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Hey, Kelman, we got blog-tagged! Does this mean we’re cool, or that we have cooties? Someone has to explain the Internets to me. In my day it was all 2400 bps access to BBSes.
So: why do I teach history? Because too many people swoon when sanctimony-mongering war-lover Tony Blair says, “There never has been a time when the power of America was so necessary or so misunderstood, or when, except in the most general sense, a study of history provides so little instruction for our present day.” Too right, Tony! This time out will be completely different! Except, not so much. We are stuck in historical grooves, and it will take more than Tony Blair and his magical world-transforming war-pony (now with special Bill Clinton approval!) to get us out of them.
Which is by way of saying, if there isn’t a group of people who spend their time teaching history qua history, the only thing people hear about history is what the agents of an administration want you to hear. It’s just like World War II, people! Which was the good war! When will you people understand that all this is okay because Lincoln did it! Or maybe Roosevelt. Anyway, it’s good if Roosevelt did it unless it was the New Deal, because the New Deal was bad, unless you can add. What were we talking about? Look, over there, some monuments to the dead! Be reverential! And vote for me.
So I teach history because I don’t like that treatment of history. Which doesn’t, of course, explain why I don’t like it. Cussedness, I expect.
Here’s a secret: another reason I teach history is because I like it. A lot. I like going into the classroom, talking to students, reading and thinking about books and sources. I like putting lectures together, paring them down to the key points, and picking good visual elements to make the argument carry itself. There is no essential part of teaching I do not like.
Then there is the historical answer, which is: I started it a while back, it seemed like a good idea at the time, and they still let me.
Kelman should go before we tag anyone else.
9 comments
January 21, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Historiann
Uhh…sorry, Eric. Blog-tagging is kind of like a social disease, or one of those threatening chain letters that reads something like, “Miraculous good luck will come your way if you send this on to 100 friends…terrible misfortune will visit you if you throw this letter away.”
And, really? There’s no “essential part of teaching” that you don’t like? Can I send you my grading from now on?
Historiann.com
January 21, 2008 at 4:46 pm
eric
Ah, well now: “essential” is doing some work there.
January 21, 2008 at 5:53 pm
clvrmnky
Bah, 2400bps! That’s like 4-bits per signal change! Luxury. I read posts at 300 BAUD baby, and I liked it!
Ahem.
Clever site. Yeah, I got here from Gibsonblog.
January 21, 2008 at 6:25 pm
andrew
I remember trying to read stuff at 300 baud, and not liking it. Probably played a role in me not spending much time online until reasonably fast access to the web came around.
January 21, 2008 at 7:23 pm
eric
You know, I knew that when I wrote that, someone would out-Yorkshireman me.
I did learn to program on a Honeywell mainframe, if that’s worth anything.
January 22, 2008 at 4:26 am
jhm
Although a teacher will likely have some separate motivations, as a student of history, the hook is in realizing that, no matter how we might perceive other cultures and times to be alien, our basic humanity is illuminated when we create historical parallels. For instance, seeing the antagonist in a conflict in a different light by approaching it from his history, and recognizing in that history similarities to one’s own.
Don’t throw those old FORTRAN manuals away, they might be worth something some day.
January 22, 2008 at 6:51 am
Smith Michaels
Eric, this a great, even inspirational post. It also gets bonus points for the They Might Be Giants reference in the title.
January 22, 2008 at 8:08 am
eric
Thanks, Smith. We do our best….
January 23, 2008 at 6:44 am
Rocky
Memo to myself…
Do the dumb things you gotta do…
…
My other favorite:
They don’t happen at all in fact…