"I didn't think this would happen and look where we are now!": How do we connect history to this current moment in the world?

I have never wanted to teach my student how to think about a topic but as we think about ways to evaluate how the Mongols gained, consolidated, or maintained power I want to do more than hope they use these ideas to evaluate current events.  

I am still wrestling with this, Wayne Zhang  - trying to raise awareness about the parallels in history or historical moments or movements without pushing my political beliefs or "leading the witnesses." And there is always the issue of moving through curriculum - mid terms, grade checks, etc - as well as how rapidly these "once in a lifetime" occurrences keep happening, as you mention.

Having said that, I continue to be amazed at how many students are oblivious to what's going on.  I believe @AngelaLee nailed it when she said, "If we aren't helping the students frame what's happening, then social media will" in this thread. In fact, one of my students responded "Is it on Tik Tok?" when I asked yesterday if they had been following the news.  This raises for me the challenge of helping students see the relevance of these events to their lives.  

Currently, I'm tacking on "these are things you should be aware of and follow, look at multiple sources, and decide for yourselves" at the end of class.  I would like to be more intentional. 

We'll be analyzing the Declaration of Independence soon in my AP class.  That will certainly be an opportunity to draw parallels.  I think Eric Schulz has some great ideas when talking about power, as well.  The dynamics of the relationship between rulers and ruled, management of resources, push-pull factors in migration, connection among communities across networks, run throughout all of world history.  I'm going to keep chewing on it, and look forward to hearing others' strategies.

There are a lot of intersecting ideas that pop into my head with this topic. My first thought is two-fold and based around the idea of useful and usable history: connecting historical study to our present lives is very literally the point and we have to be cautious in doing so, lest students leave thinking the point is that "history repeats itself" and we must "learn from past mistakes".

A few ways to approach this spring to mind. There's the school of thought that current events has no place in the history classroom; this surely cannot be the path we pursue, as it completely undermines the purpose of a usable history.

I think pulling from the Little Big History projects is a strong option here, as it requires students to take interest in something and research the history of it. We could easily imagine doing the same but with a current event instead. Students are tasked with choosing a headline of interest and researching the history of it. A related idea to this would be having a dedicated "current events day" of the week, where students pause their study and have to do one-day research on a current event.

I'm also reminded of this article from Caitlin Monroe in the November 2023 issue of The History Teacher. In it, she describes a course she teaches that is entirely focused around the year 1948. The course looks at different events from that year but, crucially, involves the study of the histories of those events (one example she gives is of "scientific research linking smoking tobacco to lung cancer" that begins "with Indigenous tobacco uses in Mesoamerica before the Columbian Exchange"). I once considered teaching a version of this with the focus year(s) being 2010-11, as that was the birth year for that group of kids. Ultimately I chickened out and went with a more traditional middle school US history-style course (which for my Chinese students was a pretty new perspective, so I didn't feel too bad). The same principles for Monroe's course could easily be applied to today, I'd think.

Definitely appreciate your discussion of "history repeats itself" and we must "learn from past mistakes".

Because I feel like the second I just say that I can feel kids roll their eyes at me haha 

 Wayne Zhang this is a puzzling question. I teach Big History, and one of the opening activities I use when introducing expansion and interconnection is What Caused Expansion?  Students wrestle with the choice between raising taxes or invading neighboring territories. After the activity, we reflect on the present.

I always ask whether they see territorial expansionism happening in the modern world. Until now, the answer has always been no. Students recognize that today powerful countries tend to dominate through economic means—multinational corporations, infrastructure projects, or lending money to finance development—rather than through direct territorial conquest.

But with recent events and the expressed intention to seize Greenland, whether by purchase or military force, I wonder how my students will respond. I didn’t think this would happen and look where we are now.

I agree with Carrie Emmerson in reference to Angela Lee 's comment: "If we aren't helping the students frame what's happening, then social media will." This is exactly what one of my former colleagues David Cutler wrote on PBS: Teachers: If we don't teach Maduro's capture in Venezuela, Tik Tok will. 

History teachers now have a unique opportunity to make the study of history more relevant than ever.

This could be high times for history teachers as we help students learn how to view events.  On the other hand, this could be dependent on the level of support you receive from your administration.  

 Jim Jaeger I agree with you. What is the situation in your school? What is the level of support and/or freedom you have to cover these topics?

Teaching in a district that has a strong union with teacher autonomy is a blessing :) 

Per your comment about Tik Tok teaching students -- I don't know that that's necessarily a bad thing! There's definitely misinformation, but it's really cool to see how kids are actually seeing the news in ways that are digestible to them, and maybe outside of the bias that always pervades the mainstream (thinking specifically about youth spreading information about the genocide in Gaza). 

Wayne Zhang Absolutely. While students often receive news through social media, this is our opportunity to introduce claim testers, concepts of authority, evidence, logic, and intuition. It is necessary to strengthen their media literacy and critical thinking skills.