Sam Wineburg raises big questions about the "big history" approach to teaching high school history.
While most history courses start with the beginning of human civilization about 10,000 or so years ago, a report by Eric Weiner of National Public Radio discusses a new approach known as "Big History" that goes back millions and millions of years to the Big Bang. Humans don't get mentioned until halfway through the course, which aims to give students some perspective when pondering the meaning of life. Bill Gates donated $10 million to enable the course's creator to disseminate the curriculum.
Not everyone is a fan. "My primary question is, 'Is it history?'” Sam Wineburg, Margaret Jacks Professor of Education, says in an interview with Weiner. “History is about human beings; history is about the decisions that people make to change the course of our time. The kind of questions [raised by the course] seem to be quite far and distant from the immediacy of the need to understand our present through the lens and prism of the past.”
Listen to the story by Eric Weiner on NPR. For more on Sam Wineburg's ideas about teaching history, read this cover story in Stanford Magazine about his Reading Like a Historian program, as well as a feature about it in the Los Angeles Times and another article about its growing popularity. He is the founder of the Stanford History Education Group and recently received a grant to study youths' digital media literacy.
