For many years at my current school, I held membership in the History Department. In a newsletter one year, I proposed the idea (don’t think I am the originator!) of teaching history backwards – start today and work backwards in time tracing connections and interesting linkages. Dr. Lamplugh even did it one year (said he loved it)! One could weave this approach together with thematic teaching in a course like “News.” Or even better, one could employ Steve Goldberg’s deep-digging approach detailed in his recent post: “Why not teach about war? We’re fighting two right now….”
I think it’s about making connections, don’t you? Connections with “what’s going on today” and “how did we get here on this issue?” Connections with the PEOPLE living this news and emerging from these histories. Connections among the things that we overly silo…called departments or disciplines.
The spider cannot weave a web except by leaping from where she currently resides and connecting to another anchor. From these anchors emerge the threads that last when the wind blows most viciously. From these anchors empathy blooms.
it's about learning 