A historybusters' tirade...

Kamehameha V and Wikipedia:
A failure to fact check or proof read

I have tutored many history students whose teachers have told them “not to cite Wikipedia as a source,” yet they seem shocked when I explain to them why.

Recently, I spent quite a lot of time on Wikipedia, doing research for a set of Historybusters’ educational card decks. I needed the public domain images available on their site, but once again I was distressed by the quality of the site’s content. For those readers who are unfamiliar with Wikipedia, it is a volunteer, community-edited, free, on-line Encyclopedia. Any member of the Internet community may sign up to write articles, expand articles, or edit mistakes. Writers are expected to cite sources to primary documents in order to support any facts they include in their articles. A community of volunteer editors works to police new articles and ensure that additions meet Wikipedia’s expectations. This experiment in community editing has proven quite popular, and the site is usually the first link offered up on search engines like Google whenever students type in research word strings. Sadly, the site doesn’t always catch its mistakes or cite its contributor’s additions, which is why most educators tell their students not to use it.

Case in point:

According to the Wikipedia entry for Hawai’i’s King Kamehameha V, he “fell deeply in love with his cousin, Abigail Maheha at the Royal School. He was only 5 years old when he was caught sleeping with Abigail She became pregnant with his child when he was 15 and she 13. On February 4, 1846 when she was 6 months pregnant, she was removed from the Royal School, separated from Lot Kapuaiwa and forced to marry Keaupuni a commoner from Koloa Kauai, the gardener of her adopted mother Miriam Kekauonohi. These events could have led the young Prince to his renounce marriage for the rest of his life, including that to his adopted sister Bernice Pauahi Paki. She eventually married Charles R. Bishop.”

Now, I won’t even mention the poor writing quality with its passive construction and missing puntuation marks. Ooops, I guess that I just mentioned them. Ahh well. What I really wanted to point out is the lack of primary source references within this article. When I broke out my family copy of The Hawaiian Chiefs’ Children’s School by Mary A. Richards, which contains first hand accounts of her Grandparents’ experiences as the school’s teachers, I discovered that Miss Abigail Maheha was indeed “excused from the school activities,” on January 18, 1847, and on February 4, 1847, she was married to the commoner Keaupuni—“a scholar of the High School, but without any diploma.” I guess that I can forgive an online encyclpedia for getting the year off by one, after all, what is one year in the life of a nation. However, The Hawaiian Chiefs’ Children’s School makes no mention of Lot Kamehameha’s involvement in the event. It does however mention Lot’s brother Moses Kekuaiwa, who was expelled from the school over that same period because of ceratin “escapades, but lightly touched upon in his written confession.” It seems that Lot’s older brother was the lad who had the affair with little Abigail. So what is the big deal? Well, consider the rest of this particular Wikipedia entry:

“Rumors has it that (Lot) ask's Bernice to take the Throne. As Lot laid bedstricken, he answered those that came to visit him while preparations for his birthday celebration was underway: "The Good Lord cannot take me today, today is my birthday". He was steadfest, (onipa'a) he believed till the end that he would recover, meaning he never proposed the Throne to Bernice! What is true is that a rumor of such could be of great help in conniving everyone to believe that Bernice should inherit thru Princess Ruth the Bulk of the Kamehameha Lands. Today, the 300 plus descendents of Lot Kapuaiwa Kamehameha and Abigail Maheha thru their only daughter Keanolani, are the only Direct Lineal Descendents of the Kamehameha Dynasty, for Lot was the last of the Kamehameha's to sit upon the Throne, therefore making his Branch the Lineal Branch. All other branches are either collateral or issued of a branch that was not the last of the Kamehameha's to rule . About 150 of then still live on the island of Kauai with about 100 of them in or around the Town of Hanapepe.”

If you can get past the use of an exclaimation point in an encyclopedia entry without throwing your hands up in disgust, you can see that this entry wishes to claim that “the only Direct Lineal Descendents of the Kamehameha Dynasty” belongs to a family on Kaua’i and that the “Bulk of the Kamehameha Lands” should not have gone to Bernice Pauahi Bishop as they did. Now, I am not going to write a history paper explaining why such a claim seems totally unfounded to me. I will simply enourage you to research the lives of King Lot Kamehameh V and Bernice Pauahi Bishop on your own, without relying on Wikipedia or any seconday source. You might just discover the deep repect and affection they held for each other. You might also discover that Lot never “renounced marriage for the rest of his life,” he simply gave his blessing to Bernice’s choice of husband, releasing her from their expected royal betrothal with the words, “She is to good for me.”

