All Posts Tagged With: "history"
Considering graduate school in the arts or social sciences?
Here are some job statistics you’ll want to consider
King Henry VIII from Wikimedia Commons
After a steep recession-era decline in hiring of academics in the arts and social sciences, potential PhDs have reasons for optimism—or despair—depending on how you look at it.
The good news is that job listings on the American Historical Association’s website, considered a market barometer for North America, increased from 569 in the 2009-10 academic year to 627 in 2010-11. That’s up 10.2 per cent year-on-year.
The bad news? That figure is still 40 per cent lower than the 1,064 jobs posted in 2007-08, before the recession led to budgetary restraint.
The modest rebound is a common theme across the arts and social sciences.
Continue reading Considering graduate school in the arts or social sciences?
If you leave me, can I come, too?
How one mother coped when her daughter left for school
Photo illustration by Taylor Shute.
From the Maclean’s University Rankings—on newsstands now. Story by Ellen Vanstone.
I wasn’t actually planning to attend college with my daughter Eliza when her acceptance letter arrived in the mail last spring. That would be creepy—like the mother in that Robert Munsch book who stalked her grown-up son, breaking into his house to cuddle him while he slept. I am perfectly aware that the parentally appropriate, non-crazy thing to do when your child leaves home is to let them go and have their own life.
And yet, I still felt there should be some kind of special dispensation in my case—since the school that accepted my child was the Savannah College of Art and Design, on the Savannah River, in Savannah, Ga.
Does Quebec’s exam rewrite history?
Anglo students must not consider Bill 101 when writing test
Historians are calling on Quebec to offer better questions on the History and Citizenship exams that Anglophone students must pass in order to graduate from CEGEP.
Sam Allison, a recently-retired history teacher, and Jon Bradley, an associate professor in Education at McGill University suggested in an editorial in the Montreal Gazette earlier this week that the test is extremely flawed. Here’s their argument:
First, English students are asked to use French-language documents to answer essay questions. What if they don’t read French?
Second, they’re asked to respond to questions with words that don’t translate into English like agriculturalism and cooperatism. Those words mean nothing to anglophones.
Finally, in one essay question, they are asked to consider the demographic changes that occurred in the twentieth century “in terms of immigration, migration within Quebec and natural growth.”
That means students are not to consider inter-provincial migration, which means that they are not to consider the effects of Bill 101, also known as the Charter of the French Language.
That bill had, arguably, a much greater impact on the province than other forms of migration. Bill 101 made French the only official language and put many restrictions on English-language schools and employment. Roughly 244,000 English speakers left Quebec in the 25 years following the passage of Bill 101, according to Statistics Canada. Many businesses moved to Toronto.
It’s an part of the province’s history that should not be ignored, write Allison and Bradley. “While many Quebecers may believe that studies of the province’s history should promote a nationalist perspective, this is far outweighed by the right of all children to have a balanced view of our past.”
History students don’t know early Canada
Journal shines light on pre-Confederation history
Photo courtesy of Slabcity Gang on Flickr
Recent history grads may be forgiven for not knowing the significance of the 1st Baron of Dorchester, or that his 1774* Quebec Act was once known as Canada’s Magna Carta. They don’t teach much pre-Confederation history in school. “In high school, we had to take one history course and all I learned about was World War One, World War Two—maybe we touched on the Depression,” says Amy Legate-Wolfe, the 22-year-old co-president of the University of Toronto’s History Students’ Association. She didn’t choose any Canadian history courses in university either, preferring to learn about British monarchs and the origins of Hong Kong.
Is this the biggest history geek ever?
Queen’s student writes exam in full armour
A video on YouTube captures the giggles of fellow students at Queen’s University when a student strode into his medieval history examination last month wearing a full suit of armour. The video, entitled Going to War by Mastadufus, has received nearly 2,000 hits. The student was met by an entertained exam proctor who quipped, “You know you lose your knighthood if you fail, right?” According to the The Kingston Herald, Medieval Studies is growing in popularity at Queen’s, as evidenced by a new minor in the subject that was approved in May.
