Biographies

When we discussed biographies last class, I immediately thought that I would use them in the classroom.  However, when the question was posed after discussing a figure such as Hitler in the classroom, I had to think about my answer.  Although I would still use biographies, I would definitely have to think about the age appropriateness of the person and their story.  As I said in class, I do think that no matter if the figure (such as Hitler) is viewed as good or bad by society, their story should still be addressed; it is still history and it still did occur.  However, the violence and hatred in a story such as Hitler's should definitely not be discussed until late middle school or early high school.  I'm not sure if this is true for all, but I do know that there are some age appropriate biographies depending on the grade the teacher is trying to address.  Meaning, I'm sure that there are biographies concerning Hitler's life somewhere that address less violent issues in order to help discuss his history, but like we also discussed in class, I'm sure those same stories leave out the horrible actions that occurred.  If a biography is used in the classroom, though, I do think that everything about their life should be addressed, and if negative instances occurred throughout their life, it's still history and helped frame their life.  Answering the original question that was posed in Mr. Waters' powerpoint...I do think that biographies can help address social studies topics in the classroom, and quite frankly, I feel that they should be used more often.  I actually can't remember many times in which a teacher used a biography in any sense past the librarians showing where the biographies were located in the reference section or a literature teacher explaining what a biography is.