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.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of teaching history as a shared human experience rather than as fragmented national narratives.
David Christian's quote critiques the way history is often taught in schools by highlighting the segregative approach of emphasizing national histories over a collective human experience. He argues that framing history in terms of distinct countries and cultures promotes division among students, leading them to see themselves as belonging to separate tribes instead of recognizing their common challenges and shared humanity, which is essential for encouraging collaboration and understanding across cultural divides.
In practice
During a school assembly, this quote can be used to encourage students to think beyond national boundaries and promote unity.
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.
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.
The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.
So far has Athens left the rest of mankind behind in thought and expression that her pupils have become the teachers of the world, and she has made the name of Hellas distinctive no longer of race but of intellect, and the title of Hellene a badge of education rather than of common descent.
Why don't they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as well as prohibition did, in five years Americans would be the smartest race of people on Earth.
Policies to strengthen education and training, to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation, and to promote capital investment, both public and private, could all potentially be of great benefit in improving future living standards in our nation.
The purpose of the study of judo is to perfect yourself and to contribute to society.
Only when the child is able to identify its own center with the center of the universe does education really begin.
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