Education as History

 ...I would recommend that every subject be taught as history.  In this way, children, even in the earliest grades, can begin to understand, as they now do not, that knowledge is not a fixed thing but a stage in human development, with a past and a future.

 

                                                                    -- Neil Postman

 

This idea of Postman's is not exactly new, but he has expressed it in a new way, and a useful way, in his book Technopoly.  Certainly, teaching every subject as history is not a complete method of teaching.  That matter will await another time.

But Postman's thinking here is sound and needs to be taken up seriously.  For it is clear that American education has failed us.  Why else would we be caught in a situation in which what I call "a little bug" would stop our economy cold?  From one point of view, it can be argued that had school students studied the history of viruses, we might very well not be where we are today. 

True, this subject has not been entirely neglected.  Students graduating from high school likely are aware of the unsanitary ways of the past -- doctors failing to wash their hands -- and such things. 

Yet how did the fact that new viruses can and do appear from time to time -- ones which have no known cure -- bypass the consciousness of society?  How did such a basic fact escape our government?  Is it too far-fetched to opine that a business masters degree might leave out some important things such as biological issues which could effect everyone's business?  This omission would have been especially prevalent in schools of, say, the fifties and sixties, when many of our current leaders got their degrees.  

This matter of education is ever so crucial now.  In other ways apart from this blog I have tried to stand up for education of the complete kind.  There is more to this story than I have time and space to relate here.

But suffice it to say for now, that as educators scratch their heads trying to know how to teach safely during COVID, it is also vitally important to review what is to be taught, and how.

And how! 

And for fun:

 "Gears Gone Awry"

courtesy Castlevania and Sego via You Tube