Great project! There's something odd about the scope being so broad, and yet so many of the spaces before 0 CE focused on the history of the Levant and of Greece. There was a lot happening at this time! I understand we're limited in the sources that have reached us, but Big History suddenly felt very narrow in this section.
Just wanted to pop in to thank you: I hadn't noticed this, and you're right. We ended up nixing the January 6th story (the anguished decision of that is a story in its own right), and swapping the beginning of the Silk Road in its place. Thanks for making our selection better!
This strikes me as very expandable. With a functional framework we should be able to broaden out the sections culturally and geographically as a part of the spiral, either through temporal connections or through thematic connections across time. Still, a very good point.
I won't be able to make the Sunday event, but I do have a strong opinion about your murder candidates list: kill J6. It's too recent and too caught up in present-day culture wars to be able to recount as history in a way that constructively engages people across the battle lines of those wars. I wish it weren't so, and if there's anyone I'd trust to tell it in a constructive way that inspires useful thought, it's you... but I'm not sure I even trust you to do so, and I certainly don't trust any present-day audience to receive it with constructive intent.
I very strongly agree with not including January 6th. Anything in the 2020s is strange to include in a history course without there being intervening time for historical perspective (and in the case of covid and chatgpt, are already familiar to kids from their own experience) . But definitely something which is so connected to current politics and culture wars is worth avoiding.
I agree about it being odd to include events from our very recent past. Perhaps less of that would open up room for more diversity in the years that only focus on the history of the levant and greece as another comment pointed out.
See, this is a really interesting take — and I'll tell you that it's already influenced how our team is thinking about this. In my mind, it's a great horror of the usual history curriculum that it lacks stuff that happened recently. (James Loewen, in his great book "Lies My Teacher Told Me", talks about this in a chapter titled something like "Down the Memory Hole: The Lack of Recent History".)
But we're not just making this curriculum for ourselves! This nudges us in the direction of not including it... though there are many more things we've realized we still need to weigh.
FWIW my judgment here is really based on how things have gone for our society in the last decade in particular, not a general aversion to teaching recent history. In 2000 I would have said yes to teaching even traumatic then-recent events like Rabin's assassination or the Bosnia war. Even in 2010 I would probably have said yes to teaching the Iraq invasion. But since then things have gone unusually haywire for reasons there is now a whole shelf of books purporting to explain.
Speaking of which, one of the most prescient of those books is Gurri's _Revolt of the Public_, so maybe you could do a unit on one of the events he recounts, like the Arab Spring, that illustrates some of the themes of his book. That could give kids a sense of why things are the way they are right now while avoiding the worst culture war derailing/distorting risks.
Re: audio: hmm, we hadn't thought of publishing them in an audio-only medium. I'm interested in this — what would be the gain, as a user? (Also, is there a way to lock anyone out who hasn't purchased the course?)
I'd guess that right now this is too complicated to start with, but if you think that there's a compelling reason to look into it for the future, I'm all ears!
I can put it on playlist and the kids can listen to it in bed, or in the background while playing (they often listen to favorite podcasts or e-audiobooks (from the library or librivox) over and over). It doesn't need sitting down with a screen (or the temptation of video), or clicking on something between each one. They can be downloaded for use offline (mp3s most easily, podcasts through the apps) and take much less space than video.
For our family, as videos, there is basically no chance we would purchase this. As audio we might (mostly depending on if the kids loved the example stories when you post them).
As an aside, are you familiar with Jim Weiss audio stories?
For this course which is a one time purchase, you can just have them downloadable as mp3s behind a shopping cart (unless you are worried about someone sharing with their friends).
As a podcast, you can create an individualized rss feed, which only allows the person with the link to access it. It is generated when someone subscribes and can be removed if they stop paying membership (for courses you want to put on a subscription model).
My impression from friends with a podcast is that this isn't very difficult to set up, but I haven't done it myself (as monthly subscribers, we have successfully paid for podcasts).
Yup! We were hoping to have it up already, but we're working so hard on the first couple weeks that it's likely we'll need to make some of those the "samples". But we'll put them up for folks to see before they buy 'em. (And you can start at anytime.)
Great project! There's something odd about the scope being so broad, and yet so many of the spaces before 0 CE focused on the history of the Levant and of Greece. There was a lot happening at this time! I understand we're limited in the sources that have reached us, but Big History suddenly felt very narrow in this section.