Against specialization
Remember when choice and flexibility were good things?
With Nova Scotia’s O’Neill report in the books, and a similar report just released in Ontario, specialization is the new watchword for Canadian universities. Thus Bonnie Patterson, President of the Council of Ontario Universities: “the funding realities mean we’re going to have to build on the differences that already exist.”
Setting aside the question that the so-called funding realities are really funding decisions, the emphasis on specialization is troubling from the point of view of quality higher education.
Of course, some specialization is inevitable, or at least practical. Not every university can have a medical school, and a law school, and a major in South American Urban Geography. Fine. But I worry when I hear people like Harvey Weingarten, President of the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario say things like this: “If Ryerson were to say its priority is undergraduate programs that graduate the next wave of entrepreneurs, for example, it might be that the U of T wouldn’t have a program exactly like that.”
Setting aside the fact that if Ontario really wanted to save money it could eliminate a few of these education councils, Weingarten’s comments hint that specialization is all about output. If Ontario needs graduates in various areas, the implication runs, it doesn’t need every school to fulfill that need. Put another way, if a student wants program x, she only needs one school to offer it and she can go there.
But the underlying assumption is that a university education is designed only, or mainly, as an economic investment. Universities are understood like factories, turning out useful products and thus should be specialized so as to be more efficient.
Setting aside the fact that it is inherently repugnant to think of people as products (the report calls for graduates who, like iPods should be “highly valued and competitive” [p.15]), the specialization perspective assumes that students know what they want to study when they go to university and will stick to that field of study all the way through. Anyone who teaches at a university knows that these assumptions are actually false, and idealists like me see them as deeply troubling.
For one thing, circumstances mean that students are not infinitely mobile. A student in Sudbury may not feasibly be able to move to Windsor to study. Consequently, specialization means limiting choices. The report claims that “differentiation” will mean more variety of programs overall (p. 6) but later reveals that claim to be false by insisting that universities must work with their existing programs (p.10). In other words, the Kingston girl who might have been a world-class artist may end up toiling as an accountant because Fine Arts was only available at Western, not Queen’s. Such things may happen even now, but they become more likely the more specialized institutions become.
The most important thing you can learn — of all time!
The world didn’t begin with you. Or your parents.
When Kanye West made an ass of himself during last year’s VMA broadcast, there was one aspect that, to my mind, received too little attention. It was this: during his, er, tantrum, Kanye declared Beyonce’s video “one of the best videos of all time.” He repeated it for emphasis.
Of all time? Better than medieval music videos? Better than Shakespeare’s video for “Hark, Hark!”? Music videos are a very recent phenomenon, the term only coming into wide usage in the 1980s, so “best video of all time” is not just a rude thing to say; it’s moronic. It’s almost nonsensical.
I’ve been hearing a lot of this “all time” stuff lately, and it scares me. Comedy Central has created a list of the best stand up comics of all time but it doesn’t include Elizabethan funnyman Will Kemp. Did they even consider Kemp? I doubt it. Never mind that the man danced across England! Since the death of Michael Jackson, there have been commentators declaring him the greatest entertainer of all time. Really? Better than Thespis of Icaria who, you know, came up with a little thing called acting? But then he couldn’t walk forwards and backwards at the same time, or could he? I believe Aristotle is silent on the point.
It’s possible that that this is just another instance of sloppy hyperbole whereby “of all time” is simply a wildly vague intensifier. If so, it is silly, but not dangerous. But my fear is that people like Kanye West and Randy Jackson and lots of others really do actually mean of all time, it’s just that they think the world began fifty or sixty years ago. Not literally, but in their considerations of time, they don’t think back more than a generation or two. My first-year students are fond of writing things like “before the 1970s, divorce was unheard of.” Really? Google Dorothy Parker and get back to me. For that matter, Google Henry VIII.
