Tracy Penny Light’s Intro to Canadian History class has taught me to analyze history with a certain openness and a perspective to think critically. Some of the major themes I have taken from this class are as follows. History is a matter of historians proving the claims made by their sources (verifiability). When speculating Canadian history we must be aware of many aspects. The fact that majority of Canadian history was written by European settlers is to be duly noted as we cannot necessarily fully rely on this one-sided and biased information. This is where the significance of sources within history comes into play. Primary and secondary sources are a large part of history that rely upon verifiability and reliability. We also have to be aware that certain documents may lead us to one assumption while others may provide another explanation of an event. Another main quality of history, that I can personally relate to, is that it is constantly changing. History shapes our ideas about the present and future, but it is also our present that influences our conceptions about our past and therefore contributes to the idea that history will always be changing. As new information and documents surface, and as historians look deeper into particular events, new findings and the change of certain events tend to occur. We also have to avoid generalization by studying the specific details and people that were involved in historical events. All of the aspects above are inter-related and affect one another subsequently. In my eportfolio I intend to articulate how certain assignments and historical events reinforce the above ideas and how these relate to me personally.
