historiography – Blue Cereal Education

Marco Polo History

Blue Cereal — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 13:22:25 +0000

I have not told half of what I saw. (Marco Polo on his death bed, when encouraged to retract some of his crazy stories before facing judgement) It’s unlikely that Polo actually observed firsthand everything he claimed… (Every Polo biographer since then) I’ve been watching Marco Polo on Netflix. The series didn’t last long – … Continue reading

History Songs

Blue Cereal — Wed, 04 Nov 2015 22:54:34 +0000

Even when we have the purest intentions, capturing the past – be it events long gone or the shifting shaping swirling of our own experiences – is an undertaking both elusive and unfair. Perhaps it’s a blessing to work from a scarcity of information; the impossibility of conveying the richness of the better-known may prove far more daunting.

Joan of Awkward, Part Two – Hide It Under A Footnote? No! I’m Gonna Let It Shine…

Blue Cereal — Fri, 30 Oct 2015 11:35:51 +0000

The story of Joan of Arc forces historians to deal with overtly spiritual claims and potentially miraculous outcomes in ways historians do not generally wish to do. We’ll cover the role of religion in the most general ways, if absolutely necessary, but we DON’T LIKE TO TALK ABOUT IT IF WE DON’T HAVE TO. We … Continue reading

Joan of Awkward, Part One – Missing Voices

Blue Cereal — Thu, 29 Oct 2015 21:59:13 +0000

Somewhere around age 13, Joan begin having visions and hearing voices from Saint Michael, Saint Margaret, and Saint Catherine – telling her from God that she must be a good girl and stay faithful, and that she had a destiny and purpose far beyond her upbringing. Divine communication. It’s a large part of what makes her so fascinating. It’s also the kind of thing which makes historians crazy, you understand...

A Little Knowledge, Part Three – Liar, Liar, Pants On Fire

Blue Cereal — Tue, 24 Feb 2015 19:50:22 +0000

“My client wasn’t even IN the bar the evening of the murder, and if he WAS there, he doesn’t even OWN a gun! If he DOES own a gun, he didn’t have it with him that evening, and if he DID have it with him, it wasn’t loaded – he’s not CRAZY! Even if it … Continue reading

Top 10 Reasons America Is Exceptional

Blue Cereal — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 06:46:24 +0000

As the kerfuffle surrounding Oklahoma’s sudden desire to de-thinkerize APUSH started making headlines this past week, NPR made a visit to the classroom of Christine Custred of Edmond, OK. The audio and transcript of the resulting piece is worth a listen and a read if you haven’t already done so. One of the central issues, … Continue reading

Noooobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition!

Blue Cereal — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 20:05:54 +0000

Unlike the easy accessibility of Sally Kern’s “Use Shock Therapy on Gay Teens” bill or our state guidelines for which angry white men we’ll send to the new Constitutional Convention to rewrite that sorry remnant of darker times (because our current leaders are SO much smarter than the Framers and besides what could possibly go wrong?), contention over something as specific as an AP curriculum can be a bit bewildering for those not walking daily in that world. What exactly IS the kerfuffle with the ‘new’ College Board Advanced Placement U.S. History (APUSH) course and exam?

I’d Rather Be Aquaman

Blue Cereal — Thu, 25 Sep 2014 05:00:00 +0000

Every curriculum, every textbook, every teacher in every class makes judgments (consciously or not) about what’s important and what it means. We can try to reduce that bias, but if I assign Shakespeare instead of Marlowe, I’m making a judgment. If I choose eight Supreme Court cases through which to explore the judicial process, I’m suggesting some big issues are more important than others. It’s just how it is. We can’t teach everything. Heck, many days we’re not sure we can teach the basics. Decisions have to be made, and some conflict is appropriate. But this goes beyond that.