What all these people lack is a cornerstone of even a basic education: a sense of history. Without at least a general knowledge of the long history of human civilization, one simply cannot think and speak insightfully about anything of social or artistic importance. Without a sense of history, one tends to think that information technology began with the Blackberry, and that no one had heard of sex before HBO. Or, if they did, no one liked it.
There are lots of ways to acquire this sense of history and lots of disciplines whose subject matter will teach it to you, including, of course, but not limited to history itself. If you study politics, pay attention to those classes on The Prince. If you study literature, make sure you take a course in the Restoration or the Renaissance, even if you don’t have to. If you study physics or chemistry, be sure to do some reading on astrology and alchemy, too.
None of this will make you as rich as Kanye West, of course, but it might save you from a life inside a mind like his.
Life is worth living again
…until next semester.
I still have two exams before Christmas vacation. I’ve got six chapters of my microbiology textbook to read before Friday, and I’m trying to not even think about history. But ever since last Thursday, life has been worth living again.
Organic chemistry is finished. Gone. Forever.
Until next semester. When I have Organic Chemistry Part 2.
Stuck in post-midterm apathy?
How to make it through the home stretch
There’s only one week of classes left. I’ve got a chemistry lab, a biology lab, and a couple of history classes between me and Christmas vacation. It’s the home stretch.
But I’m stuck in Post-Midterm Apathy.
I only have to read a couple of chapters in my chemistry textbook, practice with my molecular model kit, and do some study problems to prepare for my organic chemistry final exam. There’s only one assignment and a test left in my religious studies class.
And then I’m finished.
But I just don’t have it in me. Thanks to five full courses, two labs, and two part-time jobs, I admit it: between September and November, I used up all my School Energy.
It’s times like this that I need to do some carefully planned procrastination.
Otherwise, I just end up siphoning off study time by doing stuff that isn’t really worthwhile. Like staring at the same paragraph in my history textbook for half an hour. Or checking my e-mail. Twenty times in a row.
Instead, I know I should allow myself a couple of hours to recharge, doing anything I want, guilt-free. And then my Study Efficiency will be back up and running for the next week.
Okay Halo 3, here I come.
How to ace chemistry class
Making the complicated science accessible to millions
Every once in a while my microbiology textbook shares a vaguely interesting fact that (almost) makes it worth reading. Like the fact that certain species of bacteria can be found 4,700 feet underground.
Sometimes my history textbook can be interesting. A Minoan palace that dates back to 1500 BCE featured indoor plumbing.
But there are absolutely no redeeming qualities to my Organic Chemistry textbook. Here are some of the organic molecules mentioned in the textbook:
1-Bromo-3-methylpentane
3-Methylpentylmagnesium bromide
N,N-Diethylethanamine
Those are real names. Seriously.
Another problem: some of the names are way too similar. Certain types of molecules are called “alkanes.” Some are called “alkenes.” Others are called “alkynes.” Then there are ethers and esters. Amines and amides.
Wouldn’t it be a whole lot easier if organic molecules were named the same way hurricanes are? As in “Chemical Bob” or “Chemical Irene”?
Of course, considering that there are tens of millions of organic molecules, we might start running out of names. Or at the very least, we might have to start using wimpy names. Like “Chemical Lawrence” or “Chemical Stuart.”
But there is an alternative. It’s a naming system that would be easy to learn and intuitive to use. Heck, it would transform Organic Chemistry. Instead of being universally hated, it would be an accessible and manageable course.
The new system: naming organic molecules after Pokemon.
It’s a tried-and-true method. For the past decade, millions of kids under the age of 12 have been able to memorize the names of thousands of Pokemon. And they can pronounce them perfectly, too. Why shouldn’t it work for Organic Chemistry?
