Howard Zinn answers this and other commonly asked questions about teaching a people’s history. The questions include:

– What do you see as some of the major problems in how US history has been taught in this country?
– How do you prevent history lessons from becoming a recitation of dates and battles and Congresspersons and presidents?
– How can teachers foster critical thinking so that students don’t merely memorize a new, albeit more progressive set of facts?
– Is it possible for history to be objective?

Interview conducted by Barbara Miner.

This lesson was published by Rethinking Schools in Rethinking Our Classrooms, Volume 1: Teaching For Equity and Justice. For more lessons like “Why Students Should Study History: An Interview with Howard Zinn,” order Rethinking Our Classrooms, Vol.1 with creative teaching ideas, compelling classroom narratives, and hands-on examples that show how teachers can promote the values of community, justice, and equality while building academic skills, edited by Wayne Au, Bill Bigelow and Stan Karp. See Table of Contents.