letters written in a faint ink is attributed to John Locke and very similar to how we teach children to learn to write in modern times.   

*Note: The poem and etchings are from the most popular Colonial textbook, The New England Primer from 1727. Int he late 1700s, the poem was changed to include more religious rhymes and to exclude all references to the King. Etchings of King George II were ripped out of the older Primers during the revolution and few exist today. In future printings, George Washington was printed at the beginnings.