Using the Past - Reflection

1. Why is it important to look at both primary and secondary sources when analyzing an historical event?

         It is important to look at both primary and secondary sources when analyzing an historical event for several reasons. Primary sources explain what exactly happened during a certain event because it was produced during that time. Primary sources vary from photographs to letters to telegraphs and so on. They provide information from a person that was there at that exact moment in history. A secondary source provides information through another person's perspective on an event. Examples of secondary sources are articles and journals. A reflection on a primary source provides another person's opinion and opens up the researcher's mind to other ideas. In all, it is important to use both primary and secondary sources to receive information from an exact person during the event and also to understand another person's perspective and opinion on that event.

2. Why do you think we are choosing to focus more on teaching you how to think historically versus the traditional model of memorizing dates and facts in U.S. History?

         We are choosing to focus more on teaching you how to think historically versus the traditional model of memorizing dates and facts for different reasons. When we learn to think historically, we are learning how and why things happened in history. Learning facts and dates can be a great addition to our knowledge of history, but that really only explains the who, what, when, and where of an event. Thinking historically makes the student realize why something may be happening in history and how it came to happen. This is called the cause and the effect. For example, the Prohibition Amendment was put in place around the 1920s. This is a great fact, but why was it put in place? The women really supported this amendment because it made their husbands stop coming home drunk and beating them, for example. This amendment lead to speakeasies, Al Capone, gangsters, and so on. Thinking historically can help us learn the chronological how's and why's of our history. It makes us dig deeper into our knowledge.

3. How will you use these skills in you adult life?

         By thinking historically, we learn the how and why of a situation, not just in history. It makes us explore the deeper meanings of events. In my adult life, I won't just be rambling facts about certain subjects, but I will be explaining why they are happening. For example, I could say that my co-workers and I have a meeting on Friday for three hours. But why? How could this meeting have come to be? It is important to know why something is happening. Instead, I could explain that the meeting is happening because we need to discuss organizing our schedules to make the best out of our company's workday. Maybe we had been slacking the past few months and we need to step it up before the company starts to fail. This is my idea of thinking historically and how it will help me in my future.