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PROJECT
FEEDBACK
(FROM STUDENTS AND INTERVIEWEES)
During various phases of the project students provide feedback about their experiences as oral historians. What follows are some of those comments.
·
“The unique perspective of the interviewee is a wealth of knowledge
which can help recreate a sense of the past.”
· "There is a significant difference between reading history and actually experiencing it [through the words of one individual]." (L. Day)
· "This project would be just another research paper without the interview." (M. North)
· "Nothing can teach a person more about a period than through the words of someone who lived it." (E. Schwall)
· “Oral history is one of the most interesting ways to learn about the past. It is historically valuable because, in a sense, it is a window into the past.”
· “Oral history is a valuable historical source because events like the Newark rebellion are generally left out of textbooks.”
· "Despite its drawbacks, oral history is very important in that it utilizes one of history's greatest resources, the people by whom history was created."
· ". . . I left the interview as a historian, already deciding what I would do differently the next time."
One of the most exciting parts of the project is when interviewees share their feelings about being the subject of an oral history project. What follows are excerpted portions of letters that have been received by students and that reflect the important work of these student oral historians.
A letter
to Vietnam veteran Col. Paul Skoglund (interviewed in 1997 by Graham Keithley)
from his son after he received a copy of the final project:
I got the packet today . . . I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed reading it, and how much it touched me. These are questions I’ve always wanted to ask you, and about you, and the war that I always wanted to know about, and hear you talk about. I guess it’s like Carol [son’s wife] said, “it’s easier to talk to a stranger than to talk to someone who is close to you.” I know you’ve talked to me a little about it, but never this in depth or that much about your feelings. I want you to know that after reading this, even more so now, that I thank God that my father is alive and that my children have a real grandfather instead of just a memory to hear about from me.
A letter from Col. William D. David (interviewed in 1997 by David Mushal) following the annual oral history coffee house:
The oral presentations were most impressive. The students are poised and articulate beyond their years. The extent of research, analysis, conclusion reaching, and development into the final product showed they responded to the challenge in a dynamic manner. I’m sure that they got out of the project more than they put in, and their rewards will be an enriched appreciation for history and their individual subjects. I have always loved history, but their would have been an even greater affection if there had been this kind of project along the way of my studies.