First, I had terrible history teachers growing up. I don't think I ever knew anything about the Civil War, beyond its being in the 1850s or 60s, the South vs. the North, Abraham Lincoln, and the abolition of slavery. Two years ago I was a teaching assistant in a Social Studies class with an amazing teacher. He was teaching the history of warfare, and I learned more from that class just focusing on the weaponry and technological advancements made during the United States' wars than I ever did in any other history class. It doesn't take much to teach me things I don't know.
Second, I love how the writings and journals from the Civil War days were steeped in language from the Bible. The educated leaders and lamenting wives quote from the Bible as part of their mother tongue. Even the coarse soldiers readily blaspheme with phrases they've known since day one. I go to church and read my scriptures, but sometimes I feel like I read them as carefully as I skim articles on the internet. The words run through my mind and then right out again with very little active thought happening during the reading process. I am familiar with the scriptures, but could I say they're part of my language and my person? I want to work on that. I started tonight by memorizing the 23rd Psalm. I recognized the familiar words, but as I sat memorizing, I realized I didn't know it as well as I thought. If I were really walking through the valley of the shadow of death, it wouldn't have been with me.
Third, I noticed how much history is simply in a regular letter home or a basic journal entry. My blog has taken the place of my journal these last few years, and lately I don't post anything unless I feel like it should be special. Often I write about what happened a few days or weeks ago, with so little emotion or thought put into it that I might as well be writing a to-do list or something equally lame. I like my entries that actually reflect what I'm thinking and feeling. I like to record the details only possible while I'm still feeling and experiencing what it is I'm writing. When I don't, you get entries like my last one about the trees. True, the primary purpose was to show the grandparents pictures of Penny with us, but it would have been that much better if I'd written something interesting and current to go along with it.
Fourth, I want to read more and educate myself. I recently hit a reading slump when I tried to read "Anne of Avonlea." What a boring book! The first one was so good, but the second one just stagnates. I'm still about 2/3 into the thing, and I know I will never finish it. I should return it and just borrow the movie already. But part of me doesn't want to read a new book until I've finished what I've started, and therefore I read no books but just surf the internet. The internet has more information than it knows what to do with, but as I shallowly skim articles and status updates, none of it really sinks into my brain, whether it's worth learning or not. That needs to change.
5 comments:
Wow, you knew more about the Civil War than I did (didn't remember the dates). Ditto about the history classes at the high school. A few times, he let me sit in on a class as part of my observation hours. He was amazing! Did you know that he retired in January?
On the subject of books, I used to force myself to finish one book before reading another one. Then I realized that even if I wanted to, there's no way I could read all of the books available in my lifetime (even just the English language ones), so why was I torturing myself to read something that I didn't like or wasn't in the mood to read when there had to be something truly captivating? Now I tend to have several books in multiple stages along with ones I've given up reading. It's rather freeing! And, if you want a fun way to see what others are reading and reviews, etc. then goodreads.com is quite helpful. :)
I'm guessing one of the big differences between then and now is that you actually care... I had good and bad teachers in all subjects but what I really learned was what I cared about... Math, books, any history to do with the abomb, etc. I too have been watching those episodes on PBS and enjoying it cuz now I want to know, now that i've been to some of those places.
Thanks for sharing some of ur thoughts as I too have been thinking about being better... problem is, I'm good at thinking but not so much at doing :-) Good luck in implimentation!
BTW, I have to be very very careful as to what books I start because I CANNOT stop reading them. I don't understand u type of people! I like "Rilla of Ingleside" the best out of all that Anne series... even better than Green Gables cuz it takes place during WWI.
Um ... I can't find anything and I really don't remember, I often just have it sent straight to my dad. I'd just email Camille. I think all I did was total my earning by looking at my paypal account, I think Camille sent me a total and they were the same so we just reported it. Sorry, I'm no help!
Oh man, I just typed out this loooong comment and Blogger ATE it!! :-P I will try again.
Anyway, I love this post. So many good thoughts. Since I'm a history-lover, it makes me happy when other people are learning about history, too! I learned to love it when I had Ms. Schick at LAHS, but really, her best attribute as a teacher was that she expected us to actually read the textbook (gasp!). That and she actually seemed to enjoy the subject. Even though I majored in history and pick up history books now (fiction and nonfiction), I still feel like I have SO MUCH to learn about it.
You hit on another of my passions -- recording our personal histories. I am so glad I've taken the time to do this and wish I could even do more sometimes (which is kind of ridiculous considering how long my blog posts get!). But I just find it so valuable, especially now that I'm a few years removed from when I began blogging!
And books! Ahhh; love books. I am a finish-er, so I completely understand your dilemma. Sometimes I have to stop what I'm reading and read something light and easy to jumpstart me back into the other book. I never did read all of the Anne books myself.
I read a book last month and thought of you when I read it, maybe because it's about this girl who is Caucasian (British) but grew up in China. Fictional (a romance, actually). It's called Moonraker's Bride and I had to get it Interlibrary loan. But if you can find a copy, I think you'd like it. (And while reading, I had one of those moments: "the Boxer Rebellion? What's this?? Did I learn about this in that Asian history class, because I really probably should have!!")
Anne of Avonlea is a great movie!!
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