The Necessity of Historical Knowledge

The Necessity of Historical Knowledge

Keith Lenhart
Bowling Green State University

The Necessity of Historical Knowledge

The great roman philosopher and politician Cicero once said To

be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. This is
the approach every student should take when studying social studies. In order to mature
as an adult students have to learn about their importance to society by those that have
lived before them and by those that are still living now. Students need to know what their
roles in society and are and they need to help improve it and enlighten it. In this
document students will learn why they need to learn all the aspects of social studies, the
content that must be known in order to teach students the necessary content of social
studies, and finally how this content and knowledge should be transferred from student to
teacher.
Students often need help understanding why social studies is an important subject
to learn. As a teacher helping their students to understand this may be more difficult than
teaching the subject matter. In article written by Mark Schug titled Why Kids Dont
Like Social Studies Schug explains that few careers are directly related to social
studies (384, 1984) This is very true, however, almost every aspect of very persons life
is related social studies. Social studies allows human beings the ability to create our great
civilizations and without social studies all civilizations would fall.
Another statement that Mark Schug made in his article was that One implication
of student thinking about the importance of social studies is that we do not do a very
good job of communicating why social studies knowledge and skills are valuable. (385,
1984) It is important to explain the value of social studies. To explain to students what
happens to people that dont study social studies and let tyrants take over their societies.

The Necessity of Historical Knowledge

Without a strong understanding of social studies our nation would not have been created.
If our citizens stop learning social studies our nation cannot be maintained.
Students need to study social studies throughout history because
students need to be able to assess social problems with higher order
thinking skills. Fred Newman and Gary Wehlage can be quoted saying:
students should engage in at least one HOT activity during a lesson."
(2, 1993) Students will not be apply what they learned with lower order
thinking alone. Studying social studies content thoroughly is the only
way that anybody will be able to apply it using higher order thinking,
making them better citizens, and thats why student need to study it.
The ability to teach students about citizenship starts with a
complete knowledge of what it means to be a citizen. A teacher must
know the responsibilities that a citizen has such as obeying the laws,
voting, and jury duty. A teacher must also know the rights and
freedoms each and every citizen has starting with the Bill of Rights. It
should also be important for the students to know how to become a
citizen through birth, marriage, and naturalization. These are the basic
aspects of citizenship of the United States and a teacher needs to be
well read and knowledgeable of the aspects in order to teach high
school students.
In order for me to translate this knowledge so that students will
understand I will compare the U.S. citizenship with being a student in
the school. In school students have certain rights and privileges such

The Necessity of Historical Knowledge

as sports, hall passes, and clubs. They also have responsibilities to

behave, do their homework and attend class. Furthermore, students
become a student of their particular school in multiple ways either they
live in the district or open roll. Creating my class into a class
government will help students understand the roles of citizenships by
incorporating citizenship with their existing schema of a student.
The translation of content is a final step in teaching that must be
well thought out, and capable of meeting the target goals. In order to
successfully translate the content an instructor could use an analogy in
his or her preview assignment. In an article titled Preview
Assignments written by the Teachers Curriculum Institute, it writes:
Students can respond to prompts that encourage them to explore a
situation in their lives that is analogous to a circumstances or event
they will be studying (2010, 2). This means that an analogy creates a
chance for the students to relate a subject or lesson into their personal
lives making it a personal lesson for them. An example of an analogous
lesson, would be having the students think of a time they compromised
with a sibling or friend, over a last piece of pizza, and then have them
relate that back to the Great Compromise the Federal Government
made, which the students are about to learn about. This will make the
lesson easier for the students to understand. This creates a practical
and understandable translation that that students can appreciate.

The Necessity of Historical Knowledge

There is more then one way to translate content, and another

way to translate content may be the strategy of reviewing for
previewing. In the previously mentioned articled titled Preview
Assignments written by the Teachers Curriculum Institute. This article
states that: "Students recall the key points go a previous unit or lesson
to make predictions about or connections to the topic they will be
studying" (2010, 2). Reviewing for previewing translates the content
for the students by relating the content back to a subject they just
learned about and are familiar with. An example of this would be
having your students create a social pyramid for the Feudal System
that they just learned about, and then showing them what the Caste
System looks like In India. Then have your students draw connections
to what is similar and what is different. When translating a lesson it is
always a good idea to relate it back to something the students have
already learned because then the students can make connections and
have a better understanding.
In conclusion, when creating an instructor is creating a lesson for
the their students they should always be able to answer three main
questions. The should be able to answer why student need to study
this stuff, what content will they need to know, and what elements will
you focus on, and last of all how are you going to translate the content
so that their students will understand. If a teacher can answer those

The Necessity of Historical Knowledge

three questions, then his or her lesson will be one that the students
can successfully learn from.

References
Newman, F. & Wehlage, G. (1993). Five Standards of Authentic
Instruction.

Educational Leadership. 1-8.

Schug, M. (1984). Why Kids Don't like Social Studies. Research in Social Studies
Education, 382-287.
Teachers' Curriculum Institute. (2010). Preview assignment. Bring learning alive!
Methods to transform middle and high school social studies. Palo Alto, CA:
Teachers Curriculum Institute, pp. 22-26.

The Necessity of Historical Knowledge