FOR TEACHING HISTORY, FIRST LEARN HISTORY

My first awareness about teaching history came during a senior seminar class on the origins of WWI.

I was a night school student finishing off history degree requirements; a ‘take classes at noon’ student, a ‘whatever class fits the right time slot’ student.

It was the usual schedule for irresponsible college dropouts who get married, have kids, buy a house, and work full-time in a history museum.

Did I seek out a senior seminar on the origins of WWI taught by a well dressed but disheveled old man at the head of a big table rambling like a drunk?

No.

And he wasn’t drunk. It was his ‘cold medicine’ kicking in, he said.

Those school days in the early Nineties came into focus with the Balkan War.

“The 1990s Balkan Wars in Key Dates”

The whole place looked like a tinderbox for starting a world war. Again. That senior seminar gave me hope for those people.

This time history was on the side of treaties that didn’t put alliances at risk, that didn’t pull more nations into acts of war that resulted in crimes against humanity trials.

What else could you call ‘ethnic cleansing’ than a crime against humanity.

Updating American History

What in the name of the Boomer Schooner is going on here?

The (Oklahoma) bill prohibits state agencies and public school districts from placing culpability on one race and teaching “that one race is the unique oppressor” or “another race is the unique victim in the institution of slavery.”

It also prohibits the use of the 1619 Project, a long form journalism endeavor by The New York Times that examined slavery’s role in the founding of America.

The good news is the people at the Pulitzer Center have a curriculum for teaching the 1619 Project.

Even better news:

The University of Oklahoma Chapter of the American Association of University Professors, however, slammed the bill as “disturbing” in a statement. 

“They are cranking this legislation out faster than the courts can keep up. In the meantime, we have no intention of lying to our students or bowing to this assault on truth and academic freedom,” the group said.

These are people teaching history at the university level who belong to an association of university professors. And they call bullshit on the pious politician explaining what can and can’t be used in teaching history.

An association of university professors with thousands of years of education between them are up against this academic powerhouse:

Jim Olsen graduated from Nassau Community College with an associate of arts degree, the University at Albany, SUNY with a bachelor of arts degree, and the Free Gospel Bible Institute. He married Becky, with whom he had seven children with. He worked as a Sunday School teacher at Watts Holiness Church.

Could someone get Jim’s opinion on the last presidential race, Jan. 6, and the covid vaccine while we’re here?

Teaching History Goals

Visiting Professor Bruce Springsteen:

Workin’ in the fields till you get your back burned
Workin’ ‘neath the wheel till you get your facts learned
Baby I got my facts learned real good right now
You better get it straight darling

Poor man wanna be rich, rich man wanna be king
And a king ain’t satisfied till he rules everything
I wanna go out tonight, I wanna find out what I got

Do yourself a favor when you go out tonight, today, or anytime: Don’t be an embarrassment to yourself. In other words, have some self-respect.

As Professor Springsteen says, get your facts learned real good right now because depending on who you talk to you could be teaching history.

If you have gray hair you’re definitely teaching history every time you open your mouth and an opinion pops out. Please try and make it an informed opinion.

Are the OU history professors informed? Here they are, send an email.

The man at the top of the list, Gary Clayton Anderson, wrote a book with the title ‘Ethnic Cleansing and the Indian: The Crime That Should Haunt America.’

Who wants to see him debate Rep. Jim Olsen on the direction of education. Besides me.

Why I Write Teaching History

I write for that New York minute, the half minute in San Jose, Ann Arbor, and Lexington.

I write for Canada, Germany, and Australia.

Am I teaching history, or showing two sides of the same story with little gray area?

The gray area I’d most like to reach is between your ears.

Know the difference between advice from a hack politician and advice from people who have built their lives on study, reputation, and understanding the value of a better education.

Please get a covid vaccine and wear a mask when you go and find out what you got, or you might get more than you ask for.