In defense of public schools: I had a very traditional college prep high
school education way back when. Parents were expected to participate in
education, whereas it now seems more common that they abdicate all
parental responsibility to the schools and get upset when their little
heathen darlings are corrected. By the time I started teaching, parents
had started storming the classroom when their kids didn't get perfect
scores. Bah!

 

Curmudgeonly,

Michael

This is my opinion only, not my employer's, as if you had to be told. 

________________________________

From: Archives & Archivists [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Mauriel Joslyn
Sent: Thursday, March 09, 2006 9:51 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Early Friday Funny

 

  

In a message dated 3/9/2006 11:41:04 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

	The first was a student that was failing American History
survey.  She 
	> did
	> not know what World War 2 was or when it was or even where it
occurred.
	> Trying to help her memory, I said well what about the
Holocaust.  She 
	> gave
	> me a blank look and I said you know Hitler, the Jews, etc.
Her only 
	> reply
	> was "What's a Jew?"  She was an education major.
	>

I have enjoyed reading these posts and finally I have to weigh in after
seeing many thoughts on what we think is wrong. This post says a lot to
me. I am a historian, and also for many years have done Living
History/reenactment programs for the public in the time periods of Civil
War, WWI and WWII. Many of my fellow reenactors are history teachers in
middle school and high school, and let me tell you  --- their classes
LOVE history because the teachers KNOW it and can do indepth fun things
to teach it. The story above about the education major's gnat brain
adequacy says it all! THEY DON'T KNOW ANY HISTORY, SO HOW CAN THEY TEACH
IT!!!

 

Also, by giving programs I see a scary level of knowledge (or lack
thereof) in the general public, and again, the stories on this thread
just bear out typical stories I can give you. It really is
disheartening. But on a more optimistic level, I get lots of
homeschooled and private schooled kids at our programs who are delights
to talk to. They know more than any public school teacher I can name. So
there are enthusiastic kids out there, who are getting the love of
history and getting the knowledge from some place. Like little gems,
they make my day.

 

Mauriel Joslyn

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A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, www.archivists.org.
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