There would be no such thing as “1,2-Dibromobenzene” or “1-Chloro-3-ethylbenzene.”Students wouldn’t have to learn names like “N-Phenylacetamide” or “1-(1,1-Dimethylethyl)-3-nitrobenzene.”
Instead, they would be memorizing “Charmander” and “Pikachu.”
Yup, easy peasy.
Genghis Khan: totally immature
When a textbook’s bias is obvious
I always thought university textbooks were supposed to be objective. An unbiased source of information.
Until my history textbook referred to someone as a “mama’s boy.” Seriously.
According to the textbook, Ibbi-Sin, a king from the Dynasty of Ur, wasn’t just an incompetent ruler. He was “something of a mama’s boy.”
The term “mama’s boy” sounds like a subjective judgement, as opposed to an objective statement of fact. Sure, I know everyone has a bias. Even textbook authors. But I figured that university textbooks should at least appear to be making an attempt at sounding neutral. You know, something more along the lines of ‘attachment disorder’ or ‘parent-child relationship psychosis.’
When I saw that pharse, I was startled. If a history textbook is going to insult someone, I thought they’d call them “inadequate” or “inept.” My textbook is breaking the rules.
That Alexander guy who took over Egypt? A mega-jerk.
Aristotle thought there were only five elements. What a moron!
And Gandhi, whining about human rights and junk. Talk about a cry-ass.
Mexican textbook causes a stir
Government-published world history textbook leaves out the Spanish Conquest
A new sixth-grade world history textbook is causing a stir in Mexico because it leaves out any mention of the Spanish Conquest.
Few events have shaped Mexico’s culture, ethnicity and history more than the 1521 conquest.
But it doesn’t appear in the government-published world history text, which ends in the age of exploration with a reference to the rising world powers of Spain and Portugal.
Assistant Education Secretary Fernando Gonzalez told the Mexican newspaper El Universal on Monday there was no intention of covering up the Spain’s brutal conquest of indigenous societies. He says middle-school history texts would address the topic.
But some academics want at least a mention included.
- The Canadian Press
Bill of treason from Upper Canada Rebellion found at McMaster University
Uprising was led by William Lyon Mackenzie, journalist and first Toronto mayor
A team at McMaster University has uncovered a historical glimpse of Canadiana – a bill of treason connected to the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837.
Written on parchment and dated March 1838, the bill was filed against William Rogers, a yeoman living in or near Albion, York Township, Upper Canada.
The uprising was led by William Lyon Mackenzie, a Scottish-Canadian journalist, reformer and politician who was also the first mayor of Toronto.
He rallied 400 rebels, including many farmers from the Toronto area, to fight as Crown reserves or in support of the Anglican Church against the allocation of land to wealthy owners in the government.
Rogers was arrested for treason on Dec. 13, 1837, for plotting an insurrection against the Queen, persuading others to join him, and assembling with about 50 other people.
In the indictment, Rogers is described as “not having the fear of God in his heart but being moved and seduced by the instigation of the Devil.”
He was tried April 18, 1838, and ultimately acquitted.
The document was recently discovered in a cabinet drawer by Sheila Turcon, who has worked as an archivist for nearly 30 years.
“If you’re charged with something nowadays, of course there’s no mention of God and the devil as being the motivating factor in your crimes,” Turcon said.
“So that really popped out at me.”
Quebec tops in teaching Canadian history
P.E.I. and Newfoundland the worst, says Dominion Institute
Looking for a correct answer to a Canadian history question? It all depends where you ask.
Prince Edward Island, the birthplace of Confederation?
Ontario, Parliament Hill’s home province?
Guess again.
A new national study that ranks Canadian history curricula in high schools ranked Quebec at the head of the class.
The Dominion Institute, a non-partisan foundation dedicated to promoting Canada’s history, examined what exactly provinces and territories are teaching high-school kids about the country’s past.
The organization will reveal a report card Monday filled with what it calls “worrying” grades about the country’s education departments.
