Thursday, October 4, 2012

Day 22

Hi! :)

  Today I'm going to tell you about history.

  History has been my favorite subject for pretty much the last 5 years (besides Language Arts). I really love history, and I have never, ever, ever, understood why people don't like it.

  The way I see it, a history textbook is just another name for a storybook. Except, this storybook is a special kind of super-awesome storybook. In this kind of storybook, the characters are real.

  That's always been sort of magical for me.

  However, taking history in a different school, I'm starting to see the disconnect between the average student and the class.

  I've never really understood why people didn't like history, because my school had an amazing history teacher. Just amazing. He really made history a blast, and everyone spent the class really learning something.

  The usual teen's response to history is that it is boring, and that they are just trying to get by, not really learning anything.

  During one of my first history classes at my new school, a teacher asked who won the Civil War.

  Anyone?                Anyone?

  No one answered. Crickets were chirping in the background. Now, you may be beginning to think that I am suggesting that the students did not know the answer to a very basic question. That is not the case, instead it was more like every student was in la la land. They were gone. They didn't even hear the question. It's not the teacher's fault, the student's just couldn't connect to the lesson.

 They didn't even care. To tell you the truth, I barely even cared.

  What happened to the climax of the storybook? Why didn't anyone want to know what happened in the end?

  As an avid reader (I'm not getting side-tracked, don't worry), I sometimes find that you pick up a book and you feel like you have a special bond with it. You can't imagine that anyone in the world felt that way about that particular book. You fancy that you're the only person who knows it's secret.

  You come across these books in weird places. You don't necessarily find them on the bestseller list, but soon enough you're wondering why you hadn't.

  However, soon enough, you remember that thousands of people have read this book, and they too claim to have a special connection with it. You may find that to be impossible. How could anyone ever feel the same way about that particular book as you have? It isn't so special anymore then, huh?

  A really good quote from The Perks of Being A Wallflower reminds me of this.

  "All of the books you've read have been read by other people. And all of the songs you've loved have been heard by other people. And that girl that's pretty to you is pretty to other people, too. So how am I special?"

  So, maybe the secret of loving a story isn't that you were the first one to love it, or that you are "special" for loving it. Maybe the secret is that the story unlocked some sort of sentiment or understanding inside of you that made you really connect with it.

  Maybe history should be taught like a storybook with all sorts of messed up heroes and villains. If history is taught like a storybook, then that feeling of understanding should follow. Think about it. How could students NOT sympathize with stories that are real? 

  I think that that special bond with a story and it's characters are there, because deep inside you feel like they are real, and you understand them. In history, we read about people who are real and did real things, and had real lives. If we treat it with the same exuberance, there should be no reason why people can't connect with history the same way that we do a story. Or a movie. Or your favorite T.V. show.

  This is a really awkward place to end at.

-D.F.T.B.A.-
Mina;)

Cool quotes I found on ze subject:

"History consists of a series of accumulated imaginative inventions."
Voltaire


"History is a mighty dramos, enacted upon the theatre of times, with suns for lamps and eternity for a background."  ~Thomas Carlyle

"History is a novel for which the people is the author."  ~Alfred de Vigny

4 comments:

  1. I totally understand. Our teacher is awesome. Today he was telling use about funny bloopers that happened during debates in the past. (again) and he stopped suddently and went "have I told you this before?" And the students all go "yes! but please continue!"

    I know the book feeling to. When ever I read the Heros of Olympus and the Last Olympian series I get all territorial when its not Percy's view. Does that make sense? Its like "you don't know what your talking about!" And " you cant say that!" And I'm saying that to charactors in the book.
    Sad.

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    1. He is. He really is a great History teacher. Sigh.

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  2. Yeah, Tulsi, don't get all possessive of Mr. Seaweed Brains, now.
    Anyway... I totally agree. Mr. Nargesian makes History that storybook and he turns it into a magical story and you can't help but sympathize with the characters! Before I moved here, I hated Social Studies because all of my teachers didn't have those magical powers, and they read it like 'this is what I'm paid to do, so listen up.' I couldn't believe my dad had dedicated about a decade of his life to just one man in one stinkin' Civil War. But the truth is, that man could have been him, and he could've been that man. History is like what you said: a magical storybook. I just thought of something awesome: HISTORY IS OUR TARDIS.

    ~Gracie

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