History department too busy to help
secondary teachers, chairman says
By Cindy Wostrel
Staff Reporter
Although U.S. universities
should work more closely with
high school history teachers to
improve instruction, University of
Nebraska-Lincoln history profes
sors are todtmsy to help secondary
teachers right now, said UNL’s
history department chairman.
Benjamin Rader said he is
“horrified by the absence, of his
torical literacy” in the United
States.
He said he agrees with a report
recently released by the Bradley
Commission on History in
Schools, formed in 1987. The re
port suggested that college history
professors work more closely with
high school teachers to prepare
future history teachers and to im
prove textbooks.
The report was part of the book
“Historical Literacy: The Case for
History in American Education.”
Rader said many high schools
have substituted social studies and
contemporary problems courses
for history courses in their curric
ula.
Knowledge of history is impor
tant, Rader said, because it im
proves communication. If a news
paper makes a reference to Hitler
or Stalin, for example, a reader
knowledgeable about history can
understand the reference, Rader
said.
“It provides us additional vo
cabulary,” he said.
Universities nationwide have
instituted programs that bring in
high school teachers to update
them on historical research, he
said. Some universities even have
summer programs, he said.
The federal government has
sponsored some of these programs,
Rader said, and private founda
tions have sponsored others. The
universities apply for these grants.
UNL’s history department has
not applied for these grants or in
stituted such programs because
professors do all the research and
teaching they can handle, Rader
said.
“It is perhaps unfortunate,” he
said. 1
UNL needs a professor to act as
coordinator for secondary schools,
Rader said. But right now, he said,
professors are too busy to do that.
STRESS from Page 1
because of illness. Of the men, 56.6
percent said they had not missed any
classes due to illness in the previous
four months, compared to 46.3 per
cent of women.
Almost twice as many women as
men said they had missed two days of
class in the same time period due to
illness. As the number of days missed
reached eight or more, the difference
between the sexes narrowed, but
women still were slightly ahead of
men.
The survey also asked students if
they had ever left or considered leav
ing the university because of health
problems. About 4 percent of the
students surveyed answered “yes.”
“If that many are leaving ... I
think that’s something that the uni
versity should address,” Hager said.
She urged students to contact
counselors at the mental health clinic
before deciding to drop out.
“A lot of times there arc things
that we can do to help them,” she
said.
Eager said some people still think
seeking psychological counseling is
admitting a weakness. ,
“Actually it takes a lot more (
strength to say ‘I have a problem,’”
Eager said. \
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