The Big Three Lessons

 

I have learned many things in this class, but there are always certain things from each class that will stand out the most. Since I will be teaching high school students their level of comprehension is slightly higher then elementary school students. Even though this class was taught at a college level many of the things that I have learned can be altered slightly to the high school level. The three things from this class that I hope to remember to teach my students are classical conservatism verses classical liberalism, that nothing is inevitable, and the differences between Alexander Hamilton’s vision and Thomas Jefferson’s vision.

I want the students to learn the differences between classical liberalism and classical conservatism because I think that they can be related almost any of the early American history lessons. It can be used to explain why the constitution was written the way it was or it can be used to help explain the differences between slaveholders and northern abolitionists. I also think that it is important that they realize that there is a difference between classical liberalism and classical conservatism and what those terms mean by today’s standards. I don’t want the students to be confused about the definitions and try to use today’s meanings of conservatism on yesterday’s term.

The second thing from this class that I want to teach my students is that nothing is inevitable. People have to make choices to get the places that they are in. Everyone involved in a certain situation makes choices that affect the outcome. The Native Americans were not just pushed off their lands because it was suppose to happen that way. It was not inevitable that this happened, because they had to make choices that affected what happened to them. They were not passive agents, but were active agents.

The third thing that I want to remember from this class is the differences between Alexander Hamilton’s vision for America and Thomas Jefferson’s vision. Their battle was one of industrialism verses agriculture. I want the students to learn why Hamilton’s vision of an industrial nation survived over Jefferson’s vision of agriculture. I think that it is important that they learn this because a lot of other events in American History happen because Hamilton’s vision prevailed. Industrialization had an affect on everything from the Civil War to the forming of unions and World War Two.

These are the three things that I want to remember to teach my students. I think that they are each important in their own ways. I chose these three because they are all key points that can be tied into other lessons in history. They are not just onetime things to teach the students and then never mention again.

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Hamilton Vs. Jefferson · Inevitability

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