The Teaching Front: Tuesday Post Mortem
Running on four hours of sleep and an early wake up, I rolled into my American History class and began to slug my way through Thomas Jefferson. We’ve entered a period of history that I have never found interesting on a personal level but I was doing my best to get through Jefferson.
Oh, I like Jefferson well enough and I would like to read more about him.
In any case, the lecture went well enough until about 0850 when my lecture stride suddenly crapped out on me. My ability to focus, what little there was, went out the window and I started to have one of those dreaded “Falling Down the Stairs” lectures.
I got out of there roughly on time and proceeded to the Western Civ class. A better topic, finishing up the Fall of the Roman Empire, was on tap. I managed to get through most of it in tolerable order until again, right at about fifty minutes in, my lecture stride crapped out again.
A brief digression. We’ve been talking about killing off various Romans leading up to the eventual demise of the Triumvirate when someone asked this question.
“Are we going to learn about the lives of ordinary people?”
I said, “You mean the lives of the fishmonger, or the bricklayer?”
“Yeah.”
“No,” I responded. “In a thousand years, nobody is going to care about the life of a burgerflipper in McDonald’s.”
Social History. Blah. I did that in my class. We covered Roman family structure, marriages, the patron client relationship and I even talked about baths and togas.
Strangely enough, my eight week class went better. Well, better for me if not my students. They seemed hell bent on sleeping through the lecture yesterday. No one is taking notes and I suspect they really don’t have any idea what is lurking round the corner next Tuesday.
I predict a high fail rate.
On other Teaching Fronts, I’ve got sixteen tests left to grade, one test to write, and a lecture on Augustus to cover.
Other Fronts
Payday comes though it is already spent for the most part. Otherwise, I have nothing to add.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
6 comments
October 28, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Berry
RE: “‘Are we going to learn about the lives of ordinary people?’
I said, ‘You mean the lives of the fishmonger, or the bricklayer?’
‘Yeah.’
‘No,’ I responded. ‘In a thousand years, nobody is going to care about the life of a burgerflipper in McDonald’s.’ ”
Now *that* cracked me up, Murph.
October 28, 2009 at 8:55 pm
Jason
The problem of not addressing a little social/”common man” history is that kids grow up thinking everyone was a King or a military commander.
Or a slave owner.
Talking about the conditions of the average person in “ye olden times” often makes one glad to be alive today.
October 29, 2009 at 7:02 am
Therbs
I reckon history will barely blink at burger flippers as it did with brickies in Roman times. I mean, really, all we need to know is that they laid bricks and then quickly get back to the machinations of the ruling elite. And the battles. Gotta throw in a battle here and there.
October 29, 2009 at 12:45 pm
sfmurphy1971
Berry, sometimes I marvel at the fact that I am STILL teaching after some of the things I say.
Therbs, I’ve been slackin’ on the battles this time around. I used to do these big tactical lectures and the kids HATED them. Now I just say, “X fought Y at Z and the result was so and so won.”
They don’t like that either.
Jason, surely common sense would grant an understanding that folks were not standing around in the forum texting about Caesar’s death on their iPhones.
Umm, then again, maybe not.
Respects,
Murph
On the Outer Marches
October 30, 2009 at 4:07 am
Jason
Perhaps not texting…but did the common American own a slave back in the early 1800s? No, they did not. But would I know this by reading a history book? No, I would not. Slaves, as you know, were kinda expensive…and yet, according to the history books, everyone had them…right???
Focus on what interests you *cough* military *cough*, but most people aren’t Kings or warriors.
October 30, 2009 at 1:25 pm
sfmurphy1971
When I give the block lecture on Slavery and again when I cover Reconstruction, I make it very clear that African American slaves were not only expensive but also resources to be protected and cared for.
Which, lest someone misinterpret the above, doesn’t mean it was a land of sunshine and bunny rabbits for slaves. It was not by any means.
I would agree that most people aren’t leaders or soldiers. However, the actions of leaders and soldiers do, for better or worse, shape history. The mere fact that so much human potential is lost during a given war, by way of soldiers and civilians killed, lives disrupted, social structures altered, makes the subject matter worthy of consideration.
The transition of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire is probably the best example of this, a situation where violence has run amok in an advanced political system that is eventually undone by military force. It seems to me that it is worth studying this material NOT because it is bloody and gory.
No, we study it in order to make sure that the Federal Republic that we live in does not travel down the same road. Our Founding Fathers studied the Romans when they put the Constitution together for the same reason, trying to avoid the flaws which eventually undid the Roman Republic.
Respects,
Murph
On the Outer Marches