Today, we live in a world in which knowledge and teaching are so compartmentalized that we have lost confidence in our ability to see how it all fits together. You will need something like a modern, science-based origin story that can hold all knowledge together, and help you understand your place in the larger scheme of things. In fact, you will need a deeper sense of how our Universe works and what it is that we are all part of. You will also need a sense of how all that knowledge fits together, of how human actions are affecting the atmosphere and other species, and of how our planet has maintained a safe space for life over almost four billion years. That will be the life-challenge for a younger generation.īut how do you prepare to manage a planet, with its huge variety of plants and animals, of seas, winds and rocks, and a history that stretches back four billion years? Having a lot of detailed technical knowledge is not quite enough. I have been teaching big history courses for almost 30 years.Īnd I now believe they should be an essential part of modern education, particularly today, as we humans begin to understand that we now face the task of managing an entire planet. If history can help us understand the world we live in, why not teach about the whole of history and the whole of time? That is what big history tries to do.
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