Notes
1 Office of the Press Secretary, "President Obama Expands 'Educate to Innovate' Campaign for Excellence in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education," White House, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/president-obama-expands-educate-innovate-campaign-excellence-science-technology-eng.
2 Alfred North Whitehead, The Aims of Education (New York: Free Press, [1929] 1957), 19.
3 Ibid., 2.
4 Maria Montessori, To Educate the Human Potential (Oxford: ABC-CLIO, 1989).
5 Vartan Gregorian, "Colleges Must Reconstruct the Unity of Knowledge," Chronicle of Higher Education 50, no. 39 (2004).
6 Whitehead tried to capture something this emerging epic in his philosophical, historical, and metaphysical reflections, but he did not have the benefit the many ensuing and accelerating decades of scientific advance. The two most important works are Alfred North Whitehead, Adventures of Ideas (New York: Free Press, [1933] 1967). and ———, Process and Reality (New York: Free Press, [1929]1978). The later is profound, but difficult. The former is accessible, but dated. See also ———, Science and the Modern World (New York: Free Press, [1925] 1967).
7 Carl Friedrich von Weizsaecker, Die Geschichte Der Natur (Frankfurt: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1962).
8 David Christian, Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), 2.
9 A recent survey suggests that “Big History” is taught at 32 institutions by 28 professors (or teams) in 7 countries. See Barry Rodrigue and Dan Stasko, "A Big History Directory,"World History Connected 6, no. 3 (2009). A substantial literature is evolving about this content and pedagogy. See Metanexus Institute.
10 History should really be understood as an extension of the sciences as it seeks first to be factual and evidence based, even though it also involves humanistic disciplines and is inevitably implicated in ideological biases. When human history is approached in the context of Our Common Story, it is less about the rise and fall of civilizations and more about global change processes including the rise of agriculture and the spread of infectious diseases, tool-making and technology, paleoanthropology and cognitive neurosciences, the nature and evolution of human conflict, the nature and evolution of human cooperation, the rise of markets and global capitalism, the growth in human populations and the human impact on the environment. As “history,” Big History is also inevitably implicated in ideological and disciplinary biases. Effective pedagogy welcomes these debates about these interpretations, so long as they are factually based.
11 Bertrand Russell, Mysticism and Logic (London: G. Allen & Unwin, 1917), 47-48.
12 Alfred North Whitehead, The Function of Reason (Princeton: Princeton University P ess, 1929), 12.
13 David Christian addresses this question of interpretation in the introduction of Maps of Time (2004). He writes: “Metanarratives exist, they are powerful, and they are potent. We may be able to domesticate them; but we will never eradicate them. Besides, while grand narratives are powerful, subliminal grand narratives can be even more powerful. Yet a ‘modern creation myth’ already exists just below the surface of modern knowledge. It exists in the dangerous form of poorly articulated and poorly understood fragments of modern knowledge that have undermined traditional accounts of reality without being integrated into a new vision of reality. Only when a modern creation myth has been teased out into a coherent story will it really be possible to take the next step: of criticizing it, deconstructing it, and perhaps improving it. In history as in building, construction must precede deconstruction. We must see the modern creation myth before we can criticize it. And we must articulate it before we can see it.” p. 10.
Bibliography
Christian, David. Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.
Grassie, William J. Metanexus Institute, http://www.metanexus.net.
Gregorian, Vartan. "Colleges Must Reconstruct the Unity of Knowledge." Chronicle of Higher Education 50, no. 39 (2004): B12.
Montessori, Maria. To Educate the Human Potential. Oxford: ABC-CLIO, 1989.
Rodrigue, Barry, and Dan Stasko. "A Big History Directory." World History Connected 6, no. 3 (2009).
Russell, Bertrand. Mysticism and Logic. London: G. Allen & Unwin, 1917.
Secretary, Office of the Press. "President Obama Expands "Educate to Innovate" Campaign for Excellence in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (Stem) Education." White House, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/president-obama-expands-educate-innovate-campaign-excellence-science-technology-eng.
von Weizsaecker, Carl Friedrich. Die Geschichte Der Natur. Frankfurt: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1962.
Whitehead, Alfred North. Adventures of Ideas. New York: Free Press, [1933] 1967.
———. Process and Reality. New York: Free Press, [1929]1978.
———. Science and the Modern World. New York: Free Press, [1925] 1967.
———. The Aims of Education. New York: Free Press, [1929] 1957.
———. The Function of Reason. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1929.