Introduction : history as weapon -- A lesson from Mississippi -- A lesson from Vermont -- Why history is important to students -- Why history is important to society -- 1. The tyranny of coverage: -- Forests, trees, and twigs -- Winnowing trees -- Deep thinking -- Relevance to the present -- Skills -- Getting the principal on board -- Coping with reasons to teach "as usual" -- You are not alone -- Brining students along -- 2. Expecting excellence: -- Student characteristics affect teacher expectations -- "Standardized" tests affect teacher expectations -- Statistical processes cause cultural bias in "standardized" tests -- Internalizing expectations -- Teachers can create their own expectations -- 3. Historiography: -- A tale of two eras -- The civil rights movement, cognitive dissonance, and historiography -- Studying bad history -- Other ways to teach historiography -- 4. Doing history: -- Doing history to critique history -- Writing a paper -- Bringing families in -- Local history -- Getting started -- Final product -- Using the product -- 5. Truth: -- Background of the problem -- Separating matters of fact from matters of opinion -- Five tests to assess credibility -- 6. How and when do people get here? -- A crash course on archeological issues -- Presentism -- Today's religions and yesterday's history -- Conclusions about presentism -- Chronological ethnocentrism -- Primitive to civilized -- Costs of chronological ethnocentrism -- 7. Why did Europe win? -- The important questions -- Looking around the world -- Explaining civilization -- Making the Earth round -- Why did Columbus win? -- The Columbian exchange -- Ideological results of Europe's victory -- Cultural diffusion and syncretism continue -- 8. The $24 myth: -- Deconstructing the $24 myth -- A more accurate story -- Functions of the fable -- Overt racism? -- Additional considerations -- 9. Slavery: -- Relevance to the present -- Hold a meta-conversation -- Slavery and racism -- Four key problems of slave life -- Additional problems in teaching the history of slavery -- 10. The Confederacy: -- Teachers vote -- Teaching against the State's Rights myth -- Critiquing textbooks -- Our Confederate landscape -- Genesis of the problem -- 11. The Nadir: -- Contemporary relevance -- Onset of the Nadir -- Historical causes of antiracist idealism -- Historical causes of the Nadir of race relations -- Students can reveal the Nadir themselves -- During the Nadir, whites became white -- End of the Nadir -- Implications for today -- Afterword : still more ways to teach history.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.