History

I recently posted about my student’s lack of motivation and shortened attention span, but I have my own confession to make. I, too, was a horrible student in high school. Gasp! I know. Take it in. There were a great many subjects I couldn’t have cared less about, but my least favorites had to do with history and politics. Now, I know I’m not alone on this one, but, nonetheless, I am still embarrassed to admit it. I, like so many other ill educated people, have responses to political issues or historical events, but I can’t contextualize them and articulate with sound logical reasoning why I have these particular views. This is something that, I strongly believe, is at the root of much of our poor decision-making here in the good ‘ol US of A. We feel entitled to our opinion, yet we have nothing with which to legitimately back it up. Many of us simply do not understand the bigger picture. So, up until now, I have eked by. I kept my opinions to myself, which is very easy in classes where students believe they must adhere to the teacher’s tenets and ideals. I simply abstained from sharing and played the devil’s advocate on everything. But that doesn’t work in my “real” life, nor does it work with colleagues. So I have made a decision.

Yesterday, I began my quest for historical enlightenment. (Politics will come later. I need one goal at a time, people!) It is quite an undertaking, I must say, because I don’t have any kind of foundation of knowledge – no ground zero with which to start. So, I have begun watching a documentary by my husband’s favorite documentation, Simon Schama, called The American Future: A History, and I am fervently trying to retain everything within it. I have also placed a reoccurring note on my Errands list to read something currently or historically relevant every day. Yesterday, I read two (yes, two) articles in The Economist before starting my day. It felt good to know I’ve gotten off on the right foot (my second time around) but I know I didn’t get the full extent of the content. But I guess it’s a start. It’s ironic, really. I spend most of my working hours trying to give students their ground zero in the composition world. To help them to understand why we need to know the bigger picture in order to write and yet, over the years, I’ve opted out of this same message in one very substantial area of my own life. Now, it’s my time to change. I will take my own advice, learn the conversation and gain more confidence in the meantime so that the next time I open my yap, what comes out will not only represent my opinion, but the socio-historical context within which it lies and my ignorance will be… history.