Where We Learn History
On the first day of class, Professor Franklin said something that really impacted the way I think about history. It was said that history is most commonly thought of as occurring long ago, but in fact if something could have happened as recent as a minute ago it would also qualify as history. This is an intriguing concept mostly because it’s one I haven’t previously considered or had the opportunity to explore. The idea that notable historical events could be occurring as I write this paper or even as you read it, makes the premise all the more interesting.
For children, the notion of learning history is most commonly associated with school; and more specifically a subject or class where a curriculum is predetermined. The textbooks I remember reading were seemingly written for mass consumption. The chapters, designed to make testing material. I have memories of late night study sessions where facts are layered upon dates and crammed into procrastinated study sessions where all the material is committed to memory only to be regurgitated the next day to earn a passing grade on a multiple choice exam. After that test, it’s not uncommon that the facts, names and dates fall away from memory, with the exception of the few rare occasions where some contextual reference or personal association can be made. At least for me, that is the experience. It’s sad but true. Classrooms don’t even begin to scratch the surface of the past, and therefore leave learning history to what is predetermined to be taught within those four walls.
The most poignant problem to me of textbook learning is the superficial manner in which my high school class would cover major historical events such as World War Two, the Civil war, even 9/11. I recall teachers expecting prior coursework or teachers to have covered these notable events in great detail. Instead of asking us about the depth in which a world event was covered, the subject was simply glossed over, in hopes of it being so well known that lessons were unnecessary. It always frustrated me; I would much rather have all my history teachers focus too intensely on important events and help us learn not just the facts, but also the human side of history.
For adults, learned history takes a very different shape. Many adults recount history they learned from news outlets, whether it be television or print media. Just this week, a missing persons case took national news and gained millions of people’s interest. A girl named Gabby Petito was found dead after traveling through US national parks, and her fiancé is a suspect in her murder. There was a school shooting in Virginia this morning, September 20, 2021. Prosecutors put to rest the R. Kelly case after a month of testimony from 45 different witnesses. There are wildfires raging in the west, and all of this happened this week. The news, while not always uplifting, is important because it is the reality that we are living in and what is a newsworthy event today, passes into history tomorrow.
Most poignantly, we learn history by living through it. In the past couple years we have lived through a global pandemic. I can vividly remember the day before everything shut down, March 13, 2020…looking back on it, that day almost felt like a normal Friday. There were just a handful of COVID-19 cases across the globe. The collective world knew so little about the disease and what it meant. Looking back, I could never have predicted that day would be our last day spent at our high school. I was a senior and for some reason that day almost all of my senior class decided to hangout in the parking lot after school for an extra hour or two. Now I look back at it and think maybe it was intuition. Something kept us at school that afternoon, connected to one another. That next week, it was announced that no one would return to in-person classes. Our senior prom was cancelled indefinitely, and graduation ceremonies and events would be placed on hold until further notice . Everything was shut down; everyone had to adapt. Classes went online, something many teachers and many students had never done before. Parents had to work from home, some even lost their jobs. Cases started to rise and soon we heard of the first case in our own town.
Spring turns to summer and summer turns to fall. I am moving across the country to New York City, once named the epicenter of the pandemic. It wasn’t your normal “send your kid off to college!” starter pack. My family couldn’t help move me into my freshman dorm. Upon arrival, we were subject to a 14 day quarantine: two weeks inside, when just outside was a new chapter of your life. I was thrown into the deep end and was told “swim.” And this was not just my experience, but the experience of millions of kids across the world. Now this reality that we have had to go through is ours, and will fill pages in new, revised history books. Will the authors capture in depth the scale of uncertainty? The range of emotions we all experienced? Or will they stop at the statistics.
In the past year, the United States welcomed a new president, Joe Biden. I voted for the first time in this election. In the months leading up to the election, human rights were constantly being threatened and fear was surrounding the possible outcome of another four years with the past POTUS, Donald Trump. The week of the election consumed all our news and social media outlets and certainly was all me or my friends could think about. It was on everyone’s mind; no one I knew could focus on school. Everyone was waiting for the last couple states to finish counting, and on a beautiful Saturday in November, I woke up to the cheers of hundreds in Washington Square Park; Joe Biden had won. New York City took to the streets, filling up parks and other public areas in celebration of President Elect Biden and Vice President Elect Harris, the first ever female Vice President of the United States. In the days prior it was rainy, cold and windy, but on that day the sun could not have shined brighter. Cities all around the country were packed full of people celebrating and that joyous eruption lasted all day. Pride, love, and hope won; the country was happy. History was just made and I was a part of it.
I am only 19 years old and yet I have lived more history than I could have ever expected. This history is not just text inscribed in a text book. If goes behind that, extending to memories, photographs, and experiences. A reach that goes beyond our immediate memories and can extend all the way to our families traditions and recollections of events.
I remember my mom sharing a story about a time when she was in High School AP Biology Class and the Challenger exploded. Hearing her describe how everyone in the class froze, suspended in disbelief as they watched the television screens broadcasting into the classroom. Classmates and teachers broke down in tears. A classroom that is typically a buzz with science experiments was entirely silent. Every breath is measured. Hearing my mom tell this story brought this historical event to life, and this is not just for one historical event, many talk about 9/11 that same way, and hundreds of others. They know exactly where they were when the plane hit the first tower. It’s so important to recognize how many different ways history is learned, and why sometimes history is imprinted to memory.
We learn history, sometimes through school or education. But also through art, stories, even musicals (cue the whole Hamilton soundtrack). Most often our learned history is lifted off the pages of textbooks through the telling of human stories or personal experiences—whether these our stories told to us or recounted from ancestors; it is here that learning happens.
