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Author: Pippin Michelli, michelli@stolaf.edu
Date: Fri, 7 Mar 1997
I think Bill raised some important other points in his posting.
Of course, he is right that it is disastrous that reading and writing are not valued as they should be today. I wonder, in fact, if education is valued as it should be today. But I would plead that in the Early Middle Ages education _was_ valued as it should be, although confined to a privileged few - which is to be deplored by modern standards of course. And that value for education is, I think, what makes the difference between a "Dark Age" and a "Golden Age".
But I was intrigued by his apparent assumption that it is literacy which makes for valid education and intellectual endeavour. The stunningly impressive abilities of bards and mnemonic prowess of medieval scholars notwithstanding.
When all this electronic technology hit scholarship, there was (and is) a
lot of anxiety about falling standards - of accuracy, literacy, quality,
critical thinking, fraud, the potential obsolescence of the human teacher
and so on. It occurred to me then that a similar set of anxieties could
have followed on the spread of literacy, and then on the printing press.
After all, it is easy to falsify a written document when no one knows or
remembers the actual fact. On the other hand, when there were people
like
Bards whose _job_ was to memorize history accurately, you couldn't
falsify
it, could you? There would always be someone to say, "hey, that's not
true". You would have to corrupt a range of people to falsify the
evidence. Once society's memory is set in writing, you only have to
falsify a document here or there - or worse: destroy it!
And the teachers must have thought, "That puts us out of business. Who
needs us? Just give them a book and let them look up the answer, IF they
can rely on it." And that, of course, was the teachers' saving grace.
What they can supply, which the books and the technology cannot, is
critical thinking, analysis, tests, validating processes and so on.
These
are not dependent on literacy or on technology.
The reason this seems important to me again, right now, is that I have
recently been struggling with an arcane course proposal system. My
thinking was simple. Look: I have these long block courses on a
repeating
yearly cycle. The college has approved these courses in their present
state. Let me cut them in half, shunt them onto a two year cycle, and
deal with all the material in more depth, with more analysis, more
critical thought. No extra cost to the college, no interference with
anyone's vision for the department, twice as many courses, twice as good
content. Can't fail, eh? Can!
My proposals are kicking back because (as far as I can work it out) the
literacy-centered members of the committees cannot be brought to see that
the visual, physical manifestations of a culture are valid historical
documents to be studied and analyzed, and that they can and do provide
valid and important information about the society that produced them. My
proposed syllabi are perceived as not demanding enough reading (there are
set readings for every class), or writing (three or four analytical,
research papers per semester; research and writing skills also taught;
grading rubrics emphasizing grammar, construction, critical thinking and
more also supplied). I don't think the committee's perception of my
approach is accurate. I think it is a result of their assumption that
literacy is the _only_ acceptable educational criterion, which makes them
discount any work (written, visual or oral) which does not focus on the
written word. Ironically, I don't think this would have happened to me
in
the Middle Ages or in Ancient Greece!
Pippin Michelli
Author: Guy Bensusan, Guy.Bensusan@nau.edu
Date: Sun, 9 Mar 1997
Interesting dialogue over education in the "Dark Ages;" and I assume that "everyone" automatically thinks of Europe, of the immediate post-476AD "demise of civilization, and so on.
However, to me the difficulties raised by this type of category-creation, no matter how traditional and sacrosanct they may be for those of us who teach World Civ., or even "Western" Civ.," far outweigh the benefits, and prevent students from going beyond the "simplistic universals" into the extremely diverse regionalities. Most of Spain, and especially al-Andaluz, was far from "dark" --- physically, ideologically, culturally, and in many other ways.
One can certainly make cases for exceptional conditions where education, if that is the focal criterion, is fostered in various ways; one thinks of Eire, or Byzantium --- and if one examines the history of science and technology, Medieval Germany was remarkable for its inventions.
