Educator Interview the Interview (History

Educator Interview The interview (History Professor) The interview conducted was with a community college professor who is influential and well-known in the field of History as a discipline. The professor is known for his extensive number of years in history teaching and talks which span for more than 30 years.

Apart from the local history, he is also recognized for his skills and contribution in the study of ancient history especially in Africa among countries like Tanzania and Kenya where the ancient man is known to have resided and the remains are still intact there with more findings sill going on. The professor clearly indicates, and severally so, that he is motivated by progressive forces and people who look at progressive history encourage him the most in his work.

He is a firm believer in the applicability of knowledge and not knowledge for its own sake, not the rote learning that confines students into regurgitating the material that they were taught or they read about in a book with no practical application of the same in the education system.

On the significant skills and value that his education brought him in life since he began his research and teaching career, he was categorical that a better part of him is changed due to the history that he has come to learn with time and the knowledge of how to handle historical information and knowledge. He has been able to constructively link the daily lives that we live with the historical influences that have constructed it from the history, be it recent or long time history.

He also indicated that history is very significant since it determines our present state. Without the historic happenings that have been recorded in history annals it would be impossible to know the value of what is presently held in the hands of Americans like the freedoms we abuse daily.

Professor further reiterated that the future and the approach we give to the future depends on how much we would like to protect our history and the valuables found thereof as well as avoiding the pitfalls held in the history we have learnt. On this, he quickly equates the traps of forgetting history to the African countries regularly torn into pieces by war, yet that will repeat itself in less than a decade among the same people, who, as he indicated forget their history so fats, including the recent history.

He points this as the disease of historical amnesia that whips back at the society. On this he agrees with William Reece (n.d:31) who also indicates that "History provides some valuable perspective, but not answers to grave matters of public policy in the contemporary world" and indication that history will provide us with the gem of knowledge and it will be upon us to perfect that and use it for our development in the contempoprary and future lives.

The professor was also categorical in emphasizing that it was not enough just to know the history of oneself and their country but effective development can come from knowing the history of others. This was one of the motivations that drove him into Africa to spend five years studying the history of conflict and armed wars in the horn of Africa.

This is in line with the argument in the Global achievement (n.d:25) that "global awareness referes to the ability of students to & #8230; understand] other nations and cultures, including the use of non-English languages." With the insight he got of the history of the people living there, he is able to constructively criticize our own system and advice towards not falling into the trap of the other (Africa).

Concerning the skills that his students, current and the past, are imbibing from him and his lessons he indicates that him, and many other professors of late, have gotten into the trend of relating history with other subjects and disciplines. He emphasizes that history like all the other subjects cannot exists in isolation but must be given a multidisciplinary approach in order to remain relevant in the contemporary society.

The applicability of history in the daily life, he indicated depended on how well as professor strives to relate the lessons learned in class, the literature found in books and other sources, with the daily happenings and how this can be applied in the future life. Apparently history is one of the subjects that man begins to learn in their lives even before they are in school.

The stories told to them about some long time ago lifestyle, the movies they watch on Vietnam war, the childhood books they read about some influential leaders and so on are part of history that children come across at an early age. "Our live are surrounded by history and historical effects and aftermaths" concluded the professor on this topic of skills acquired by students.

The other methods in teaching history that could enhance the outcomes of the students in history is the emphasis on individual research particularly among the high school and college students. This should be the focus as opposed to confining history to the walls of the class as has been the tradition.

The tendency to follow the stipulated syllabus to the letter and not allowing the students to tinker with history as is done in sciences produces predictable people, those shaped into what the education standards want and what the society expects of them. History should also be learned in conjunction with other subjects to the advanced levels, these subjects are like anthropology, communication studies, current affairs, sociology, political science and global economy among other disciplines.

The role of technology in our school cannot be undermined especially in the current generation where virtually everything is technologically oriented. The technology today in the classroom setting has gone beyond sheer use of overhead projectors into the softer methods of education. There have been use of educational videos in the learning settings for instance videos from PBS to make the students grasp more easily some complex concepts in history or say anatomy.

Technology has also brought in the collaborative writing where students can be given some assignment but do not have to physically be together to undertake it but can use wikis to post and edit each other's contributions.