“We are so used to writing about the past, we are so much a text-based professional culture, that we almost always expect our students to replicate what we do adhering as closely to the forms we know and are comfortable with as possible.”
This quote stuck out to me because personally, I think all teachers should consider themselves still learners and try to learn new things as the world grows around them. Also, to be learners in the aspect of learning from their students which means seeing them as equals. In my opinion, this quote shows a teacher that is not an ongoing learner and sticks to what they know. For example, the teachers who only use the same lesson plan book throughout their entire teaching career and never changing it or improving it. Expecting students to replicate the work of their teacher is not giving them any room to grow as a learner and historian. They just give the teacher what they want to hear instead of actually getting something out of writing about the past.
I never thought about this until reading this quote. Barely, if any, jobs make their staff write five-page essays. If a teachers sole form of assignments are essays then they are not helping their students grow as learners, especially if it a typical essay format that they have been trained like a robot to write. I am not saying essays cannot be beneficial because I think they definitely can be when done in a creative way like allowing students to choose their topic, helping them find cool and interesting sources whether online or not. The problem is that if the goal of the teacher is just to have them write an essay for a grade then there is no point because as the quote says, only few will have to write one after college. The student needs to get something out of the essay which comes with research, etc.
“By contrast, if the student creates history in the ways that historians create history (other than writing books or articles), entering his or her work into the public discussion about the past, then the work the student does is no longer part of a binary and private exchange with a professor.”
When going beyond the essay and doing a different type of activity, or even an essay but with peer edits, it is way more beneficial for the student than just teacher feedback. I think teachers sometimes forget that students can learn from their peers just as much, sometimes maybe more, as they learn from the teacher. So, when allowing for a public interaction among other people, the student gets more feedback as well as different outlooks on their work.
