Question 1: How can we trust evidence?
In this first Viewpoints conversation, BHH welcomes Dr. Catherine Denial and Dr. Konrad Hamilton of the Knox College History Department. Catherine has been a historian with Bringing History Home since 2001. Konrad joined us in 2006. They graciously agreed to provide the first pair of responses for this new blog, which is highly appropriate since their ongoing conversations during BHH plannings and de-briefings not only provide excellent eavesdrop fodder, but seeded the idea for this comparative viewpoint format.
With that bit of background established, let's get to the heart of the blog. In this post, I will list the question that was posed. In the two following posts, I will list Catherine and Konrad's responses. On August 4, 2009, I asked Catherine and Konrad to respond to the following...
In the course of Bringing History Home professional development events, we explore the nature of history as evidence-based and interpretive. During a recent workshop, one of the 4th grade teachers attending the event considered the implications of this nature, and posed this question:
In today's world where we have the software to alter photos and
edit documents, how do we combat things like holocaust denial? How
do we give students any confidence in drawing conclusions about
what happened in the past when evidence itself is vulnerable to
tampering and alteration?
