I guess I can agree only very partially with Carol Kammen's
statement that it may be painful for some children. Yes, it may be
painful for children of divorce, single parent families, etc. and a
good teacher who knows his/her students knows those students who
might find a family history project emotionally difficult to deal
with and would offer something else in its place (Carol's suggestion
of a neighborhood interview project is good).

However, children are amazingly resilient, resourceful and
insightful beings and know far more about their family situation
than parents or non-parents acknowledge. If they deal with a "different"
family situation in their daily lives, they usually have the
sensitivity and intelligence to deal with it intellectually in a
classroom situation. In fact, an "unusual" situation in modern-day
America might just be the intact, nuclear, married couple with 2.5
children in suburbia. A compound family made up of a parent with new
spouse, a family with an adopted child or children, or a family missing grandparents because they are deceased of in
Florida may make the project more challenging and interesting than
the afore-mentioned nuclear family. If we eliminate family history
as a possibility for all those children from "different" family
situations, we have eliminated another opportunity for these
children to have a positive experience in learning to live in a
family. And we have eliminated one of the primary means by which a
child may learn history. History, after-all, for an eight-year old
is much more likely to be real if it is the story of her/his father in
Vietnam or grandmother making preserves on a farm in the Forties than another
battlefield account Napoleon or another boring election race for
President.

                                Jim Corsaro

James Corsaro
Associate Librarian
Manuscripts and Special Collections
New York State Library
Empire State Plaza
Albany, New York  12230
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
(518) 474-5963


On Fri, 20 Jun 1997, carol kammen wrote:

>         Family history is very tempting and it is interesting for
> individuals to pursue.  But I worry about class assignments geared to
> family history when there are so many other interesting topics available
> that don't have the same pitfalls.
>
>         If all families were intact, if all kids grew up knowing relatives,
> a family history/genealogy assignment would be fine.  But many children
> today live in split families and presented with a chart showing mother and
> dad could be very painful to them.  Where do they put their step mothers,
> step fathers, and the others in their lives?  Will they feel as their
> family is not quite "right" if they can't fill in the recent generations?
> If they haven't grandmothers to talk to or grandfather who served in the
> war?
>
>         Instead of putting kids in that situation, and you can imagine all
> the variations that can occur, I would have the students decide upon topics
> and then participate in oral interviews of neighbors.  Or have students
> "adopt" people in the area with grey hair and interview them about their
> lives noting especially when the individual life touches upon some of the
> events of history that interest the children.  Or have the children do
> genealogical charts of the stores on a street to look at change over time.
>
>         Students can conduct a variety of very interesting and very useful
> projects.  They should know that their research is important and it should
> be saved in a local historical society or in a school archive with the
> children themselves preparing an index (either on cards or on a computer).
>
>         I urge you to look also, at R. Butchart's Nearby History of your
> school published by AASLH which gives very good ideas about how to research
> a schoolhistory.  Then the childrens' memoires of going to that school can
> be added to the research and the students will have participated in
> something worthwhile.
>
>                                 Carol Kammen
> Cornell University
> [log in to unmask]
>