Saturday, May 15, 2010
David McCullough and John Adams
Two weeks ago I attended a two hour program in the LDS Conference Center in SLC which was a part of a week long genealogical conference. One of the speakers was David McCullough. I heard him speak last April at the Tabernacle when he spoke to Utah teachers, and he was so wonderful. This time I didn't know what to expect, but it blew me away. He talked about the importance of understanding historical figures from the past by first understanding the time from which they came. He talked about his ability to come to know and understand someone from the journal entries and letters that they wrote. McCullough talked about John Adams and quoted several times from the book. He talked about how Abigail's letters to John were her way of working out what she felt and thought about a topic, not just communication to her husband. That is the importance of journal keeping or blogging or completing an essay; until we express what we think about an issue or a piece of literature, we have not fully thought it out. He talked about the founding fathers and the fact that they had all read the same books and quoted them, knowing that others would recognize the quote. They had that common framework of ideas from which they drew. I wonder if we are giving our students that resource? He quoted the inscription that John Adams had put on his ancestor's sarcophagus lid (p.649)to show that the values such as industry, prudence, and frugality that his ancestors had demonstrated were ones that he would recommend to his posterity. His life was an affirmation of the virtues he believed in and wanted to pass on to his countrymen as well as his own family. I don't think John Adams was perfect, but he is a truly inspirational example of someone who stood by his principles and sacrificed to preserve them. Understanding and learning about men and women who shaped our country helps us to understand what our principles are (or ought to be) and to examine what we are willing to sacrifice in order to uphold them. THAT IS THE REASON TO TEACH HISTORY TO OUR STUDENTS!
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Wow. Powerful comments. While reading, I made a connection with your blog. Imagine that? (Wonder if that was planned into this experience....you never know). Everyone else probably realized this long before I did, but i came to this knowledge through my own logging and blogging. I began to be able to see and understand the author's feelings and experiences as David McCullough expressed in his recent visit. It is really the only way that i began to understand and appreciate Thoreau. I hated it at first. No, I loathed it. I was such a victim. Everyone I was around listened to me whine and complain about how "boring" the book was. My reflecting and logging my reflections and experiences helped me to experience Thoreau in a way that i would not have otherwise done so. My gratitude goes out to those who've planned this seminar experience, including Larry H. Miller, and included these exercises and assignments with the specific requirements to read, reflect, log or blog, etc., because I will learn more deeply, and experience more intimately the seminar than I would otherwise have experienced it. Also, I have noticed, that I am expanding my own vocabulary, enlarging my ability to think and express myself more intelligently and effectively. For real. As I read and reread what I have written in blogs and responding to what others have written, I have found a deep satisfaction and joy and I am so surprised to have had this experience. Never would've thought that I would be at this place in my experience and understand what I now understand through my experiences. (Do you think they planned this? Hmmm.......)
ReplyDeleteEven though I am a history teacher, over the past several years I have strayed away from reading biographies and other historical non fiction. Reading John Adams, has brought the excitement back to me. I have a huge reading list for myself for the summer in hopes to learn more in depth things about American History and the people who formed this country. I know that reading John Adams will help me in the coming years to be a better teacher. I am hoping the books on my list will too.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could have attended that event as well. I had heard about it, but did not have the time.