I had this feeling that, somehow, we ought to be teaching not just the history of particular nations or particular regions, but the history of humanity.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of teaching the broader history of humanity rather than focusing solely on specific nations or regions.
David Christian highlights the need for an educational approach that encompasses the entire history of humanity. This perspective encourages us to view our past as interconnected, fostering a greater understanding of our shared experiences and collective journey rather than fragmenting our knowledge into isolated national or regional accounts.
In practice
In a classroom discussion about world history, this quote can inspire students to think beyond national borders.
I believe human beings mark a threshold in the development of the planet, of course, but it is only part of the picture. What Big History can do is show us the nature of our complexity and fragility and the dangers that face us, but it can also show us our power, with collective learning.
If, in schools, we keep teaching that history is divided into American history and Chinese history and Russian history and Australian history, we're teaching kids that they are divided into tribes. And we're failing to teach them that we also, as human beings, share problems that we need to work together with.
If teachers and grammar school editors find my jawbreaker sentences shatter their mushmilk teeth, let them eat stale cake dunked in weak tea of their own ungodly manufacture.
It takes a great deal of living to get a little deal of learning.
For the mind and the imagination, bookstores aren't enough, college courses aren't enough, the Internet isn't enough. Those resources are all governed by the tastes and needs of the moment. Only libraries take the long view, quietly shelving the unused with the used, knowing that one of these days the two categories will be reversed by a student's discovery of those hitherto undisturbed volumes whose contents will unsettle the learned world.
there is plenty to be learned even from a bad teacher: what not to do, how not to be
When I was 13, I started working in a nightclub with Ray Charles. That's the greatest school in the world, the school of the streets. Ray taught me how to read in Braille. He was only two years older than me, but it was like he was 100 years older.
The best and most important part of every man's education is that which he gives himself.
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