HIDDEN HISTORIES
What do we really know about our past? An inquiry into how history is created, recorded, altered—and erased—for posterity.
Fridays 10am - 3pm | Ages 8-15 | March - June 2015
In this ten-week class, we explored our relationship to history, and the relationship between history and power. Who writes history? What stories get told and retold, and what stories fade from memory? Which histories get cannonized, and which histories are silenced? We looked at geography, technology, food, agriculture and worldview, as examples of the forces that influence this process. We helped each other record our own oral histories. We asked, what is a worldview, and how does it influence choice, perspective, and the trajectory of history? Through independent/collaborative research and deep inquiry, we looked at important historical moments and whole histories of existence.
Or as the students described it:
“This class tries to ask the questions we don’t usually think about.”
“A hidden history is a history that is under the surface that people might not think about. A history of the underdogs.”
“It is not about something told from the dominant side that everyone knows, thinks is true, and never questions. All histories connect with the hidden ones, but you wouldn’t discover that if you didn’t uncover the whole story.”
“We looked at how history is created and how it connects to our lives today... Studying hidden histories means taking your time to question what you are learning about the past, to dig deeper, and not just to look at one side of the story.”
“Hidden history is history that is not always obvious but is there if you look close enough.”
A workshop with Nicole LoBue and Jenny Wai-Lan Strodl.