Just wanted to pop in to thank you: I hadn't noticed this, and you're right. We ended up nixing the January 6th story (the anguished decision of that is a story in its own right), and swapping the beginning of the Silk Road in its place. Thanks for making our selection better!
This strikes me as very expandable. With a functional framework we should be able to broaden out the sections culturally and geographically as a part of the spiral, either through temporal connections or through thematic connections across time. Still, a very good point.
I won't be able to make the Sunday event, but I do have a strong opinion about your murder candidates list: kill J6. It's too recent and too caught up in present-day culture wars to be able to recount as history in a way that constructively engages people across the battle lines of those wars. I wish it weren't so, and if there's anyone I'd trust to tell it in a constructive way that inspires useful thought, it's you... but I'm not sure I even trust you to do so, and I certainly don't trust any present-day audience to receive it with constructive intent.
I really appreciate this: it's causing me to take a hard look at whether, and how, it's possible to teach January 6 right now. Thanks!
I very strongly agree with not including January 6th. Anything in the 2020s is strange to include in a history course without there being intervening time for historical perspective (and in the case of covid and chatgpt, are already familiar to kids from their own experience) . But definitely something which is so connected to current politics and culture wars is worth avoiding.
I agree about it being odd to include events from our very recent past. Perhaps less of that would open up room for more diversity in the years that only focus on the history of the levant and greece as another comment pointed out.
See, this is a really interesting take — and I'll tell you that it's already influenced how our team is thinking about this. In my mind, it's a great horror of the usual history curriculum that it lacks stuff that happened recently. (James Loewen, in his great book "Lies My Teacher Told Me", talks about this in a chapter titled something like "Down the Memory Hole: The Lack of Recent History".)
But we're not just making this curriculum for ourselves! This nudges us in the direction of not including it... though there are many more things we've realized we still need to weigh.
Thanks!
FWIW my judgment here is really based on how things have gone for our society in the last decade in particular, not a general aversion to teaching recent history. In 2000 I would have said yes to teaching even traumatic then-recent events like Rabin's assassination or the Bosnia war. Even in 2010 I would probably have said yes to teaching the Iraq invasion. But since then things have gone unusually haywire for reasons there is now a whole shelf of books purporting to explain.
Speaking of which, one of the most prescient of those books is Gurri's _Revolt of the Public_, so maybe you could do a unit on one of the events he recounts, like the Arab Spring, that illustrates some of the themes of his book. That could give kids a sense of why things are the way they are right now while avoiding the worst culture war derailing/distorting risks.
Will you also publish the stories as audio (ideally through a podcast app) or only as video?
(Also, a slight typo, I think it is Anne (with an ‘e’) Frank)
Re: audio: hmm, we hadn't thought of publishing them in an audio-only medium. I'm interested in this — what would be the gain, as a user? (Also, is there a way to lock anyone out who hasn't purchased the course?)
I'd guess that right now this is too complicated to start with, but if you think that there's a compelling reason to look into it for the future, I'm all ears!
I can put it on playlist and the kids can listen to it in bed, or in the background while playing (they often listen to favorite podcasts or e-audiobooks (from the library or librivox) over and over). It doesn't need sitting down with a screen (or the temptation of video), or clicking on something between each one. They can be downloaded for use offline (mp3s most easily, podcasts through the apps) and take much less space than video.
For our family, as videos, there is basically no chance we would purchase this. As audio we might (mostly depending on if the kids loved the example stories when you post them).
As an aside, are you familiar with Jim Weiss audio stories?
For this course which is a one time purchase, you can just have them downloadable as mp3s behind a shopping cart (unless you are worried about someone sharing with their friends).
As a podcast, you can create an individualized rss feed, which only allows the person with the link to access it. It is generated when someone subscribes and can be removed if they stop paying membership (for courses you want to put on a subscription model).
My impression from friends with a podcast is that this isn't very difficult to set up, but I haven't done it myself (as monthly subscribers, we have successfully paid for podcasts).
I would have never guessed this could be such a game-changer! I'll share this with Alessandro and Emma. Thanks, Ben!
It might be worth asking on "skeleton army" if anyone else would also specifically want audio.
Very excited to see this because I got as far as putting the time periods and dot stickers on the wall and no further!
I, uh, might not even have gotten THAT far… ;)
Will we be able to sample some of the content before purchasing the whole year?
Yup! We were hoping to have it up already, but we're working so hard on the first couple weeks that it's likely we'll need to make some of those the "samples". But we'll put them up for folks to see before they buy 'em. (And you can start at anytime.)