What Makes History Usable?
1. 1:53 Bob Bain describes a long debate that politicians and educators have “waged war”
over, about what should be taught in the history classroom. What are the two sides and
what do they argue?
2. 2:25 What was the big driving question Bains’s students in Detroit studied?
3. 3:36 What did students do over the course of the school year, after they shared the
stories they collected?
4. 4:43 What did looking at multiple narratives help students do?
5. 5:28 According to Bob Bain, what makes history usable?
Evaluating and Corroborating
1. How might looking at the stories of the history of your city might help you understand
the present better?
2. How might looking at the stories of the history of your city help you understand the
future better?