Welcome and Introduction to: VOED 6513 History and Principles of Vocational Education

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Welcome and Introduction to VOED 6513 History
and Principles of Vocational Education

• Dr. David M. Agnew
• Associate Professor
• Arkansas State University

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History

• Main Entry history
• Pronunciation 'his-t(-)rE
• Function noun
• Inflected Form(s) plural -ries
• Etymology Latin historia, from Greek, inquiry,
  history, from histOr, istOr knowing, learned
  akin to Greek eidenai to know.

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What is History?

• Websters definitions
• An account of what has happened, especially to
  people, country, etc.
• All recorded past events
• the branch of knowledge that deals
  systematically with the past.
• A known or recorded past

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What is History?.Continued

• A narrative of events a story.
• A chronological record of events, as of the life
  or development of a people or institution, often
  including an explanation of or commentary on
  those events.
• History is a methodical record of important
  events which concern a community of men, usually
  so arranged as to show the connection of causes
  and effects, to give an analysis of motive and
  action etc.

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Is History Important?

• Is it worth our time to look back?
• Will knowing history affect the future?
• Will we become confused with the past?
• Will knowing history help us make better
  decisions?
• Would we be better off not knowing the past?

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Yes No Maybe

• Usefulness of any knowledge depends on what you
  do with it .
• History can become an invisible barrier if we are
  not careful.

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What do the great thinkers and leaders throughout
history say about history?
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Marcus Tullius Cicero Roman statesman 106-43 BC

• History is the witness that testifies to the
  passing of time it illumes reality, vitalizes
  memory, provides guidance in daily life, and
  brings us tidings of antiquity.

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Shakespeare

• There is a history in all mens lives.
  

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Napoleon

• "History is the version of past events that
  people have decided to agree upon."

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Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826Third President,
1801-1809

• If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a
  state of civilization, it expects what never was
  and never will be.

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Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

• "Books are the carriers of civilization. Without
  books, history is silent, literature dumb,
  science crippled, thought and speculation at a
  standstill."

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Abraham Lincoln

• Fellow Citizens, we cannot escape history
• (Upon the subject of education) I can only say
  that I view it as the most important subject
  which we as a people can be engaged in. That
  every man may receive at least, a moderate
  education and thereby be enabled to read the
  histories of his own.

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Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.1841 1935. U.S.
Supreme Court Judge

• "A page of history is worth a pound of logic."
• Young man, the secret of my success is that at
  an early age I discovered that I was not God.
  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

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Sir Winston ChurchillBritish Prime Minister
during WWII

• "For my part, I consider that it will be found
  much better by all parties to leave the past to
  history, especially as I propose to write that
  history myself."
• History will be kind to me, for I intend to write
  it.

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H. G. Wells (1866-1946) Author

• "Human history becomes more and more a race
  between education and catastrophe.
• Best known for THE TIME MACHINE (1895), one of
  the first modern science fiction stories, THE
  INVISIBLE MAN (1897), and THE WAR OF THE WORLDS
  (1898).

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Harry S Truman (1884-1972)

• "Men make history, and not the other way around.
  In periods where there is no leadership, society
  stands still. Progress occurs when courageous,
  skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change
  things for the better.

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Lyndon Baines Johnson, 1908 1973 Thirty-Sixth
President, 1963-1969

• On the subject of history.The knowledge of which
  gives dimension to the present, direction to the
  future, and humility to the leaders of men.

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Albert Cooper

• "A true history of human events would show that a
  far larger proportion of our acts as the results
  of sudden impulses and accident, than of the
  reason of which we so much boast."

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Robert Heinlein, The Notebooks of Lazurus Long

• "A generation which ignores history has no past
  and no future."

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John GardnerWWII Vet. Former Secretary of HEW,
Author, etc.

• "History never looks like history when you are
  living through it. quoted by Bill Moyers
• We don't even know what skills may be needed in
  the years ahead. That is why we must train our
  young people in the fundamental fields of
  knowledge, and equip them to understand and cope
  with change. That is why we must give them the
  critical qualities of mind and durable qualities
  of character that will serve them in
  circumstances we cannot now even predict."
  John Gardner, "Excellence ""

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Franklin D. Roosevelt 1882-1945Thirty-Second
President 1933-1945

• Books cannot be killed by fire. People die but
  books never die. No man and no force can abolish
  memory.

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Armstrong Williams

• We need such reminders every now and again to
  keep us grounded in reality and keep the most
  important events of our history from becoming
  footnotes in our memory.
• The unforgettable power of' Beloved' Relevancy
  93 (The Washington Times ) Armstrong Williams
  10-17-1998

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Jack HandeyAuthor/Humorist

• Many people think that history is a dull
  subject. Dull? Is it "dull" that Jesse James once
  got bitten on the forehead by an ant, and at
  first it didn't seem like anything, but then the
  bite got worse and worse, so he went to a doctor
  in town, and the secretary told him to wait, so
  he sat down and waited, and waited, and waited,
  and waited, and then finally he got to see the
  doctor, and the doctor put some salve on it? You
  call that dull?

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The Devil's Dictionary -- 1911

• HISTORY, n. An account mostly false, of events
  mostly unimportant, which are brought about by
  rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools.
  Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)

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Henry Ford
Ford has a better Idea

• "History is more or less bunk."

