We are a Peculiar People

[John 3rd]

Well said Jim!

[DSwain]

In the same vein, I'm a Brit but I work in SE Asia and I've been here for four years. In no time in that four years, either working or on holiday, have I been anywhere that hasn't been on the WITP map, which I rather like! I always find my mind wandering, when on the plane to go on holiday, looking at the flight map and correlating it to WITP. And, of course, worrying about my most recent turn and missing my PBEM already!

[aspqrz02]

Can't speak as to University level instruction in History, but, as a History teacher soon to retire (Jan 1977- Jan 2014), I have noted that my recent colleagues tend to know less and less about actual history, even the history that we actually teach in our state curriculum, and, supposedly, more and more about 'skills' that may or may not be actually useful.

So we end up with kids who, theoretically, may have some reading and writing skills, possibly even some skills at critically analyzing information that tends to be, as often as not, partly or completely incorrect, and who know (excuse the French) b****r all about what actually went on in the historical periods we theoretically teach.

All made worse by the demands of our school 'leaders' that we all teach the same material, exactly the same material (i.e. worksheets, incredibly banal PPT presentations and increasingly dumbed down textbooks amongst other things), which you then have to edit to make it historically accurate because your colleagues know so damn little about a whole range of things ... or don't care ... as long as the national testing data is 'above the state average' in all areas, even if the kids don't actually *know* anything.

To be fair, the standard of lessons and texts improve as we reach senior High level (especially in Years 11 and 12) ... but we have texts that have AD/BC time lines that have a Year 0, or that claim that Pyramids were Temples and/or used for storing treasure (without any caveats) for example (!).

WW2 is generally glossed over, or not covered at all (it's non-examinable and there's rarely time to do anything much with it after the end of year exams in Year 9, and Year 10 is all about the post war world) in 9-10 and really only the Home Front covered for WW1 ... and, though WW1 is the Core Topic in the HSC (more or less University entry exam) Modern History, relatively few teachers choose to do WW2 topics, and the misinformation and lack of knowledge often dealt out by younger teachers, while somewhat less, is ... interesting ... especially regarding anything remotely military.

<sigh>

University was actually pretty fair, at least back in 1973-76 when I was there, but, given the lack of knowledge of my colleagues on matters historical I wonder about what it's like today ... part of the problem is that they usually do an integrated Education/History degree with, it seems, more on the former than the latter, while back in the day we did an actual degree (Double History major in my case) and then a year's teacher training Diploma course.

Those that add Education as a Diploma after their regular Degree seem to be, even today, far better informed on matters historical, allowing for them not having 37 years of experience, of course ... the same general problems seem to exist in the other faculty areas, from what my other colleagues chat about, though we did have a Maths Phd and a Science Phd (Marine Biology!) on staff as Classroom teachers (which was rather unusual, but interesting).

Phil

[Symon]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel
"Peculiar:  uncommon; unusual: the peculiar hobby of stuffing and mounting bats."

Don't do bats, but bass are cool. J

[wegman58]

One of the time I was on shore duty I took some classes at the University of Minnesota (mid 90's). There were a couple of courses on American Soviet relations (basically end of WW II to the Fall of the Wall). Was being taught by a grad student that was a bit younger than I was. I never made him look bad, but I was able to add some flavor - Soviet merchants having more antennas than USN warships, some of the games we played (Russian old DD or DDG sailed through the carrier battle group, the wrong way, on refueling day. Carrier admiral was pissed - three Spruances (twin screws, variable pitch propellers, VERY maneuverable) to harass the DD for a couple of days. Stuff like that.

Fred and I got along - because I never made him look bad and I was there in the Cold War.

[Lecivius]

Necro thread. Must be a Halloween thing [:D]

[Cribtop]

I got so excited when I saw Canoerebel! An old post but one of the many ways he was good for the board. We miss you, Dan!

[AW1Steve]

I have absolutely no idea what you are all taking about. I am perfectly normal , exhibiting no nerd like weird tendencies. Just ask some of my friends , like CB or USS America or Onime. Perfectly normal , no "nerdness" here.

[sanch]

A minor one ...

I was talking with an Indian clerk in a 7-11. He said he was from north-east of Hyderabad. I instantly said, "Oh, that is desert country out there." He said yes it was - and was surprised that I actually new.

[erstad]

Two helps:

1) I do crosswords, and it's not infrequent that they use geographical clues which are obvious to me because they are on the map.

2) A coworker was traveling to Soochow on business, and I said "Oh, that's right outside Shanghai". She was surprised I knew that.

However, it can hurt as well. Once an Indian coworker mentioned he was from Madras, and I forget my actual reply but it involved a directional reference to another location. Only problem was my direction reference was wrong. Just because it's "north" on the WITP map doesn't mean it's "north" in real life!

[HansBolter]

Had to check the entire thread to see if I had already related this story, but since I hadn't here goes:

There is an old guy at my church in his late 80s. We served together as youth leaders.

He served on two different liberty ships in both the PTO and ETO.

On a camping trip with the boys from church he was regaling us with his stories and mentioned that on his first cruise in the Pacific they had made port at a small island in the Marshals, but he couldn't remember the name.

I chimed in with "Kwajelien?". He replied "No". Then I said "Eniwetok?" and he said "Yes" as he gave me a quizzical look.

He then went on to tell us about his trip into the Med. where he made port at a small island near Sicily, but again couldn't remember the name.

I chimed in again with "Malta?" and he replied with "No". Then I offered up "Pantelleria? and he said "Yes" with his quizzical look increasing in intensity.

He was very surprised that anyone would know the names of these obscure islands.