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Imagine that you are the principal of a school and you just found out that there was a fight in the lunchroom during lunch. You’ve asked many students and teachers who witnessed the fight to write down what they saw and who they think started the fight. Unfortunately, you have received many conflicting accounts that disagree not only as to who started the fight, but also as to who was involved and when the fight even started. It’s important to remember that NO ONE is just plain lying.
Imagine that you are the principal of a school and you just found out that there was a fight in the lunchroom during lunch. You’ve asked many students and teachers who witnessed the fight to write down what they saw and who they think started the fight. Unfortunately, you have received many conflicting accounts that disagree not only as to who started the fight, but also as to who was involved and when the fight even started. It’s important to remember that NO ONE is just plain lying.
Directions: Answer the following questions with your small group. Record your answers and be prepared to share.
Directions: Answer the following questions with your small group. Record your answers and be prepared to share.
- Why would there be different stories of the event if no one is just plain lying?
- What are the different types of people who might have seen this fight?
- What might make one person’s story more believable or plausible than another person’s?
Debrief these issues as a whole class:
Debrief these issues as a whole class:
- Why might people see or remember things differently?
- Who has an interest in one kid getting in trouble instead of another kid? Who was standing where? Could they see the whole event?
- The plausibility of the stories themselves (e.g., issues of exaggeration and how the stories fit into what is known about the students’ prior histories). Is the story believable, trustworthy?
- Time: Do stories change over time? How might what we remember right after the event differ from what we remember a week later? Does time make the way someone remembers something more or less trustworthy?
- Physical Evidence: What kinds might have an effect on what you believe?
All of these things apply to history: How events are interpreted, remembered, explained, and judged to be trustworthy. Studying history involves considering people’s perspectives and biases; evidence; trustworthiness. Similar to the principal, historians trying to figure out what happened in the past.
All of these things apply to history: How events are interpreted, remembered, explained, and judged to be trustworthy. Studying history involves considering people’s perspectives and biases; evidence; trustworthiness. Similar to the principal, historians trying to figure out what happened in the past.
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