History of the World, Part I

History is hard.

I mean, right? Living it is one thing, but then re-living it over and over? Sounds pretty terrible, but making connections among themes throughout world history is one of those things that sharpen those critical thinking tools that people (hopefully) use their whole lives.

There is A LOT of history in the world. I mean A LOT. In Humanities, we teach the AP World History course over a period of 2 years. That system has some advantages and some disadvantages. The biggest advantage is that we get to linger in some periods of time if we want or need to because we don't feel the rush to scramble from the dawn of civilization to the present in time to study for the big AP test in May. One of the main disadvantages, however, is that every couple of years, a new batch of Freshmen has to start in the middle of history. This is one of those years. 

Classes this week were divided into groups with the task of summarizing periods of history in order to review the Sophomores who learned about this stuff last year and to catch the Freshmen up on what they missed (and have to look forward to next year). Basically, everything from Mesopotamia to the Mongols. This brings me back to my two recurring notions (in case you missed them):

1. There is A LOT of history in the world.

2. History is hard.

Now, I do have to say that that second statement is a little misleading. History itself isn't hard; however, what we saw this week is that summarizing it can be a challenge. For many people, summarizing an episode of The Walking Dead can turn into a thirty-minute monologue. Try summarizing the roughly 500 years of China's Tang and Song dynasties. Geez. Students had just 6 minutes to do just that, and they were successful in completing that daunting task. Sure, they may have mangled an interpretation of The Weeknd's I Can't Feel My Face in doing so, but their point was made (see original video below for pop culture reference). But what about the rest of the class in the audience?

Observers were asked to make a note of TWO things from each presentation that they saw as the most important. TWO. You mean I can only write down TWO things about the history of Africa from the beginning of time through 1450??? Yes. TWO. If you thought the first summary was a challenge, then this one is like finishing one of those giant plates of food where you get a free t-shirt if successful.

Summarizing is difficult, but it is important. Not only important, but crucial. It's a skill that we will continue to work on throughout the year. Sometimes (and not just in school), we get bogged down in the details without looking for the big picture. Details have their time and place, but they tend to become irrelevant without bigger ideas guiding them. 

What's the big idea?

Um, we're working on that. Big ideas aren't big enough if they're simply handed down from a teacher to a student. Let's discover some big ideas together, shall we?