Now don’t get me wrong. Wikipedia has its uses. I use it to find public domain images and remind myself of names or dates that I might have forgotten. I also have found some wonderful primary source websites by visiting the external links providied at the bottom of each Wikipedia entry. However, just as often, I have found patently commercial links that are full of specularion, gossip, opinion, and regurgitated wives’ tales. So if you do allow youself, or your young scholars, to use Wikipedia, teach them to be skeptical and always double check all Internet facts with multiple primary source materials.

A few people that I have shared this story with have suggested that I become an editor for Wikipeadia. I remind them that Wikipedia recruites a volunteer army. Editing and fact checking for Wikipeadia is a full time occupation, and I have my own wars to fight. Indeed, the volunteer army that Wikipeadia has asembled has done an amazing job. I simply suggest that we as participents need to be familiar with their fight, so we will not be misinformed by any of their overlooked battles.

I also suggest that when you do research, you try out the educational websearch available on our members' site. Here is the link:

http://www.navigatinglife.org/historybustersmemberscenter/id106.html

As always happy historybusting...

Four Facts Every Proactive Parent Should Know

A disturbing 2008 survey conducted by Common Core shows that far too many graduating seniors fail when it comes to answering even the most basic history and literary questions. However, the same survey discovered that the higher achievers tended to have four things in common.

One: At least one of their parents had a college degree.

Two: Most had read at least one piece of literature not assigned at school.

Three: Invariably, they took part in local cultural events with their friends and families—visiting museums, concerts, and plays.

Four: Often they were members of an orchestra, band, performance group, or choir.

These happy few tended to achieve grades one to two levels higher than students who lacked these advantages. So what can a proactive parent do to take advantage of this survey? Well, if you are already doing all of the above, congratulate yourself for doing your utmost to provide your kids with the support they need to succeed in a subject where, according to the US Department of Education, “the amount of weekly instructional time…fell by 22 percent between 1988 and 2004.”

Congratulations aside, what about the rest of us? I mean what can parents do if they don’t have college degrees? Well, mentoring becomes all the more important. Parents should actively seek out opportunities for their kids to interact with college graduates in a casual setting. I am sorry if that sounds snobbish, and I do know many self-educated individuals who could beat the average college graduate in Jeopardy. That being said, encouraging your kids to hang out with educated people, whether college educated or self-educated, will foster a love of learning in your kids. Children tend to live up to the expectations of those they admire, so be sure to provide your kids with role models worth admiring. Many organizations exist to foster these relationships, and a proactive parent will find a way to encourage these important childhood friendships. Consider Big Brothers, Big Sisters, or having them volunteer for a community organization that interests them. When I was a kid, I practically lived at our various community theatres, and I learned more about literature while volunteering for those theatres than I ever did in high school.

Next, encourage your kids to read for fun. Make friends with your local librarians and ask them for help finding books that will appeal to your child. Keep lots of book options on hand at home. Make personal reading time more important than chore time, homework time, and even bedtime. In other words, when children are reading, they get to keep reading and nothing is allowed to get between them and their book. I know as a child, I hated bedtime because I was never tired. My mother bought me a bedside light and let me read quietly in bed for as late as I wanted. Consequently, I devoured books by the dozens.

Finally, even if you can’t afford spending time or money on museums and plays, you can still provide access to cultural activities through film and the Internet. For example, if you know that your kids are about to study American History then rent HBO’s John Adams and watch it together. Check out PBS’s wonderful documentary and companion website entitled Liberty! If you know that they are about to read Romeo and Juliet then rent Zeferelli’s brilliant production and watch it together. Many of these films are available at your library. Now, merely sitting your kids down and telling them to watch a documentary will not work. Actively watching these programs and exploring these websites together is the key. Moreover, keeping these activities fun is essential. Eventually, they will learn how to seek out answers on their own, and then they will be truly educated. While you are at it, every so often, you might try taking out a map and ask them if they can help you find Afghanistan. Even better, take out a timeline and ask them if they know when an important historical event happened. Don’t worry if you don’t know. Discovering the answers together can be twice as much fun, and Historybusters will continue to help you find the answers whenever we can.

The bottom line? People do not value what they do not perceive as valuable. If you as a parent do not value literature and history by making some small space for it in your daily life then your kids will follow suite. It doesn’t take much to hook a curious young mind on history and literature. After all, who doesn’t like a good story? And that is what we are talking about here—the world’s greatest stories.

