In 1994, the president of the Modern Language Association, Patricia Meyers Spacks, outlined the need to consider So what? in higher education. We get a bad press these days many believe that we too often devote our efforts to enterprises mattering only to ourselves, Spacks warned. Our research and writing, these critics appear convinced, possess even less value than our teaching. So what? echoes loudly around us.[1] Spacks then suggested a solution: We must answer So what? as a real rather than a rhetorical question. This battle cry to co-opt the critics So what? applies to disciplines across the humanities that have suffered from a shift toward more focused and vocational training in college. Specifically, while making historical narratives compelling and relevant has always motivated historians research and teaching, this cause has become even more urgent with on-going decreases in student enrollment in history courses.
As a lecturer in Boston Universitys College of Arts and Sciences writing program, I have attempted to answer this call by teaching the first history course dedicated to cannabis in the United States, Marijuana in American History. This course attracts students from a wide array of fields in fulfillment of BUs required two-semester writing and research sequence. For many students, especially those from disciplines outside of the humanities, taking a course that revolves around writing papers represents a trip to a foreign land. Thus, students dismissal of history writing as an arcane and niche enterprise reflects a wider protest that asks So what? in its most derisive context, analogous to its evil twin, Who cares? In 2007, 2.24 percent of college graduates majored in history, but only 2.02 percent in 2011.[2] In response, historians have initiated an emphasis on a new pedagogical approach to authentic historical problems or controversies that more accurately reflect the professions self-directed historical inquiry to establish an arguments significance – the so what?
In my own teaching, making history relevant is a two pronged strategy. First, the subject, marijuana, is a popular topic that many students (mostly male) are curious about for a variety of reasons (some better than others). This course follows three eras of marijuana politics. First we cover the major controversies surrounding the Anslingerian prohibition years in the 1930s; next, we examine the war on drugs that began in the 1960s; and finally, we research the legalization era that began in the 1990s. The topic obviously provides a rich cultural history with a dizzying array of sources that engage students but also consider marijuanas symbolic and political significance. For example, while reliable entertainment, comparing Reefer Madness, Easy Rider, Cheech and Chongs Up in Smoke and Jeff Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High provides a fascinating window into Americans shifting sentiments about pot and the stoner from the 1930s to the 1980s. While the first two papers ask students to argue about the historical trends in marijuana culture, science and politics, the final assignment embraces the topics current controversy and asks students to develop an argument about the reason for the recent growing support for legalization. This assignment gives students free reign to choose their topics, as they write about issues such as marijuana culture and research in social media, womens roles in the effort, the motivation for racial justice and of course the medicinal movement.
Second, this class shows history as controversy with contemporary implications rather than a list of dates and names. Students analyze political texts such as congressional testimony and Richard Nixons tapes to explore the complicated messages and cultural assumptions that informed our policies on drugs. Practicing these historical skills, students quickly learn that as soon as they can formulate a thesis, the so what? should also be included. Why does it matter if we scapegoat the first director of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Harry J. Anslinger, for passing the Marijuana Tax Act in 1937? What lessons should we learn from following the rise and fall of the gateway theory? What does millennials overwhelming support for legalization say about this generation? All of these questions push students to make the connections between their scholarly argument and its current implications. Beyond the academic pursuit of marijuana historys larger significance, my students can feel the topics controversy outside the classroom.
Soon, the class picked up wider publicity and critics predictably asked why something like this should pass as college material. One response to an article USA Today ran on Marijuana in American History expressed the abhorrence that many parents shared. As a parent of a prospective student: STRIKE 1 read one typical reaction. This is not something we are looking for in a future college. As a new hire, I began to question my decision to offer the course. After checking with BUs public relations office, however, I quickly realized that the positives greatly outweighed the negatives and they reassured me of the universitys support. In addition, students in my class found the controversy over their course flattering. One even expressed that she felt she was actually a part of history, while another engineering student reflected in his course portfolio, At this time I think I have far greater perspective on the marijuana issue, but really what I think I got out of this course was a greater appreciation for how the whole liberal arts college[humanities?] thing can teach you how to think about issues. In his paper, he argued that courses like Marijuana in American History are necessary, asking: if marijuana has been legitimized in business, medicine and in politics-why not in academics? – essentially developing a so what? that answered many critics who wondered who cares? (Or as one person protested: And this course will prepare the student to do something?). Despite the current hostility to the humanities, or perhaps because of it, the history of marijuana is a new and exciting field that can expand undergraduates notions of historys role in changing perceptions of drugs and alcohol in society.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker
Full Article: Teaching Point – Teaching The So What? In Marijuana In American History
Author: Seth Blumenthal
Contact: emily.dufton@gmail.com
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Website: Points: The Blog Of The Alcohol & Drugs History Society
