Critic's Corner

By The Editors / July / August 2002
July 10th, 2007
History teachers have got it all wrong, argues Sam Wineburg '80 in his 2001 book Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts: Charting the Future of Teaching the Past (Temple University Press). Wineburg, who holds posts in both cognitive studies and history at the University of Washington, says teaching children to think of history as "one damn thing after another" never has and never will help them "become historical." Historians, he says, think about the relationships between people and events. The Association of American Colleges and Universities seconded Wineburg's thesis this year, awarding him its Frederic W. Ness Award, given annually to the book "that best illuminates the goals and practices of a contemporary liberal education."
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July / August 2002