Alternate Stories

 I am planning a lesson for my Grade 4 students based on Gulliver's Travels, where it talks about Gulliver's encounter with the magic conjurers of "Glubbdubdrib". In this chapter, Gulliver meets the spirits of historical figures, many of whom don't prove to be the way historians quite pictured them to be. I believe this chapter satirizes the way history is written in such a way that it valorizes some who did not "deserve" credit while belittling or ignoring those who might have received more credit than they did. History, for Jonathan Swift, is not so straightforward, and it almost seemed that Swift admired the antihero who did accomplish a great deal yet was not honored for her or his achievements. Cato, Socrates and Brutus were examples of historical figures whom Swift felt did not sufficiently receive credit where it was due.
   I begin to wonder what would be the take home lesson for Grade 4 students? Is it to say that our reputations are often built upon distorted stories or narratives? I find this conclusion to be a bit pessimistic, and it might lead one not to trust any historical narratives at all. A different way of teaching this lesson might be to consider, what are alternate ways of looking at people's lives? How might the life of a disgraced or "obscure" person, for instance, be seen in a way that truly recognizes the person's struggles and achievements, rather than consigning them to a category such as "failure"? What this lesson might also introduce is the theme that a lot of our narratives are based on perspectives and biases. It's hard to shake off a person's reputation, and it takes courage to be able to shed new light on a person that sufficiently explores their achievements in spite of negative aspects that might have been emphasized.
   The way I might design such a lesson for the students might be to explore someone they know or have read about, and try to explore unexpected or surprising facts about that person which have not been heretofore explored. Another way would be to have the students guess which obscure historical facts about a person belong to that historical figure, thus getting the students to think about alternate ways of seeing a person or even to feel "surprise" at history rather than framing people according to preconceived ideas.