Posted by Dan Ewert : 3/20/2002 10:58:00 PM (Archive Link)
I went to see David McCullough speak tonight. He was a good speaker with a clear view of early American history… not only from the modern perspective but also in seeing it in its own right. His thorough research for his John Adams biography included not only reviewing the Adams-related material itself, but also involved him absorbing the culture of the period. He read the authors, plays, and periodicals of the time in order to get a sense of the popular thought and phrases in Adams’ day. He tried to gain an understanding of the essence of Adams’ time so as to gain an understanding of Adams himself. I respect that. I rather dislike people sitting on the throne of moral relativity and (ironically) moral evolution and have them looking back into the past casting judgment upon it without ever having the foggiest conception of what it was in itself.

Another point I particularly liked was during the question and answer session. A local teacher asked Mr. McCullough what he thought of the quality of history textbooks, specifically those that got things wrong, e.g. an atomic bomb ending the Korean War (although my favorite gaffe is a science textbook whose picture caption described a particular bacillus… the picture was that of Linda Ronstadt). His immediate response was that they were stupid. Not just accidentally incorrect, but neglectfully stupid. I tend to agree. The best part, though, is what he suggested for such textbooks… which in his opinion included all but 3 or 4. One should take all the pages out, cut off the page numbers, remove random pages (every tenth one or so) and then shuffle the remainder. When you’re done, hand the mixed-up pile to the student with the instructions to put the pages in order and to also figure out what’s missing. While this was obviously quite witty, I also think it would be (as he mischievously thought) a remarkably effective manner for people to learn history. Instead of just learning (read: memorizing what the book tells ya) and spitting back the strings of events and dates in the book, you would be forced to do some meaningful research into the matters. Only by doing so would you gain the necessary information to accomplish the task. Learning by necessity. I would dearly love to read about some teacher trying this. Heck, it would benefit me to try it. Let’s see… I’m sure I still have that ratty old high school history book around here somewhere…