Things to Consider When Studying History

Teaching history is challenging, sometimes because of poor records and other times because of conflicting accounts. I find it best to read widely, trying to consider the world view, historical biases, and purpose for writing of each author. If you're writing for a particular group or ruler, your view will likely be biased in their favour; if you definitely dislike a group or person, your writing will likely be biased against them. It's a challenge to find the truth. There is also the challenge of "when did it happen" when there are conflicting dates or different calendars used in different areas. As a history buff and teacher, I do the best I can and allow for differences when necessary.

There is also the question of how to teach history. Do I teach it in perfect chronological order (which seems impossible), by event, by country, or just randomly? When I taught the early church, I tried for chronological order as much as possible; this was easier because the major events took place in a smaller geographical area. For the Reformation, when things were happening in different countries all at the same time, I taught more by country. Next semester, which is primarily about the 19th and 20th centuries, will be both: I have planned several weeks on mission work in various areas, and then a slightly more chronological overview of major events ("slightly" as there are still things that will overlap and require us to go backwards sometimes, but always with an overall forward trajectory). It can be confusing and challenging, but I do my best to avoid confusing the kids too much!

This is what I tell my history class the first week:

History is not always easy to break into pieces and teach in a nice, chronological order, as there is a lot of overlap between people and events. As a result, despite my attempts to keep moving forward, sometimes we have to move backwards in time. Other times, we move back and forth between places or people to get things somewhat in order and to show how different people intersected in time. It helps to keep a timeline going with the key dates so we can see when things happened in relation to everything else. 

Another challenge is that historians don’t always agree on exactly what happened, why, or when. There can be several different dates for when people were born (although their death dates are usually agreed upon), and different details about what happened. Some of that is due to limited record keeping; some of it is due to different points of view. The winners and losers of battles will have different opinions about what happened, and each side will speak better of themselves than of their opponents. Sometimes it is very difficult to determine exactly what happened in various events. When there are differing records, I have sometimes given multiple options; other times, I have chosen the most prevalent option. If you read something different from what I teach, that’s fine. You can decide for yourself why there are different records of events, who might prefer one or the other view, and which one seems most accurate to you. For the most part, the differences are in smaller details or in the events leading up to the main event, not in the major ideas.