CREATIVE AND CRITICAL THINKING

High School
24
HISTORY
THROUGH THE
LENS OF THE
IMAGINATION
by Michael Hogan, HS teacher
What must it have felt like to be branded with a burning
cattle iron on the cheek? I asked myself this question
while I was writing the book The Irish Soldiers of Mexico, a
history of the Mexican-American War of 1846-48. This
was exactly what happened to John Riley, the leader of
the San Patricio Battalion, when captured by the
Americans. I could not answer the question of what Riley
was feeling from a formal history text, of course, because
it was about pain and humiliation; about emotions. The
answer depended on using my imagination to empathize
with another human being, whereas what is required
from a historian is cold objective analysis. But I could
answer it in a novel which I later went on to write called
Molly Malone and the San Patricios. Producers of the movie
One Man’s Hero, based on my book, took it one step further
and dramatized this terrible event on the screen.
In our Honors World History class this year I have asked
the students to read at least one work of historical fiction
as well as the Advanced Placement textbook. In the pages
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of The Clan of the Cave Bear, or Augustus, or The Fall of Troy,
I hoped they would be able to see the characters of
history become real in a vivid fashion -- to imagine
themselves living at such a time. While the time of the
Roman emperors was very different from the 21 st century,
the people who lived in those years had the same desires
for comfort, for love, for accomplishment that the people
of today have. Students in this class, through visualization
and use of the imagination, become a part of history, and
history becomes a part of who they are. It is a unique
experience. It is also one they can share with their fellow
students around the world through reviews of the books
they read which we then publish on Amazon.
We often hear it said that “those who do not understand
history are doomed to repeat it.” But how many people
really understand history? Here at the American School
we do much more than simply show the students the
lives of great leaders, the perennial wars, the dates of the
rise and fall of empires, and the evolution of man. We also
try to demonstrate the interconnectedness of the events
that have occurred over time, and how, even though
things change, there are certain underlying currents that
remain the same. But is that enough?
I sometimes hear discussions among educators about
teaching for the 21 st century. As if that is something
different from quality teaching at any time or any place.
One of my great friends on campus, Leo Diaz, once said in
annoyance, “Well, as for me, I am a 6th century teacher!”
Leo, like Aristotle, like Marcus Aurelius, is interested in
helping his students discover the interconnectedness of
things, of making the students aware that technology
existed long before the Internet. The quality of teaching
which made Alexander the Great, Einstein, Madame Curie,
Gandhi, and Octavo Paz such wonderful contributors to
society, was not "21 st Century Thinking;" some narrow,
isolated-from-history method only thirteen years in
existence. It was something bigger than that. It was
critical and creative thinking, and that has been what
good teachers have been doing for many centuries.
Another of the projects my students are working on this
year on is choosing a tool or technology that existed in
prehistoric times and following that tool/technology
through the Roman Empire, the Golden Age of Greece, the
Persian epoch, the Byzantine Empire, the Middle Ages.
The students are required to show how the tool or
technology not only evolved and was changed, but how it
in turn changed the world around it.
Thus each student is able to discover that a variety of
tools and technologies existed before mankind even had
the word “technology” in its vocabulary. Before, in fact,
man developed a language. The students learn through
their own research that men and women were applying
the principles of physics and chemistry and mathematics
long before these subjects existed formally. There were
aqueducts in Rome before Newton “discovered” the Law
of Gravity; the Persians used complex compounds for
makeup and the Chinese for gunpowder centuries before
there were any books on chemistry. The Egyptians built
pyramids ages before Euclid wrote his text on geometry.
The world has always been an interesting and dynamic
place, filled with technologies new and old. And one
technology doesn’t necessarily replace another. The
wheel exists today right alongside the computer. The
screw exists inside the most complex machine. People
read real books and magazines as well as Kindles and
iPads. The old is simultaneous with the new.
The history of the world (unlike what CNN and most
politicians tell us) has not been a steady progression
toward some wonderful future of the evolution of man. It
has been filled with up-cycles and down-cycles. There
have been times of great accomplishment and peace: the
Golden Age of Greece, the great advances of the Persians
– followed by the Dark Ages and the Hundred Years War.
There have been great innovations in technologies and
civilization, of art and music, followed by invading armies
who destroyed much of what was built up and
generations who wallowed in ignorance. There have been
days of peace and security followed by days of terrible
wars and murders of children. And the murders of
children occurred not just in China during some
long-forgotten incident in the 5 th century but in 21 st
century Connecticut as well.
What we learn from the past, or don’t learn, tends to
come about as a result of active minds being challenged
(and challenging themselves) to see the world from
different perspectives. Not merely the perspective of a
single influential country with formal programs of
education that are often dominated by the textbook
publishing business and testing companies, following the
imperatives of corporate culture and the need for a
gullible consumer and obedient citizenry. But also the
view of the outsiders, the view of other cultures who
measure success in other ways, who measure progress
other than by perennial consumption of the resources of
the planet. This is part of why we study WORLD history,
not merely United States History or Mexican history. We
hope our students will become good citizens, yes, but not
High School
nationalistic automatons, singing anthems and reciting
pledges while the world around them is destroyed. We
hope they will be citizens of the world: young men and
women who will have respect for all the creatures on the
planet, for all cultures, and will honor the lives of those
around them. That is not possible unless they are able to
imagine who those people are and why those cultures are
the way they are.
It is also fun to do these things. It is enjoyable to step
out of one’s narrow vision of the world and see it from
another perspective. It is why I became a writer and why I
became a historian. Why I am I also a teacher? Well, I just
had so much fun doing these things that I felt it would be
selfish not to share them with others.
Dr. Michael Hogan is a writer
and historian and the author
of twenty books, including
The Irish Soldiers of Mexico,
an Amazon best-seller about
the Mexican War which
formed the basis to an MGM
movie and two award
winning documentaries. He
currently teaches Honors
World History at ASFG.
25
march
2013
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