The
study of history should be rich and varied. In fact, California’s Common Core Standards (2010) encourage a
move away from the standard secondary history textbook to more complex and
varied materials. The selections in my program area concentration have
reacquainted me with the diversity of source material as well as with the value
of secondary sources that delve into a single topic. For
example, Keyssar’s (2009) examination of the history of voting rights in The Right to Vote: The Contested History of
Democracy in the United States, paired with Kerber’s (1999) No Constitution Right to be Ladies,
provided a depth of insight into voting and rights to representation barely
touched upon in a traditional textbook.
 |
| Meat-packing plant, L.C. McClure 1900-1920? |
 |
| Man butchering meat, Chicago, IL, Chicago Daily News, 1904. |
Davidson
and Lytle’s (2000) account, on the other hand, provide rich insight into the
event from a political historian’s point of view. They also provide additional
background about “The Jungle” that is missing from textbooks such as “The
Americans” (Danzer, 2006). For example, Davidson and Lytle (2000) point out
that author Upton Sinclair was a socialist, and, in the early 1900s, Americans
were generally distrustful of socialists. Further, Davidson and Lytle (2000)
point out that there had been numerous stories written about the meatpacking
industry so “The Jungle” was merely the straw that broke the camel’s back of
public outrage. Perhaps even more significant is that “The Americans” (Danzer,
2006) does not place “The Jungle” within the context of the journalistic era in
which it was written; it would be useful for students to know that the novel
was written at a time when sensationalized stories packed full of lurid detail
got the most press.
This
richness of historical storytelling not only makes the story more interesting,
but also provides students with the opportunity to critique authors and sources
for credibility and validity, in ways such as those required by California’s
CCSS (2010). However, over the past decade teachers have generally moved away
from lessons that include critique and, instead, focused more on the demands of
mandated testing.
These
courses, as a whole, have given me insight into the content journey that
secondary educators need to take to align their lessons to the CCSS.
Works Cited:
California Department
of Education, (2010). California's common core content
standards for english language arts &
literacy in history/social studies, science,
and
technical subjects.
Retrieved from website:
Danzer, G. (2006).
The americans: Reconstruction to the 21st
century. Evanston,
IL:
McDougall Littell.
Davidson, J.,
& Lytle, M. (2000). After the fact:
The art of historical detection.
(4th
ed., Vol. 2). New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.
Kerber, L. (1999).
No constitutional right to be ladies.
New York, NY: Hill and
Wang.
Keyssar, A.
(2009). The right to vote: The contested
history of democracy in the
united
states. New York, NY:
Basic Books.
