Assessment on researching Valentine's Day online

While researching on the internet for the history of Valentine’s day I began with a website I knew and the first Google search result. This was history.com (The History Channel Website). From this website I had two concerns. This first one was the lack of detail. Both the text and the video on this website stated that there were various St. Valentines, but only went into limited detail on two. Additionally, very few sites I found (minus Wikipedia) went into detail on these various St. Valentines. However, the other two websites (Wikipedia and pictureframes.co.uk) did go into more depth on the two versions of the one St. Valentine that The History Channel website mentioned. Therefore, because other websites had also written about this man, and they included more detail, making his story more comprehensive, I began to believe the information provided by The History Channel.

The second concern I had about The History Channel, and a more influential reason for searching other sources, was that related links next to the video on the history of Valentine’s Day were absurd. One was a kissing contest and another was a wedding where the bride and groom said their vows while in a block of ice. These ridiculous links threw off the credibility of the information on the history of Valentine’s Day.

While one concern I had was lack of detail and the other was credibility of the site, a third concern I had during my research was credibility of information. Pictureframes.co.uk listed no sources and Wikipedia had some, but to me Wikipedia is only a good site to begin learning about a topic, not a place to obtain research information because anyone can put anything onto that webpage.

A final thought I had while researching was: Why was there such a lack of information on how the holiday developed from honoring a saint to the commercialized holiday it is today? Due to the availability of more in depth records in the 19^th and 20^th century I thought there would be a lot of information on this concept, but only one website, Wikipedia, provided information on it and that was barely two paragraphs long.

History of Valentine's Day

Valentine’s Day has many possible historical origins. First, it can be traced to Ancient Rome and the pagan festival that honored Lupercalia. During this festival the community sacrificed an animal and then slapped its skin on women in order to bless them with a year of good fertility. Although this festival has nothing to do with St. Valentine it is related to the origins of Valentine’s Day because it occurred in mid-February.

More on topic is the Catholic origin of Father Valentine, but his story is only a legend. Father Valentine lived in the 3^rd century AD during the rule of Roman Emperor Claudius II. Claudius II banned marriage in order to grow his army because he (Claudius II) believed married men did not make good soldiers. However, Father Valentine defied Claudius II’s law by secretly marrying lovers. For this he was arrested and thrown into jail. Here is where the legend becomes inconsistent. One version states that while he was imprisoned he and a jailor’s daughter grew fond of each other and on the day of his execution he left her a note signed “From your Valentine.” The second version states that while he was imprisoned people left him little notes, from which he offered prayers for anyone indicated. In both legends, Father Valentine was executed on February 14.

There are many other different accounts of the first celebration of Valentine’s Day. They are all associated with love. For example, Geoffrey Chaucer, in 1382, mentions Valentine’s Day in a poem which honors the first anniversary of the engagement of Kind Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia. However, this might be a misinterpretation of the author’s purpose because it is more likely that Chaucer was referring to May 2nd (Saint’s day for Valentine of Genoa) due to his clause about mating birds. Another example is that on Valentine’s Day in 1400 the “High Court of Love” was established in Paris to deal with love contracts, betrayals and violence against women.

Relative to the commercialized Valentine’s Day celebrated today, our Valentine’s Day was probably brought to North American by British settlers in the 19^th century. The first mass production of Valentine’s Day cards were produced and then shortly after, in 1847, Esther Howland took inspiration from an English Valentine she received to benefit her father’s stationary store. While Howland’s production began the practice of sending Valentines, it was not until the second half of the 20th century (around the same time as when the Catholic church stopped recognizing St. Valentine as an official holiday to decrease the number of saint days) that the holiday was elaborated to the extent that it is today with exchanging cards and gift giving. *

*All information found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine’s_Day but other sources used were history.com and http://www.pictureframes.co.uk/pages/saint_valentine.htm

Educational Critique of Four Websites

I am studying to become a secondary education social studies teacher. Therefore, when I analyze websites it’s from a teacher’s prospective. I focus on how useful the site would be in a classroom, for both a teacher and a student. To analyze a website this way I evaluate not only its content, but also its visual appeal and interactivity on the website.
Through this type of analysis, the best website from a specific chosen four would be The History Channel site. Even though this website’s main goal is to promote its TV shows and sell their collection of videos, DVDs and audio tapes on many different historical events, this website can be useful to a teacher in many other ways. For example, the abundance of two minutes or less media clips could easily be shown to students in the classroom while not taking up too much time. Additionally, this website is highly interactive so a teacher can have students use the website on their own and learn during either free class time or for homework. Lastly, this site includes a wide range of historical topics and would be useful at any point in the school year.
Meanwhile, while the other websites that were specifically chosen are good, although, their major downfall is that they are too narrow in either content, interactive features or both. For example, http://www.dohistory.com/ is very interactive and useful for students, which normally would be great to use in a classroom, but this website revolves around one specific case study. Therefore, the only time this website is relevant would be at the beginning of the school year in order to have a fun, interactive lesson plan which would introduce to students how to interpret primary documents. A second example is “The Valley of the Shadows: Two Communities in the American Civil War” website, this website deals specifically with two communities during the Civil War, therefore, while it gives plenty of detail including primary documents, facts, images and more, in a classroom it can only be used while learning about the Civil War. Additionally, this website is not very interactive or visually appealing for students. Therefore, in a classroom I could only see this website useful for two reasons. The first would be for a student doing a project on that specific subject and, the other, for a teacher to explore and find specific documents and/or pictures to use during a lesson.
The last website, The National Museum of American History, is not too specific in content, for it has a wide variety of historical topics. Instead, it is too specifically focused on drawing people to come to the museum. Unlike the History Channel website which wanted to sell items or promote its shows, but did have a lot of information on the Internet of the topics, The National Museum of American History has very minimal information and pictures on the Internet. This site is most beneficial to teachers so that they can learn when a useful exhibit will be on display and how to plan this class trip. Additionally, like the Civil War website, teachers can also use images and documents from this site within a classroom lesson.
Overall, every website on the Internet has its own strengths and weaknesses; its usefulness depends on what the user is looking to take away from the website. The History Channel site is great overall, but it will not teach a student how to interpret primary source documents like http://www.dohistory.com/ will. Also, the History Channel website cannot aid a teacher in planning a class trip, like The National Museum of American History site, and if the teacher is focusing on a specific a specific topic, like the Civil War, s/he will probably find more in-depth information from a site that is specific to that topic, like the Valley of the Shadows website.