VENTURA : He Teaches History From the Bottom Up

A Ventura High School teacher, with help from Princeton University, is trying to turn history upside down.

Jim Sargent, head of the social studies department, says history is traditionally taught about kings and queens--from the top down. But he wants to teach history from the bottom up.

This summer, Sargent and three other teachers will travel to college campuses in five cities to advocate this approach in a Princeton teachers-teaching-teachers program. Last summer, Sargent was among 50 experienced teachers selected from 700 applicants nationwide to attend a one-month National Institute for High School History Teachers on the Princeton campus in New Jersey.

“The emphasis at Princeton was that the common people had power too. That’s usually ignored. They had an influence on history. They were not just victims or reactionaries to history,” Sargent said.

He has his students listen to the speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. or interview Vietnam War veterans and tape their stories as oral history.

“Few are white males from the upper class. They are common folks and . . . they can see themselves as part of American history, not just a reaction to power,” he said.

This summer, Sargent will teach other teachers using the same techniques in five one-week sessions emphasizing social history from 1945 to the present, including women’s studies, civil rights, labor history and Cold War politics.