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‘US History Can Be Fun’: How I Learned to Stop Boredom and Love the Past
Raised the son of a social studies teacher who farmed in his spare time, I disliked both laboring in the fields and studying history. Nothing could be drier than the San Joaquin Valley in the summer, except the textbooks that I later learned were written by students of the scholars under whose names they appeared. Some academician garnered some coin through the surely resentful labor of his or her teaching assistants. Sludge by drudges with grudges, I figure.
Then, somewhere in elementary school, Corinne Forsee appeared. That is to say, my dad let me read his copy of Corinne’s U.S. History Can Be Fun. Corinne was a teacher at Clinton High School in Clinton, IA. Corinne apparently had mercy on her poor charges, and, reckoning that if a teacher can’t stomach a textbook it is likely her pupils can’t either, assembled 231 pages (246 with index) of quirky, sometimes humorous, sometimes trivial information about our nation’s history. J. Weston Walch (which to this day produces educational resources) published the book in 1956.
U.S. History Can Be Fun changed my attitude toward history. I began to realize that the reason I hated history was the textbooks (and sometimes the teachers), not the material. Just at the time of life when differentiation began to rear its head, this wonderful book appeared that taught me and entertained me at the same time.
By my teen years, the book had left my radar. About five years ago I remembered and began to search for a copy online. Eventually, I found it and purchased a used copy for considerably more than I’m sure it cost back in the day.
I expected U.S. History Can Be Fun no longer to be so fun, and that, like Mighty Mouse cartoons and Mitch Miller sing-along albums, it belonged to jettisoned juvenalia. I was wrong, and I’ve been delighted to reacquaint myself with it. After all, where else can I find in one place the rules of manners in 1860 and an account of the Wild West Show featuring Custer’s Last Stand at Madison Square Garden in 1886? Where else can I find the results of Arthur Schlesinger’s poll of “authorities” about the best and worst Presidents (from Life Magazine in 1948), and biographical paragraphs about each of the First Ladies?
What’s not to love, right? A book, written not by an “expert,” but by a true teacher, who cared enough for her students (and others) that she sought to make their young academic lives a bit brighter. She succeeded, for me at least, far beyond her expectations.
Published in Group Writing
I hated history going into college. But then I discovered Western Civ and Dr. Boutelle. She was amazIng. She had us read the Greeks and Romans (in English, of course!) and from their writings, we were told to figure out what they actually were saying through their writings about themselves and their civilizations. At first I failed miserably to understand. Then one day, the light bulb went off, and I was thrilled. It changed my life.
Each time I see that course, I think back to Jesse Jackson and the students at Stanford: “Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Western Civ has got to go”. (In January of 1987)
I was amazed at this idiocy. What I didn’t realize at the time was that this was the beginning of the end for the teaching of history at our universities. Allan Bloom’s seminal work, The Closing of the American Mind was published a month later as the universities began their race to the bottom.
The race to the bottom began during the Vietnam war.
The war was a big part of it. However, as Bloom pointed out, the absolute cowardice of college administrators (ex. not arresting the black radicals parading around the Cornell campus with guns.) was a huge factor in the diminishment of higher education in the U.S.
It seems to me you had two great blessings in one: a teacher who required reading primary texts, and who herself made the past come alive. Here’s to Dr. Boutelle!
She was an amazing teacher. I ended up grading essay papers for her. She was funny and very smart and made it all come alive.
I love history, and sometimes even textbooks, but I will have to see if I can track this down! I shop sometimes at a used bookstore near my grandmother, so I’ll have to keep an eye out for it there. Thanks for sharing!
As an adult I have come to love history through living history museum and other somewhat immersive experiences.
But back in high school (a half century ago!) a summer school class on U.S. history showed me that history need not be a boring recitation of dates and details. I took U.S. history in summer school not because I had failed it in the regular year, but because I wanted to take a bunch of elective classes in the school year, and so wanted to get the history class requirement out of the way to free up my school year schedule for the desired electives. It turned out that one of the school counselors taught the class in the summer, and the structure of the summer school schedule had us in class for several hours each day, instead of the standard 50 minute classes. The counselor/teacher used the time to indulge in lessons and projects that would not have been possible in the more regimented schedule of the regular school year. And he focused more on themes, trends, and long stories than on detailed facts and dates. In many areas, not just history, I relate to long trends and themes more than detailed facts, so his style fit well with me.
There was a yellow-covered companion to it called World History Can Be Fun, but I don’t remember the author, or it being as much fun. I’ve had no luck tracking it down.
Cool, thanks!
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