At 7:55 PM -0700 4/23/06, Lavolta Press wrote:
I don't even want to think about what church historians and
Renaissance historians are going to go through when the Da Vinci
Code movie comes out. There are going to be an awful lot of people
who will think it's entirely factual.
So what? There are a great many fields which you and I know little
about, which are no more or less important than history, and which
we probably have many "misconceptions" about.
And if you're going to teach you need to be able to deal with people
not knowing everything already without looking down on them.
The problem isn't people not knowing everything -- the problem is
people who don't know something about a subject thinking they do
_based on having seen a movie_ (often despite their claims of knowing
"it's just movie", etc.)
One of the things good teachers do, in addition to teaching how to
evaluate evidence logically, is teach about evaluating sources.
Movies, by their very nature, are not good or reliable sources. And
many students, just like many readers of online forums and mailing
lists, really, really hate hearing that the movies they love are not
good or reliable sources and should not be used as such.
Some insist on arguing about it.
Which wouldn't be a problem in the history classroom, if it weren't
for the fact that the time spent on it is time not spent teaching and
learning about real history (including good and reliable sources).
And it wouldn't be a problem in the world at large if it weren't for
the fact that being able to evaluate sources and use them
appropriately, and generally being able to tell reliable from
unreliable information, isn't a skill important only for professional
historians -- it's important for managers and workers (regardless of
industry), voters, jurors, parents, and so on. It's important for
many every day, real world decisions -- even, in some cases, life and
death decisions.
Wisdom isn't knowing everything -- it's knowing when you don't know
something. And I, perhaps naively, believe everyone has the capacity
to be wise. That's why I care not only about professional historians,
but also amateur ones, and even casual movie goers. So when the
opportunity comes up, I talk about the nature of films, and how they
shouldn't be used.
That such comments inevitably get not only strong reactions but also
misinterpreted just demonstrates that the subject isn't all that
obvious or a non-issue and that there is indeed a need for people to
make such comments and observations.
Sharon
--
Sharon Krossa, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Resources for Scottish history, names, clothing, language & more:
Medieval Scotland - http://MedievalScotland.org/
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