Lies my teacher taught me

It's intresting, because that is why so many are bored in church. Because they try to make it "nice".

You cannot take the blood out of history or the Bible. Without the blood you have no conflict, no purpose, you cannot explain a war unless you explain the lives lost. You cannot explain tyranny without explaining the horrors.

It just cannot be done. Sure no one wants to see the blood, but you cannot ignore it either.

 

I teach history in a public high school and I don't try to sugar coat anything. I do my best to provoke thought in my students.

We live in an MTV generation where answers are quick and easy and problems are solved in between commercial breaks.

History is an art as well as a science. I find a very positive correlation between love of reading and a love of history.

I wrote a curriculum and I'm teaching a class called American History Through Sports. The Kids seem to enjoy history more when tied to something they can relate to. The relationships the kids are making between our sports history and the current events of the time have been really great for me as a teacher to see and really great for the kids.

 

It sounds like an interesting read.

Sometimes you have to work very hard to remain objective about what you are teaching and what is going on in the world.

My kids always ask me for my views on politics and I always tell them to come and see me before 815 or after 345 because in the classroom being objective is my goal.

Speaking of Green party nuts, do you think Nader will play a role in this election?

 

I don't know who this guy's history teacher was, but my history teachers certainly didn't sugar coat the truth. History was presented as almost cyclical. There were times of great peace, industry, creativity, etc... And then there were times of great horrors as well. I can't think of a single teacher who tried to convince me that the world was getting better and better and more evolved and enlightened as time goes on. One would, in my mind, have a very hard time convincing me of that after thousands of years and still in the 20th and 21st centuries, we had Hitler, Saddam, OBL, and other unspeakable cruelties plague the earth. If anything, we are getting worse and worse as time goes by. Then again, I am certain that probably everyone from every generation feels that way when they are going through tense times in the world. And everyone believes they are living in the best of times when things are relatively better in the world. Perhaps, peoples perceptions about the state of history and the world is directly correlated to the time in which they live and how closely they lived to certain events in history. Who knows?
It may be slightly left-leaning at times [/QUOTE]

Somehow, I am not surprised.



Joseph Botwinick

 

One good thing about my History teachers is that they rarely used the History books. They were the text books. We did much note taking from the over head projectors. The text books tended to be more of a supplemental idea than the main curriculum. My teachers also encouraged us to do our own research, participate in debates and class discussions.

Joseph Botwinick

 

My textbooks are stacked on a table in my classroom we use them rarely at best. A teacher who uses strictly a textbook is a farely sorry individual IMHO.

 

So why did you spend the money to purchase them if you do not use them?

When I taught I always required that the book be read, attend the lectures and labs. I always tested from the lab, book and lectures.

If you don't expect much them, you don't get much back either. It's easy to keep them ignorant if you like. But it takes much greater skill to teach them well.

 

By comparison, how much do you spend on the education of your children compared to entertainment? The average person spends much more on entertainmentand complains about the schools.

Before I taught I had a growing business and eventually left the business to teach in the same area of my business. When I first started teaching my rent was 1/2 of my take home pay. Even to this day if I had continued to teach and go up on the salary schedule I still would not qualify for any home in that same area. I would not even qualify for a buildable lot.

When I taught I was given all kinds of awards. Teachers came to observe me from other schools, etc. But the lack of pay did not pay my bills. At the time I lived in an apartment where a number of welfare people lived.

Is that what the U.S. thinks of its teachers?

It's much like the people who complain about the farmer with their mouth full.

If our school system is so bad why are so many coming from other countries to study here? I am in a doctoral program and 2/3 of the students are from other countries. Yet the high school and other schools are complaining about the lack of available qualified teachers.

 

gb,

I use them from time to time and I use them as a source much of the time.

I was stating that a teacher who only uses a text book and doesn't supplement from other scholarly sources is derelict in their duty.

Also with the cost of textbooks I keep them in class and let the kids use them there and take them home as needed.

I expect a lot of my students and I work my hind end off to keep teaching them. I'm pretty offended by the last part of your first post feel free to come to my classroom anytime pal and see how ignorant my kids are. I teach great kids everyday and I'll put my expectations and professionalism up against anybodys, anytime.

 

Textbooks are the framework on which you hang your course. If they are any good at all, they accurately summarize the curriculum you use. But the life of a course is in the lectures (and labs, if you teach science), not the books.

If I had to build a school, I would start with some decent teachers, tables and chairs, and go from there. Books are wonderful, even essential things for education. But most essential of all is a teacher who knows his subject, and can communicate his enthusiasm for it to the kids.

 

Actually, the requirements vary from state to state. In CA, teachers must have a bachelor's degree and be credentialed. The largest number of teachers without a degree in CA are in private Christian Schools. I had no idea until I dated a teacher (with a master's degree).