DEAR STUDENT: WHY WE ARE STUDYING HISTORY

"Begin with the end in mind," urges Stephen Covey in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.  This assignment is intended to stimulate your thinking about the ends of history education as well as preparing you to explain to students how the study of history can benefit them.  Why should students bother with learning history?  What difference will it make in their lives?  What life skills will it provide students who take it seriously?  Why is it included in their curriculum?  How important is the discipline of historical thinking?  How does history relate to the other disciplines in the social studies curriculum, and to other disciplines across the school curriculum?  Given your answers to the preceding questions, how can your ideal student best learn history?
 
These questions fall far short of exhausting the list of queries a justification of history education might address, but good students will ask them afresh every year, and good teachers will ponder them again and again throughout their careers.  This paper will ultimately help you articulate and apply what will hopefully become your own philosophy of history education, but hopefully, although it will be far from your final word on the subject.  The letter may be cordial and informal, but be sure to write it clearly in your best style, the kind to which you hope your students will aspire and which you would be proud for a parent, a principle, a department head, or even the local newspaper reporter to read.  Make sure that the letter has a sharp focus, advanced in a clear main idea and maintained throughout by strong topic and transition sentences.  The letter should demonstrate that you have reflected deeply on the issues raised in class readings and discussions.  If you are planning on teaching in Michigan, you should explain to your student how your ideas align with the Michigan Framework for Social Studies Education.
 
Print your letter out in font no smaller than 12-point, single-spaced, with 1-inch margins all around.
 
Due on the date specified in the course syllabus.