I’m bored to death. Last week of school here in Colorado. We have our finals on Thursday, teacher workday with grades due Friday, and then it is off for the summer. You’re probably asking why I would be bored, it’s the last days of school!? Well, I had 3 U.S. Government classes and 1 History class. Our Government classes are “Senior” level classes and the Seniors graduated last Tuesday. Soooo, I’ve been doing a lot of nothing. That’s not true, I have been working on A.P. U.S. History for next year (already lesson planning). I have two papers due this Sunday in my Graduate school work, so I have been busy in a different way.
Seeing that this Fall will be my first venture into A.P. land I have been doing some research looking for other A.P. teachers out there and came across a nice post on the USHistoryBlog. In this post, blogger Aaron Eyler asks “What Should History Teachers Teach?” He poses some interesting questions and has some very thoughtful responses. Eyler writes, that because of standards where we have to cover so much that teaching becomes an issues as we have so much to cover. He said, “This only becomes more difficult in classes such as AP History where students are responsible for taking a test in May based on 500 years of history.”
Out here in Colorado we have what are called “Essentials” for each general class (not A.P.) and as a teacher you HAVE to cover that material. We cover U.S. history from the American Revolution to the 1990s and today, if we can. It’s a fast and furious pace and it ultimately leaves 90% of the classroom completely dazed and confused and they leave with less interest in history than when they entered… if you can imagine that!
Anyway, with A.P. I will have to get through it all by May as that A.P. test will be there looming.
Chris,
If you get a chance, can you e-mail me or direct me to a site that has this “Essentials.” It has really peaked my interest. My theory on history curriculum is that once the special interest groups are involved they start to deem everything as being “important.” Once everything is labeled as important, everything becomes unimportant. This “Essentials” idea that you speak of has me curious as to what they are deem as being “important” considering the depth and breadth that you are covering US history in a year. Are kids really gaining a true understanding of important events, ideas, and topics (like the Constitution) if it is being covered in this type of setting? Thanks, and let me know if you want to talk AP some time. I love teaching the class, but I am sure you will find it to be frustrating to cover the material so quickly with not nearly enough time for in-depth analysis. -AE
Chris,
Since we’ve already had finals, graduation and student exodus in Golden, I feel your pain. Unfortunately, next week will be even quieter and more boring! But I had a question on a distantly related topic.
How do historians “pay it forward?” Is it solely through teaching? Are there other ways? Is it a matter of personal legacy of that historian? If so, need it be? (one question and several sub-questions)
I don’t have an answer, it’s just something that I pondered on the drive home today, and I thought you would likely have some insight. Probably a decent blog post or two if we could figure it out.
Best,
Don
Aaron here is the link for the “Essentials” I spoke of, these are for our general U.S. History class and not A.P.
http://www.mesa.k12.co.us/2003/departments/assessment/Essential_Learnings/Display.cfm?Grd=11&Sch=388&Subj=Social%20Studies
Chris
Don, interesting question…. Not sure I have an answer. I would hope that teaching would be enough to “pay it forward.” But perhaps its about best practice and as teachers always striving to get better, more informed, and continue to be learners so we can be better at educating the next batch of “learners.”
Chris
ospiti » Porcasi Gaetano
artist
Gaetano Porcasi is a Sicilian artist and school art teacher. His paintings are considered unique not only for their social and political commitment but also for the technique and choice of typical Mediterranean colours from which a strong and deep Sicilitudine (Sicilian mood) emerges. The 2003 itinerant exhibition Portella della Ginestra Massacre is a good example: in 1947 a group of Sicilian farmers was shot and killed in Portella by the outlaw Salvatore Giuliano and his men under orders from the local Mafia mobsters and big landowners in order to stop the farmers’ attempts to occupy and plant uncultivated local land. His historical paintings which denounce the violence and oppression of the Mafia find their counterpart in his paintings which depict sunny Sicilian landscapes rich in lemon, orange and olive trees, in prickly pear, agave and broom plants. They show the wealth of a land that has been kissed by God but downtrodden by man. In painting the sky of his native Sicily Gaetano uses several different hues of blue and it’s from this sky that his pictorial journey starts. In his paintings the history of Sicily, which has always been marked by its farmers’ sweat and blood and by their struggles for freedom and democracy, finds its pictorial expression in the fusion of the red flags of the workers with the Italian flag in a sort of Italian and Mediterranean epopea. The red flags and the Italian flag stand out against the blue sky that changes its hues according to the events, the seasons, the deeds and the moods that are painted on the canvas. The luxuriant nature of Sicily with its beautiful, sunny, Mediterranean landscapes seems to remain the silent, unchangeable and unchanged witness to events and the passing of time. Here people are only accidenti, they aren’t makers of their own life. Thus Gaetano makes a clear-cut metaphysical distinction between a benign, merciful nature and Man who breaks the natural harmony to satisfy his wild, unbridled ambition and selfishness and who becomes the perpetrator of violence and crime. Gaetano is also an active environmentalist and his fight against all forms of pollution has already cost him a lot of aggravation.