This past Thursday Mark C. Carnes, a professor of history at Barnard College in New York delivered the third part of his lecture series “Rethink Higher Education.” In this lecture, entitled “Why History Textbooks (Including My Own) Don’t Get It,” Carnes questioned the use and effectiveness of textbooks in classrooms.
“I cut out all of the detours and the ambiguity in my textbook to make it more concise,” Carnes said. “History could have turned out differently. Things could have been different if John Wilkes Booth missed when he was aiming at Lincoln’s head.”
“And I can’t get that across in my textbook,” Carnes said. The professor went on to say college students are bored, and when they aren’t bored they are distracted. They are distracted and their minds are absorbed in other things such as sports, video games and drinking.
“Human beings have always longed to connect to the past,” Carnes said before naming off the successes of movies such as “Titanic” and “Troy” that depict historical scenes. That element of connection is exactly what Carnes says he wants to replicate with his teaching method called “Reacting to the Past.”
“Reacting teaches erroneous history, but roots out the inevitability of history,” he said. The method, that is taught somewhat like a game, does this by placing students into historical scenes and having them act out the roles of such historical characters as students of Socrates from ancient Athens or the Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.
“I visit a lot of colleges just to see how ‘Reacting’ is going. If this effort to reinvigorate higher learning is going to work anywhere, it is going to work here at Eastern,” Carnes said, applauding efforts of some of the faculty at Eastern Michigan University for bringing the method to the school.
One such professor using the method is Mark Higbee, who also dissented with Carnes over the use of textbooks.
A video by student Vinnie Massimino showed the reactions of professors who had used or seen “Reacting” in a classroom. A clip of the movie “Troy” was also shown to reinforce Carnes that people are simply drawn to history. At the end of the lecture, a panel of three professors took to the stage to not only offer its opinions of the method, but to address concerns. The panel comprised professor Mehuron who teaches philosophy, professor Ron Delph and professor Philip Schmitz who both teach history. One professor noted his concern that “ ‘Reacting’ gets history wrong.” However, others testified how engaging the method is. Professor Mehuron, who participated in a session of ‘Reacting,’ recounted how she was reduced to tears after arguing with one of her colleagues.