I'm a history teacher?

I've always loved history. No one can doubt that. I've never really thought of it more than more a side interest. I am by no means an historian. I have too little inclination toward the social sciences to appreciate the modern historical method. Someone like Gibbon or Carlyle, someone more concerned with the grand sweeping narrative, not so much the understanding of causality in a precise scientific manner. For me history is an investigation of causes and effects, but only in order to place them in their proper place in a narrative. It logically follows then that there are as many histories as their people. We all construct our own histories and our own narratives out of personal investigations. We do this especially with our personal histories. Events in our lives and events connected to our lives take their proper place in what we see as the overall meaning of things.

History as an academic discipline works in the same way. However, we must be more precise. We must be clear about what we are talking about. We have to justify why a certain piece of evidence fits into our narrative. Somehow or another, I've found myself as a teacher of history and I'll have to strive to get my students to understand history qualitatively. I'm not sure how hard this will be. Actually, I'm sure that it will be difficult. History is commonly regarded as litany of dates and names - especially in Korean schools. Understanding it as a logical narrative will be difficult to students who have this idea. But I'm giving it a shot.