Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Inspiration: Students of History

     It's Thursday! Time for authors to write about what inspires them. Thanks again to Rhiann Wynn-Nolet and Kristina Perez for hosting, and everyone else ... consider yourselves invited to join the blog hop fun!

     Growing up, I was indifferent to history. I didn't hate it, but it certainly wasn't my favorite or best subject, either. Even as a young adult, I kind of rolled my eyes at people who got really into genealogy. I preferred to live in the present.

     Then I had children, and everything changed.

     Seven years into my motherhood journey, I can't say that I'm a history buff by any sense of the word. But I am a passionate student of the past. I want my children to love history. I want them to be able to make connections. I don't care if they know what year Columbus crossed the ocean blue, but I do want them to know what chain of events were put into place by that trans-Atlantic crossing. I don't care if my kids can name the signers of the Declaration of Independence, but I want them to know what our founding fathers were risking when they stuck out their necks and made history back in 1776.

     If I'm not taking responsibility for my children's history education, who will? Do I want my kids to know the real Jamestown story, or am I just going to pop in Pocahontas and hope they learn a little bit of truth? How many US citizens do you know who never learned about the internment of all the Japanese-Americans on the West Coast during World War Two? Or who learn about the Pilgrim's brave passage every Thanksgiving but never realize how the Mayflower's landing impacted hundreds of thousands of Native Americans? If we're not careful, our kids are going to learn a twisted version of history, nicely edited and spliced to ignore the unsavory aspects.

     If I never had children of my own, I probably would have never fully understood the importance of history education. I hope to remain an avid student of the past for the rest of my life, and I hope that my new chapter book series for kids helps inspire a whole new generation of history enthusiasts. (See alanaterry.com/topaz to see how book sales are raising funds to help preserve history for years to come.)

Random Fact #17: All four of my paternal great-grandparents were born in Japan.

17 comments:

  1. I love history (and historical fiction was my first literary passion as a reader). My kids are not interested in it much at all - but I'm working on it.

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    1. I got into reading via historical fiction too. I've gotten pickier these days so I have a harder time finding really good HF, but it was a great break-in for me as a reader. I still pick up historical fiction if I want to understand a country or time period better.

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  2. History is so important, especially in recognizing how it repeats itself. It's hard to get my kids interested, but I'll be persistent! It's not about memorizing facts and dates, it's about learning that everything has a story, a past, and then applying it to the future. Great post!

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    1. Thanks Jeannette, and good look teaching your kids! We sometimes do historical fiction audiobooks in the car. *Captive audience* :)

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  3. Sounds like a great mission! I've always been a fan of history and historical fiction, but having kids definitely brings it out more. :-)

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    1. Well that's awesome you had a strong background in history and now can pass that on to your kids! Good luck to you guys!

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  4. I didn't like history in school. It's way more fun teaching it now to my children. They like it much better than I did, too. I like to focus on cultures and people, though, not dates. We keep a timeline for that. If they ever need a year-number that badly, they can always look it up. What's more important is that when they hear "the pilgrims landed in Plymouth", their brains should automatically begin to connect dots of historical significance. What was the general situation in Europe? Why did the Pilgrims leave? How did the Natives communicate and why is Squanto such a hero, not merely on the oft taught, patronizing, what-a-good-little-indian level, but a real, true hero? Why was that first Thanksgiving such a big deal? How did Plymouth culture compare to Jamestown culture? What can we bring forward from this?

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    1. Well what do you know? Our genius minds are thinking the same thing AGAIN and come to the same conclusions!

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  5. I love history too, but not in the textbook way. I love the stories, the details about what happened to whom and how that person felt and reacted. I just read Fever about Typhoid Mary. It made her into a person and helped me understand why she did what she did. Previously, I'd only viewed her as a villain, but the story helped me get where she was coming from. I still don't agree with her choices, but...now I know a little more about Mary and disease and the times she lived through.

    So, anyway, good post. Thanks.
    http://www.miaceleste.com/?p=298

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    1. Wow, that Fever book you mentioned sounds very intriguing. I agree - I've come to understand so many things from novels, more than I ever could from a text book!

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  6. Hi Alana, great post. History is so important, which is why I write historical fiction. . . it's really to educate myself. :) Recently asked my parents about our first ancestors to arrive in the U.S. and their memories are getting fuzzy . . . unfortunately, records like weren't kept 'back then.'

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    1. Yeah, it is sad to think that generations are leaving us before too long and will be taking so much history with them! :(

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  7. I'm fascinated by history (unsurprising as I've written a time travel adventure story like you) particularly the unsavoury parts. I wasn't interested in history when I was at school but that might be down to the way it was presented. I love the fact in the UK there's history everywhere - castles, monuments, historical buildings in my home city and nearby Bath. It's great that you're focusing on teaching your kids real history.

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    1. That's definitely something the UK has that we don't. Hardly anything here is even a century old! I can't wait to read your time travel book. I think it's something my oldest will especially love.

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  8. I was never that thrilled with history in school--except for a few teacher who know how to being excitement to the subject. Thanks to them and my love of antiques, I'm not a big history buff. I love starting with a tiny object like an old matchbook and seeing what kind of history it can lead me to: a single person, then a neighborhood, a community... and so on.

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    1. Pat, I thankfully had a good history teacher as well. I love the idea of stating with one object and seeing what it impacts. I also love studying history from the commoner's perspective, not the royalty/powerful/influential perspective.

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  9. This is such a good point! It is so important to understand everything about history and not only the parts that are nice or flattering for a nation.

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