Quebec earned a B+ for its Canadian history curriculum, while P.E.I., Newfoundland and Labrador, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Northwest Territories each took home an F.
“It’s quite obvious that too many provinces in Canada don’t take the teaching of Canadian history seriously, and for that reason, too many students in Canada graduate with very little knowledge about our country’s past,” Dominion Institute executive director Marc Chalifoux said of the report provided exclusively to The Canadian Press.
Only Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and Nova Scotia require students to pass at least one Canadian history class to earn a high-school diploma.
The other provinces and territories have mandatory social-science courses, but they typically contain only a touch of national history, the study says.
The institute reviewed courses that include Canadian history (grades 9 to 12) and evaluated each one on content, curriculum requirements and students’ skill development. Points were also given for optional courses that are available.
Alberta may make evolution classes optional
Opposition says province is headed towards its own Scopes Monkey Trial
Educators and human rights experts in Alberta are worried that a proposed change to human rights legislation could make it tough to teach a number of controversial subjects.
The change says parents should be notified when classes “include subject matter that deals explicitly with religion, sexuality or sexual orientation,” and should have the right to ask that their child sit out that part of the class.
The term “religion” is extremely broad and could edge its way into almost anything that comes up in the classroom, said Dan Shapiro, research associate with the Calgary-based Sheldon Chumir Foundation for Ethics in Leadership.
“It’ll be like a kind of Monty Python skit. You have to say: ‘Well, today we have to think about the Hindu student’s going to object to this and tomorrow the Jewish student to this and then the Catholic student to this,’ ” said Shapiro.
“It’ll be madly off in all directions. (Teachers) are strapped enough for resources and time to do their job properly and help educate children.”
Frank Bruseker, head of the Alberta Teachers Association, said he’s also concerned about what the new rules could mean. He’s worried that some parents might think mentioning different classes of worms would constitute a reference to evolution. He said a discussion of ancient geologic formations can’t be had without mentioning the world is billions of years old, much more than a literal reading of the Bible would suggest.
Meanwhile, history and literature from around the world are chockablock full of references to religious upheaval.
“Religion is kind of a fuzzy thing, in a sense, in that what some people see as religion others might not,” Bruseker said.
Opposition parties have hammered the government on the issue, saying the province is headed back to the time of the 1925 Scopes trial, in which a high school biology teacher in Tennessee was tried for teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution.
Premier Ed Stelmach conceded to reporters last week that the provision could be used to pull students out of classes dealing with evolution if parents preferred their kids be taught what’s in the Bible instead.
“The parents would have the opportunity to make that choice,” he told a news conference.
But Lindsay Blackett, the Tory minister responsible for human rights, said in an interview that the intention of the law is to only allow parents to pull children out when the curriculum specifically covers religions, something that only happens for a few hours each school year.
“It’s talking about religion (such as) Hindu, or Muslim, or that type of religion, not … the curriculum with respect to, for instance, evolution,” he said. “That’s science and we’re not arguing science.”
The rule wouldn’t apply to any topics that come up spontaneously in a classroom, he said.
“It’s not discussion, it’s curriculum. You cannot be the thought police, and we would never ever advocate that.”
I’ve got to start my essay. In a minute.
After procrastinating all weekend, I vowed to myself that I would get to work on my religious studies essay. Right away. I would do nothing all day but research and take notes. I wouldn’t stop until I had a rough draft. Instead, I somehow ended up watching the History Channel. I learned why the Great [...]
After procrastinating all weekend, I vowed to myself that I would get to work on my religious studies essay.
Right away.
I would do nothing all day but research and take notes. I wouldn’t stop until I had a rough draft.
Instead, I somehow ended up watching the History Channel.
I learned why the Great Pyramid of Giza is one of the Seven Wonders of the world. I learned the origin of the phrase, “Worth your weight in salt.” And then promptly forgot it.
And I still haven’t started my essay.