In the 1940s Ford was sued for patent rights
infringement by Harry Ferguson and was forced to
pay the largest settlement every paid for
stealing a patent.
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Misc Quotes

• The past is always a rebuke to the present.
  Robert Penn Warren
• History is the record of encounters between
  character and circumstance. Donald Creighton
• History is not history unless it is the truth.
  Abraham Lincoln
• History is lies agreed upon.
• When a person dies a library of information dies
  with them.
• All law and the enforcement requires a knowledge
  of history.
• Progress in Research is based upon a record of
  the past.
• The future anit what it used to be.

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Subject Freshmen Class

• Just in case you weren't feeling too old today,
  this will certainly change things. Each year,
  the staff at Beloit College in Wisconsin puts
  together a list to try to give the faculty a
  sense of the mindset of that year's incoming
  freshmen. Here's this year's list
• 1 The people who are starting college this fall
  across the nation were born in 1980.

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Freshman Class of 1999 continued ....

• 2. They have no meaningful recollection of the
  Reagan Era and did not know he had ever been
  shot.
• 3. They were prepubescent when the Persian Gulf
  war was waged.
• 4. Black Monday 1987 is as significant to them as
  the Great Depression.
• 5. There has been only one Pope. They can only
  really remember one president

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Freshman Class of 1999 continued....

• 6. They were 11 when the Soviet Union broke apart
  and do not remember the Cold War.
• 7. They have never feared a nuclear war. "The
  Day After" is a pill to them, not a movie.
• 8. They are too young to remember the space
  shuttle blowing up, and Tiananmen Square means
  nothing to them.
• 9. Their lifetime has always included AIDS

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Freshman Class of 1999 continued....

• 10. They never had a Polio shot, and likely do
  not know what it is.
• 11. Bottle caps have not only always been screw
  off, but have always been plastic. They have no
  idea what a pull-top can looks like.
• 12. Atari pre-dates them, as do vinyl albums.
• 13. The expression "you sound like a broken
  record" means nothing to them.
• 14. They have never owned a record player.

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Freshman Class of 1999 continued....

• 15. They have likely never played Pac Man and
  have never heard of Pong.
• 16. Star Wars look very fake to them, and the
  special effects are pathetic.
• 17. There have always been red MMs, and blue
  ones are not new. What do you mean there used to
  be beige ones?
• 18. They may have heard of an 8-track, but
  chances are they probably never have actually
  seen or heard one.

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Freshman Class of 1999 continued....

• 19. The Compact Disc was introduced when they
  were 1 year old.
• 20. As far as they know, stamps have always cost
  about 32 cents. (Accurate until recently.)
• 21. They have always had an answering machine.
• 22. Most have never seen a TV set with only 13
  channels, nor have they seen a black-and-white TV.

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Freshman Class of 1999 continued....

• 23. They have always had cable.
• 24. There have always been VCRs, but they have no
  idea what BETA is.
• 25. They cannot fathom not having a remote
  control.
• 26. They were born the year that Walkmen were
  introduced by Sony.
• 27. Roller-skating has always meant inline for
  them.

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Freshman Class of 1999 continued..

• 28. The Tonight Show has always been with Jay
  Leno.
• 29. They have no idea when or why Jordache jeans
  were cool.
• 30. Popcorn has always been cooked in a
  microwave.
• 31. They have never seen Larry Bird play, and
  Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a football player.

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Freshman Class of 1999 continued....

• 32. They never took a swim and thought about
  Jaws.
• 33. The Vietnam War is as ancient history to them
  as WWI, WWII, or even the Civil War.
• 34. They have no idea that Americans were ever
  held hostage in Iran.
• 35. They can't imagine what hard contact lenses
  are.

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Freshman Class of 1999 continued....

• 36. They don't know who Mork was or where he was
  from.
• 37. They never heard the terms "Where's the
  beef?", "I'd walk a mile for a Camel," or "de
  plane, de plane!
• 38. They do not care who shot J.R. and have no
  idea who J.R. is.
• 39. The Titanic was found? I thought we always
  knew where it was.

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Freshman Class of 1999 continued...

• 40. Michael Jackson has always been white.
• 41. Kansas, Chicago, Boston, America, and Alabama
  are places, not groups.
• 42. McDonald's never came in styrofoam
  containers.
• 43. There has always been MTV.

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What does that have to do with us???????

• There are things that I think other people know.
  But they dont!!!
• I base my actions on my experience and knowledge
  but others sometimes do not understand the
  background for my decisions.
• When we see the big picture we are more likely to
  understand.But without history I (we) can only
  see part of reality. The part which we
  experience first hand.

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The question posed at the beginning of this
presentation
Is History Important?
YES
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The End
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• The only good histories are those that have been
  written by the persons themselves who commanded
  the affairs whereof they write.
  -Michael de Montaigne
• It takes a great deal of history to produce a
  little literature.
  -Hawthorne

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• In books lies the soul of the whole Past Time
  the articulate audible voice of the past, when
  the body and material substance of it has
  altogether vanished like a dream. -
  "Happy are the people whose annals are blank in
  history books" Thomas Carlyle
• People will not look forward to posterity who
  never look backward to their ancestors. -Edmund
  Burke

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• To understand a science it is necessary to know
  its history.
  -Auguste Isidore Comte
• The progress of thought.
  -Alfred North Whitehead
• A peoples memory.
  -Isaac Peretz