Making History Come Alive: 6 Lessons from Catholic Educators
I was recently privileged to take part in a series of professional development events with Catholic schools in the Diocese of Lansing on recovering the narrative structure of history. I spoke at four different Catholic high schools over four days, discussing the pedagogy of history education. It was a wonderful time, and I met many fabulous Catholic educators dedicated to bringing history to life for their students. We discussed our mutual love of history and talked about ways we can improve our craft.
Here are a few of my takeaways from the week.
1. There is a Deep Thirst for a Holistic History Education
One of the most striking things I took away from meeting so many teachers is their thirst to present history holistically. This means not just teaching historical facts, but immersing children in the culture and ideas of a time period. Concretely, this includes studying the geography, art, and literature of a historical period in order to give children a more comprehensive understanding of historical epochs. They don’t want students to just memorize facts; they want them to truly feel like they understand the eras they are studying.
2. Teachers Are Sensitive to the Critique that History is “Not Relevant”
At every school I spoke at, history teachers shared that one of the most common critiques about history class is that students sometimes struggle to see how what they study is relevant to their own lives. While everyone recognized the dramatic power inherent in historical study (history is, after all, the story of the human experience, filled with triumph, tragedy, and excitement), many struggled to draw out that drama in a way that could capture students’ attention. History teachers are always looking for ways to make their subject more relevant.
3. History Belongs With the Humanities
In modern educational curricula, history has too often been lumped in with “social studies.” Many Catholic schools, modeled on their public counterparts, don’t even have dedicated history classes. Instead, they teach social studies, which treats history as simply one facet of a broader set of subjects that includes things like sociology and economics. This approach tries to shuffle history into the hard sciences.
We could spend a lot of time unpacking what that means. However, in the interest of space, I will simply say that it means treating history as more of a scientific and less of a literary pursuit. Most teachers consider this one of modern education’s mistakes and call for a course correction. History should be situated with the humanities. This allows for a more dramatic, literary approach to teaching it, as was traditional. (History, after all, was one of the Nine Muses of the Greeks, considered one of the arts.) This would emphasize the human drama of history, which would go a long way towards making it more exciting and relevant to young people. History as a “story” was very popular.
4. The Importance of Reading Integration
Teachers unanimously reported that reading comprehension is down and that historical literacy in particular is suffering. History teachers are eager to address this by giving students more guidance and opportunities to dig into historical writing, especially primary sources. Even teachers of younger grades were eager for recommendations on primary sources suitable for younger ages.
While obviously a history teacher is not a literacy educator, there is a substantial overlap between history and literature that needs to be strengthened. History teachers were interested and open to ideas for promoting general reading comprehension among their students and using primary sources as a means of instruction.
5. Make History Catholic Again
For many years, modern diocesan schools leaned heavily into secular standards developed by the public education system. Catholic history education tended to replicate public school curricula in many respects, even mimicking their particular methodologies and emphases. This necessarily means that specifically Catholic interests took a back seat.
The diocesan teachers I spoke to recognized this and were eager to reclaim the specifically Catholic historical emphases fitting to a Catholic education. Thankfully, the Diocese of Lansing had already made great strides in this regard with changes to curriculum and standards reflecting a more Catholic approach. Yet, there is still much more that could be accomplished. In general, there was lively interest in reasserting Catholic identity by fleshing out history through the study of the saints, discussing divine providence, and integrating Catholic theological and philosophical thought.
5. Willingness to Learn from Alternative Education
For decades, brick-and-mortar institutional education was considered the only “real” education. Alternative models like co-ops, homeschooling, and online education were considered educational outliers. Sometimes institutional teachers—whether public school or diocesan—harbored skepticism or even hostility toward alternative models and their adherents. Fortunately, those days seem long gone. The diocesan teachers I spoke with were keenly aware of advances in alternative education over the last few decades and eager to learn from them. (I got a lot of questions, in particular, about online education.) Teachers were much more open to importing resources and strategies from alternative education and adapting them to their needs.
Conclusion: A Big Step in the Right Direction
Overall, I was deeply heartened by what I experienced in the Diocese of Lansing’s schools this week. There’s always a lot to be done, especially in educational systems as big and old as a diocesan school system, but what I saw and heard was definitely a step in the right direction. I would be remiss not to mention (with pride) that Lansing has recently chosen to adopt my Story of Civilization series for its history curriculum. Deo gratias! It is my hope and prayer that more dioceses will follow Lansing’s lead in revitalizing their historical education in this way.
What are your thoughts on this topic? I invite you to join other homeschooling parents and me in the Homeschool Connections Community or our Facebook group.
