Brad Hummel

This article is the first in a series on the craft and challenges of effective history education. Check back in the coming weeks and months for additional contributions in this series.

There are some students who seem to have a natural enjoyment of history at a young age. To others, history might seem little more than an amalgamation of distant events which, without context, are simply a vague and nebulous idea called “the past.” For these students especially, it is important to introduce from an early age activities and concepts which allow history to come alive—and more importantly, become relatable.

Some of the best memories I ever made in public school involved activities which made history real to me. As a fifth-grader, my teacher assigned each student to a pioneer trail from the United States’ westward expansion and allowed them to use their imagination to record their own adventures as a trader, settler, or prospector. Far more vivid was the day the class journeyed to the library of my tiny elementary school to become immigrants to this country, sailing the Atlantic in cramped quarters between bookshelves with only a sheet of brown bulletin board paper as our roof. We arrived at a fictional Ellis Island, carrying with us an immigrant identity. From there, we wrote about our new American destiny.

In middle school I had the opportunity participate in an “election” between the empires of pre-Columbian Latin America and an Olympic games between the city-states of ancient Greece. Even in high school, civics offered the opportunity to charter the government for a new country and European history a debate between the three competing popes of early fifteenth century Catholicism.

It is important to introduce from an early age activities and concepts which allow history to come alive—and more importantly, become relatable. All of these activities, brought together by thoughtful teachers, helped to make history real for me, and I imagine, for others in my class. From the perspective of the pedagogue, it is easy to make the mistake of too strongly correlating book work with educational progress. While so much of historical work is done through reading, writing, and rigorous study, it is easy to forget that it is not these things which draw prospective historians to the discipline. Rather, students become historians because they are attracted to a time, or a place, or an idea. For myself, the ability to experience the international spectacle which is the modern Olympic games and to watch and play tennis are just as motivational to my personal study of early Olympic tennis than anything I have ever done in the classroom. In this way, sports themselves have made sport history real to me.

In the process of teaching history to others, we must realize that not every learner will be excited about the same topics we are, as much as one might wish such motivation to be constant. It profits them nothing, however, if we do not try to make history as real to our students as possible, expressing a willingness to provide engaging activities which augment more conventional classroom activities with creative projects designed to fill students’ minds with a passion for historical ideas.

Brad Hummel

Content Specialist with a Historical Research Background

Lancaster Metropolitan Area 633 followers 500+ connections

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Content Specialist

iCEV

Education

Penn State University

Master of Science (M.S.)

Grove City College

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)

Cocalico High School

Diploma

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