According to a recent NY Times review piece by Andrew Ross -Sorkin, Billionaire Bill Gates appears to have been thunderstruck
by another flash idea to add to his common core aspirations. This one doesn’t
involve algebra but rather the teaching of history, BIG History. Gates
evidently got the idea while working out on his treadmill and watching a DVD
entitled ‘Big History’ – part of the Great Courses series. In this case the
lecturer was a convincing Aussie prof named David
Christian.
Christian’s shtick lies in developing a college level course
predicated on a synthesis of history, biology, astronomy, chemistry and sundry
other fields. The aim? To present to students a sweeping and coherent arc of human
history not confined to specific events or human actors-agents, but rather
tying multifold cosmic and human events into a narrative of "everything" - thereby providing a
unifying picture of the history of life on Earth.
Christian, in one academic interview, explains that he was
influenced by the Annales School- a group of early 20th century
French historians who all insisted that history be taught on multiple levels of
time and space. Christian, enthralled by the idea, developed his course which
incorporated eight separate “thresholds” beginning with the Big Bang 13 billion
years ago (Threshold 1) moving through to the origin of Homo sapiens (Threshold
6) to the appearance of agriculture (Threshold 7) and finally to the forces
shaping our modern world.(Threshold 8)
Christian’s aim was not to give a distinct account of each period
but instead to integrate them all into "vertiginous, conceptual narratives
sweeping through billions of years" in the parlance of a worshipping Ross-Sorkin who comes over more as Gates' groupie than objective critic (especially when discussing Randi Weingarten's and the American Federation of Teachers' reaction to Gates' Common Core agenda, and how the AFT pulled away from further Gates' funding.).
Anyway, Gates then checked out one of Christian’s classes at San
Diego State University and marveled at his class’ ability to connect the complex concepts presented.
Before anyone could say "Common Core" , Gates and Christian were chatting it up
and developing a similar course for high school students. This has since become
part of the Big History project which now includes a website open to the public
– and an electronic textbook chock full of interactive videos and graphics.
Big History itself debuted in 2011 in five schools and this
fall will reach 15,000 students in 1,200 schools. For those who like to keep
track of numbers that translates to an average of just over 12 students per school. Why so few? Because
an integrative approach is damned difficult! It demands students and teachers of high executive brain function, to be able to easily synthesize disparate concepts in their minds as well as effectively use the materials to advance to meet the course objectives.
While a class might start, say with the emergence of life via
coacervates, then proceed to photosynthesis before moving to eukaryotes and multi-cellular
organisms- the ordinary student will be left with mouth agape and wondering if
he is really taking history or an advanced form of organic chemistry or
evolutionary theory. Part of the problem is that students have been conditioned to think in 'boxes' or categories and not to pierce the shells to go inside and try to unify seemingly disparate ideas, concepts. Similarly, teachers are conditioned to teach in boxes, as opposed to presenting a hybrid course that is truly integrated.
According to
Ross-Sorkin’s piece on the subject:
“Few schools had teachers willing or able to instruct a
hybrid course, and other schools demanded that two teachers lead the class
together.”
Having myself developed an Integrated Science curriculum, I’ve
seen it all before. I saw that unless one could command the service of teachers
skilled equally in multiple disciplines (physics, biology, chemistry, astronomy) the
project was doomed to failure. This is why the original integrated science
courses developed in the Caribbean in the 1970s have now reverted to
specialized courses for advanced students. So, if you're taking Physics you'll hardly see a chemistry reference, or one for biology or astronomy. This is a shame because it propagates the disjoint 'boxes' conditioning.
The other problem with a mammoth, gestalt-framed course like
Big History is that its emphasis on the Big will give short shrift to the
critical one –off events as well as undercurrents (deep politics) that tilt the
historical forces one way or other. These aberrations I refer to as “punctuated
history” and the examples have played no small role in shaping our modern
world. (Of course, if viewed from a perspective of billions of years they recede
into insignificance but then most human feats, events would as well.)
But to see what I mean, consider the assassination of
Archduke Francis Ferdinand, which triggered World War I and the collapse of the
Austro-Hungarian empire. Consider also the assassination of John F. Kennedy by
the national security state which – not coincidentally – saw the unrestricted rise of war for profit as well as the ascent of the
national security state worldwide and which now defines all our
telecommunications. Then consider a singular, devastating event like 9/11 which has totally reshaped our modern world to be hyper-security conscious and paranoid ever since it happened. If you think nothing changed, you haven't been flying very often! The point is Big History is designed to miss or ignore the punctuated events that will bear most intensely on the modern historical era (Christian’s Threshold 8).
It seems then that Big History, like the Gates' Common Core proposals- is
destined to become a prize slice of academic titillation but not much more.
Certainly not to the extent of developing a historical sensibility and
appreciation, which most of our students lack.
I still maintain if people-students are to truly understand history they need to see the counterpoised forces shaping it, and that implies conveying the conflicts at every level: between nations, between different ethnic groups, between different religions, between different economic strata, between corporations and citizens, and between the state and its citizens. Unless this is done, with strong elements of deep politics sewn seamlessly into the framework, history will merely be reduced to the cartoon of a long series of unrelated events.
It is time that changed, but I don't believe that Bill Gates' and David Christian's Big History idea is the way to achieve that. I do suggest that for a few dedicated or highly intelligent people, it could be a template for grasping the gestalt of history as embracing all facets of human events within a cosmic perspective.
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