The reports of many government cuts justified as wasted or worse tend to be an abstraction in most people’s minds. Old folks like me may react when hearing about threats to social security and Medicare and parents with special needs children may fear the funds that support the educational needs of their kids may have a more personal reaction. Perhaps you try to visit National Parks in the summer and know that access is already challenging and the reduction in staff can only make that situation worse. Here is another example.
We are coming up on National History Day. One educational event associated with the focus on the importance of the study of history is a program in many schools that hosts a contest in which students pursue a history project of personal interest and compete in a display of what their project accomplishes. Many years ago, I did Science Fair projects and when learning that our grandkids had competing in History Day projects, I used my science experience as a way to understand what this was all about. Like Science Fairs, History Day involves personal student projects that are judged in a competitive process that moves from school to state to national level competitions of students are selected to advance. The prizes at the highest level are substantial and represent projects of spectacular ingenuity and scholarship.
The opportunities in schools to focus on a personal or “passion project” are very limited. The skills of independent research are important as life skills and the integration of information from multiple varied types of sources is unique. Most adults would be impressed by the range and uniqueness of the topics selected. I provide a link to sample projects at the conclusion of this post.
These programs require a great amount of organization and effort on the part of educators and administrators. Funds are required to augment the. effort of volunteers and support a process that is national in scope. Some of these funds were provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities and this support has now been cut by the Trump Administration.
Sometimes, I get the feeling that when politicians oppose government spending they give the impression that the government is an abstract object of some type and the funds allocated to government agencies are burned rather put toward the accomplishment of very concrete tasks. My point is that this is not the case. Funds go for actual projects and the funds enabling these experiences must come from somewhere. In a time when school experiences have come under scrutiny often involving those experiences that describe the history of our country. Just what is to be made of targeting the personalized study of history? The reality of history is not fiction and exploring and accepting reality has to be a good thing.