Getting Students in the Journal-Keeping Habit

Peter Hildebrandt

Reprinted from the OAH Magazine of History
7 (Summer 1992). ISSN 0882-228X
Copyright (c) 1992, Organization of American Historians
 

What will be remembered of our age? At the rate we are going--not much. One way to save the day-to-day world we inhabit is through a journal. There is no better way to actively involve students of history than by making them a part of it.

Before the actual writing of a journal starts, students must have a reason for taking part in this activity. Rather than just telling of the value and power of a regular journal, showing is more exciting and effective. I have found reading excerpts of actual journals and diaries to be one way to get started. The range of books to be found is virtually limitless. To help trim the task down, it may be helpful to choose from a unit being studied at the moment.

Since we have spent much time on the Civil War this year, I was able to read to students from a personal favorite: The Diary of George Templeton Strong. It is one of the finest Civil War records in print--from a Northern point of view--and is amazingly comprehensive, highly readable, and fascinating as well. I have read parts of this diary in class and had students try to guess what time in our history it is from. What has been particularly revealing is to what extent we take for granted the North's knowledge of the war finally being over. Templeton's entries for early April 1865 show just how unexpected the war's end was through the incredible spontaneous celebrations taking place, especially when news of Richmond's fall reached the North on the third of April.

When we studied the early exploration of the West, I picked a bit more graphic journal to read from. This was another favorite of mine, Journal of a Mountain Man, in which James Clyman describes his work in sewing up Jebediah Smith's head and ear after Smith was attacked by a Dakota grizzly in the 1820s. Pick books you are familiar and comfortable with and your class is certain to catch your enthusiasm.

After sharing these with the class I try to get them to think of the difference between something written at the time and descriptions of the same incident written at a later time. This year has been especially good for news and keeping journals. To show the mood we had just before the Persian Gulf conflict I read to the class the following entry after getting permission from this student:

Today is January 15th. It's just about time. I believe we will go to war. I don't think we really have a choice when the deadline hits. It's a real scary feeling because I don't know what to expect.

Her entry for two days later reads:

Well, yesterday the war started. My boyfriend is really upset because he thinks he'll have to go. I hope it ends soon, because the longer it lasts the more people will have to go. Last night I just sat with Joe and watched the news.

Following this example of two brief entries, students usually come to realize that things written shortly after they occur have much more feeling, information, and drama than what may come from a history book years later.

One student complained that she still did not see the point of keeping a journal, insisting the same thing would be written everyday. She could not understand how someone in the future might find anything about the time in which she lived interesting--especially anything she had to write. The way I dealt with this student was to talk to her individually--to avoid general "mutiny" in class--and make a deal with her. I asked her to comment daily in her journal about something in the news, challenging her to find some way to relate it to her life. I told her to keep this up for two weeks. If, after the time passed she found nothing memorable I would not "force" her to keep a journal.

Another way to get students to see the worth of day-to-day writing is by studying journals of particular societies. David Hackett Fischer's recent book, Albion's Seed, contains many excerpts from Puritan journals, for example. There is perhaps no better way of discovering what a culture is all about than by looking at people's everyday lives. Reading from these types of sources should help students see how their diaries and journals may possibly help future generations understand factors in their day-to-day existence.

There are no limits to how a social studies teacher may excite interest in journal writing. Some students respond better to an assignment allowing the use of imagination. This may be one way to spark interest in regular journal-keeping. A cemetery we visited in southern Utah, for example, contained graves of a whole family that had been killed by Indians. I had any interested students write a fictional journal of this family's trials.

We as teachers should be able to give our students reasons for doing the activities we assign, including the activity of journal-keeping. If students discover for themselves the benefits of keeping a journal, they will likely keep the habit for years to come. q