Perhaps we would do our students a meaningful service if we try to go beyond the antiquated vision of using a single criterion as a benchmark for judging a civilization. I would also feel much better about our education if we taught, or helped our students to LEARN that all judgments are based on some kind of yardstick, and perhaps also have a strong set of payoff reasons for being used as the basis of the study of the past.
Dark has to be compared with something, and it may well be that the shining light of Rome in Imperial stage is both tarnished and overly exaggerated. If we were to instill useful tenets of scholarly inquiry into our students with meaningful exercises, they might come to be less dismissive of the value of history as well as more capable of perceiving the many facets of judgment-making. Is not that kind of awareness what is necessary if we are to "educate" for the ever-more-rapid future ?
Happy Weekend; Guy Bensusan, NAUNet
Author: Bob Wheeler CSU, hteach@math3.math.csuohio.edu
Date: Sun, 9 Mar 1997
The H-SHGAPE web site continues to expand in order to offer significant
and useful services to members as part of H-Net's renewed commitment
to making the H-Net web sites an integral part of the H-Net effort in
using
innovative technology to enhance professional activity and teaching
resources via the Internet.
This past year, the web site has added a SHGAPE Bibliographies section commissioned by H-SHGAPE Editor Ballard Campbell which now includes historiographical essays on Politics (Robert Cherny), Agricultural and Rural Life in the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era (David Danbom), Populism (Rebecca Edwards), Consumer Culture (David Blanke), Immigration (Donna Gabaccia), Women, Sexuality and Morality (Kathleen Parker), Women and Politics (Maureen Flanagan), and Federalism and Governance (Ballard Campbell).
The web site also includes announcements from H-SHGAPE to serve as a record such as calls for a new newsletter editor, a new membership committee chair, and information about SHGAPE-sponsored activities at the AHA in New York City, January 2-5, 1997. The Thirty Year Retrospective session at the AHA on Robert Wiebe's _The Search for Order_ with comments/papers by Robyn Muncy, Leon Fink, and Martin Sklar is now available in toto on the site.
In an effort to augment the work of SHGAPE at scholarly conventions, the site includes copies of a printable membership form, a hotlink to newsletter editor Jeanette Keith for last minute contributors, and course syllabi that have been used and added to by new members.
SHAGPE continues its active participation in major professional venues with links to the online program for the OAH in San Francisco, April 17-20, 1997 and calls for SHGAPE participants and paper sessions for the AHA in Seattle, January 8-11, 1998 and the OAH in Indianapolis, April 2-5, 1998.
The H-SHGAPE Internet Resources section continues to expand with new links added this year on The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center in Fremont, Ohio and the web site of the Association of Historians of American Art. New links have been added to such exhibits and resources as Vaudeville, the Great Chicago Fire, the Chicago Architecture Imagebase, the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, William Jennings Bryan's Cross of Gold speech, William Allen White's What's Wrong with Kansas speech, the Jack London Collection, Jacob Riis' How the Other Half Lives on line, two exhibits on the Lower East Side, an exhibit on the Ashcan School, the Theodore Dreiser discussion list site, the Conservation Movement, the Equal Rights Party History Project, the NAWSA Collection site, and the Emma Goldman Papers site.
Finally, a link allowing searches of the H-SHAGPE site has been added in the hopes of making the site more useful to members and visitors.
H-SHGAPE editor Patrick D. Reagan, webmaster, encourages new ideas and ongoing submissions to improve the site. He respectfully requests reconfirmation and public recognition as one of the H-SHGAPE editors in all official notices appearing on H-SHGAPE and in the SHGAPE Newsletter. The SHAGPE editorial board may need to formally reappointment Reagan who is willing to continue serving as webmaster if members wish.
Patrick Reagan
H-SHGAPE webmaster
Patrick D. Reagan e-mail: pdr6239@tntech.edu Professor of History snail mail: Box 5064 Tennessee Technological University home phone: (615) 528-3998 Cookeville, TN 38505 work phone: (615) 372-3332
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