Students as Oral Historians

Abstract

GIVEN the interest in oral history at virtually every level of education, it is necessary to reconsider its strengths and weaknesses as a mode of instruction. Hailed both as a substitute for more traditional classroom assignments and historically original, oral history faces a critical juncture.1 In one respect, no doubt, the problems confronting the field are akin to those encountered by the other newly emergent dimensions of social scientific instruction and research, namely black and ethnic studies, urban studies, women's studies, peace studies, etc., which have flourished in the past decade.2 It is the objective of this paper to set forth the critical issues which instructors must grapple with if oral history's potential as a classroom tool is to be realized. Charles T. Morrissey, a pioneer oral historian who also has concerned himself with instructional applications, has suggested, what is needed most ... is a series of specific efforts.3 My report, therefore, focuses on the experiences of an oral history course at Lake Forest College, a small four-year independent liberal arts institution north of Chicago. And while this essay is primarily concerned with oral history's utility in a four-year college context, certain of its conclusions