Mar 3, 2020
How do we help balance the desire for our kids to know the truth and yet also wanting to shield them from the pain and horrors embedded in history? Dimitry Anselme from Facing History opens this episode’s conversation with an interesting provocation that youth enter the conversation about history through moral and ethical terms. It is how we engage them in learning and help them locate themselves within the stories. When we start with, “Your ideas matter, your culture matters, whatever you are bringing into the classroom matters, and instead of trying to erase or assimilate it, we will build upon it,” then we have them engaged.
Dimitry’s own history of growing up in Kinshasa, where the teaching style was to see the teacher as a beacon of all knowledge and it was disrespectful to ask a question, to building a community of students around him now asking the tough questions is a beautiful journey we explore in today’s episode. Our democracy is fragile and if we wish to protect it, we need to continue to nurture the critical thinking of our students.
Show Highlights:
Links:
Facinghistory.org
Diffusion of Innovation Curve