Why history teachers hate Wikipedia and what you can do about it.

Do all history teachers hate Wikipedia? In truth, hate is probably too strong a word. After all, Wikipedia has many useful features, and even I, a card carrying Wikipedia hating history teacher, have used it upon occasion. But if we don’t all hate it, then why do so many of us stipulate that our students do not use Wikipedia as a research source?

Problem One: Wikipedia has no official editor or fact checker, so the site is known to contains mistakes and content biases. I run across mistakes all the time. Once, while I was preparing a curriculum for the film Spirit Bear: The Simon Jackson Story, Wikipedia linked me to a biography about a different Simon Jackson. If I hadn’t been checking all my sources, I would have made a seriously foolish mistake. As for biases, the site even has a page where readers may question any article’s neutrality, along with a backlog of articles yet to be processed and a request for volunteer help. As a researcher, I’ve learned how to find facts within biases, but how many high school students take the time to read the discussion behind the discussion?

Problem Two: The site does not really feature primary source material. If you look up Spirit Bear in Wikipedia, you will find this entry. If you Google past Wikipedia, you will suddenly you find this site, which contains Simon Jackson’s story told in his own words. Look up Apollo 13 on Wikipedia and you will find this entry. Search a little further on the web, and you will stumble on this official e-book about the Apollo missions posted by NASA Headquarters. It includes a first hand five-page account of what happened aboard Apollo 13 written by one of the three men who lived it, James A. Lovell. Take a look at the difference between the Wikipedia entry and the five-page account written by Lovell, and you tell me which is the more interesting and accurate account. You tell me why a history teacher might actually want a student to search past Wikipedia.

Problem Three: The writing on Wikipedia is largely atrocious, causing many an editor to cringe in terror. It is full of passive construction, vague subjects, and run on sentences. People add information by adding facts to existing ideas; so most sentences end up constructed something like this:

Apollo 13 was intended to be the third manned lunar-landing mission, part of Project Apollo under NASA in the United States, that would look more closely into the surface of the moon.

A good editor might take the time to write this:

“NASA intended Apollo 13 to be Project Apollo’s third manned lunar-landing and designed its systems to examine the lunar surface up close.”

I know this edit may seem silly to many people, but how will kids ever learn to write clear and effective sentences if they are constantly exposed to unclear and wordy writing?

Problem Four: Wikipedia is too easy. In our instant access online world, information is one click away. When kids use search engines to do historical research, nine times out of ten Wikipedia is the first link offered to them. Moreover, I don’t blame them for clicking on the Wikipedia link because they have come to depend on it. They know that most of the other links presented to them lead to an endless number of commercial sites offering links to another endless number of commercial sites.

So what is a student of history to do?

Google has a free online search feature for its AdSense members that has solved the problem for my students. I was able to formate a specialized search engine that weeds out all sites based upon my preferences. I designed my new search engine so it will only access educational, miliatry, governmental, and a few hand picked organizational sites. In other words, the search engine only looks for URLs with edu, mil, int., and gov, designations. When I tried my new search engine, I was thrilled with the outcome. I immediately found dozens of excellent sites that that would have been buried by other search engines. In fact, I found the wonderful online e-book by NASA on my specialized search engine within the first page of listings. My students and I have said goodbye to the overly commercialized misinformation super highway and finally said hello to a search engine that quickly meets both our scholastic needs.

The Google AdSense account is free. You just need to have a blog or website where you can insert the HTML codes to access your new search engine.

If you are a member of Historybusters, you can access the search engine I’ve just described through your members center. Give it a try the next time your kids have to do online research, and discover how much more fun the informational super highway is without all the commercial traffic.

Again I have been reminded why Historybusters exists

Just yesterday I was helping a new student with his History and English assignments. A young Freshman who knew nothing about the Dark Ages, the Renaissance, or the Reformation. In the back of my mind, I couldn't help but think, if only he had seen the film Luther, he would have a concept about the Reformation. The film Kingdom of Heaven would have given him a background for the Dark Ages. Any one of the many movies about Henry VIII would have explained the break with the Church of England. He could have a broad spectrum of images and ideas to build on if only someone had taken the time to introduce them to him through film. As it is, he has one school year to learn a tidal wave of information from a dry old history book. No wonder he finds history boring. Too many facts to memorise and nothing exciting to tie the facts to.

Please don't let this happen to your kids, make a point of showing them quality historical films from a young age. Make a point of showing them maps, pictures, and timelines. Don't force them to start history class without a basic understanding of history to build upon.