Comments on: Reconsidering the Bering land bridge theory

By: Ruth Notestine

Ruth Notestine — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 00:25:29 +0000

I found your web site because I, an Oklahoma High School Social Studies teacher, just finished reviewing the first chapter
of our new World History text book and discovered that it endorsed, without reservations, the land bridge theory. Sadly,
this is just the kind of issue that could (and I hope in my classroom, will) result in that all-too-rare and highly
desirable higher order critical thinking. It is the responsibility of teachers to educate themselves on an on-going basis
about new theories and ideas. A good teacher always does more than just follow the text book. I can tell you from
experience, the books are often wrong.

Thanks for the info, it is a great starting point for me.

By: tom

tom — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 07:43:55 +0000

You’re right. In our IB program I’ve resorted to tools like wikis and del.icio.us to channel information to students that otherwise was being filtered and misrepresented (or sometimes just printed on paper that gets tossed). The students are catching on pretty quickly and there’s something of a del.icio.us network underground happening.Almost makes me want to be a teacher again!

By: Wesley Fryer

Wesley Fryer — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 13:52:24 +0000

Stories like this can certainly be depressing. This reminds me of a story about Pluto and it’s official “planetary” and “non-planetary” status. My cousin has a little brother who was in 3rd grade, his teacher marked off his research project because he explained Pluto was no longer considered a planet. The teacher defended herself by saying “we have to go by what is in the textbook.” My cousin had to meet and have a private conference with the teacher, and eventually convinced her to give him credit since he actually WAS correct and using more updated information. Access to dynamic information sources, or just DIFFERENT information sources, can be seen as a threat and “unwanted help” by some educators. When the person is teaching your own children you generally want to avoid an adversarial relationship, but things like this can be maddening. I think greater transparency into the classroom via student blogs, class wikis, etc might be able to help address this, as “disruptive technologies.” Ultimately what we are discussing here is a PEOPLE issue not a technology one, of course. So conversations are ultimately going to be more powerful than technology in helping people move beyond these “statist” views of knowledge and learning.

By: tom

tom — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 08:27:54 +0000

I think part of this also comes from the ‘professionalization’ of teaching, as described by Ivan Illich. Society allows a particular class of people to have an unchallenged monopoly on certain kinds of knowledge (see his books “Deschooling Society” and “Tools for Conviviality”).

I remember when my children had a long unit on Latin American geography in elementary school. Since I have a degree in Latin American studies, traveled extensively, and worked in Central America for 7 years, I wanted to check out what they were learning. Their textbook was chock full of errors and stereotypes, which I warned my kids about. I made several offers to their teacher to come and talk to the class, but she asked us to back off: the textbook was good enough, thank you, and to please teach our children to show respect and stop asking questions. The scary part was she had an Ed.D. from a university in the U.S.

By: SHP Conference at teaching.mrstacey.org.uk

SHP Conference at teaching.mrstacey.org.uk — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 22:03:56 +0000

[...] one came into focus while flicking through my feeds on the train home and finding this post. Much of the best activities, the best thinking, that was demonstrated and talked about seemed to [...]

By: Trever McFaddon

Trever McFaddon — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 11:54:59 +0000

I agree, my kids are in school right now and I sometimes wonder just what they are “learning” when they come home and don’t have any homework. I’m lucky that I have a big library from my graduate years (that I also keep adding to) and encourage my kids to read from. My son, Jason, for example, is reading a fairly academic book on the Bering Land Bridge and other issues concerning the peopling of the Americas. Called Respect for the Ancestors: American Indian Cultural Affiliation in the American Westthis book puts to task all the old theories using the latest scientific data. It’s great when we have a conversation over dinner, something that does not happen based on his usual homework.

By: Diana

Diana — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 14:14:30 +0000

I think what you are describing is indicative of the need to have a right and wrong answer, which is pervasive in education. I teach history in the middle school and we often look at the story of history from different perspectives and evaluate different theories of how history happened. When looking at the stories of history it is important to remember that we ‘know’ only a fraction of what actually happened and how it happened. I love discussing with students WHY it is that we don’t have a more complete record, talk about the differing and changing types of primary source documents and HOW those primary source documents change the way in which we ‘know’ history.

By: Shelly Fryer

Shelly Fryer — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 13:37:28 +0000

When I was teaching first grade we had a GT unit on the Voyage of the Kon Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl and I have often since then wanted to track down that book for my son to read. It was full of sea monsters, adventure, and “real” adventure, as well as being historical. Thanks for reminding me of it again. I’m going to see if I can locate the book now.

By: Stephen Downes

Stephen Downes — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 12:17:15 +0000

When I was in school studying the land bridge theory I was lucky enough to have Thor Heyerdahl (of Kon Tiki fame) experimenting with the Ra, a reed boat that would sail to the Americas from ancient Egypt. There was a lot of coverage, and I followed the story pretty closely, and so never did think of the land bridge theory as an absolute,

The Voyage of the Ra
http://www.plu.edu/~ryandp/RAX.html