[IAEP] Historian David McCullough endorses constructionism?

[Sameer Verma]

On Fri, Jun 24, 2011 at 2:05 AM, Yamandu Ploskonka <yamaplos at gmail.com> wrote:
> It is a nagging feeling I have that in the lack of understanding of cause
> and effect lies a lot of what is wrong everywhere, especially in countries
> that do not seem to be able ever to get out of the "subdesarrollo"
> (underdevelopment) - and also help us to avoid debt ...
>
> I see History and Science as venues where cause and effect can be learned,
> understood, and hopefully become part of what people are empowered with.
>
> Interactive History can make that subject be useful, beyond the traditional
> memorizing of dates and events, and actually start reflections of the "what
> if?" type
>
>

Yama,

The are very good observations indeed. Not only does interactive
history provide context, it provides a flow that explains how the
world came about to being what it is today (not good or bad, but just
how it is).

Growing up in India, we were told how Sanskrit is the mother of all
languages worldwide and nothing was ever before it. This is of course
a very ethnocentric view, and is quite common around the world, but we
were not allowed to question it. We also did not get to ask the how or
why. For instance, learning about the origins of Brahmi script, which
is considered to be the root of many South Asian languages, is very
interesting because it connects Brahmi to Phoenecian and/or Aramaic
(not to be confused with the language Amharic). Brahmi did not happen
in a vacuum! Languages travel, and the world is a lot more fluid than
a political map :-) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmi_script

I also find that learning about cause and effect helps in
understanding the difference between causality and correlation -
perhaps the most important lesson I learned in my doctoral program :-)

cheers,
Sameer

>
> On 06/19/2011 11:19 PM, Gonzalo Odiard wrote:
>
> Good reading, thanks.
>
> Gonzalo
>
> On Sun, Jun 19, 2011 at 5:45 PM, Nicholas Doiron <ndoiron at andrew.cmu.edu>
> wrote:
>>
>> This interview in the Wall Street Journal discusses history education and
>> a couple of interesting, interactive lessons which could be programmed. We
>> don't have many history activities in Sugar
>>
>>
>> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304432304576369421525987128.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_opinion
>>
>> --
>> Nick Doiron
>>
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