Finding Hope In High School Papers (originally posted March 1, 2011)


Through one of my volunteer associations, I've been asked to judge papers for the 2011 National History Day.  This year, the theme is "Debate and Diplomacy:  Successes, Failures, and Consequences."  The first challenge for me in judging the work of high-schoolers is this:  I am not a teacher.  I have been telling myself that some portion of my second career in public service should involve teaching, but the fact of the matter is that I have never taught for a living.  The exercise of sorting through the writings of students reminds me that teachers, though much-maligned of late, have a pretty tough job.  And by the way, reading the voluntary works of willing students is probably one of the activities a professional teacher would actually relish.  There are plenty of less-than-pleasant daily tasks in which teachers must engage.
 
      I must say that I've really enjoyed this assignment.  True, some of the students have not fully fleshed out their work.  True, some make mistakes distinguishing between primary and secondary historical sources.  And some throw in irritating grammatical errors.  What inspires me, though, are a couple of things.  First, the passion.  Some of these students are writing on subjects they really care about, like a young musician writing on the history of music censorship, or a student who clearly seems destined for a career in law writing about the importance of the Geneva Conventions.  And second, as a person who enjoys reading history, it just makes me happy to see a person 30 years younger than I am seeming to also enjoy discovering America in the era of Andrew Jackson, for example.
 
      I suppose what makes me revel in the work of these students is that last night my wife and I watched Waiting for Superman, a film that draws a particularly depressing picture of the state of American Public Education.  And while there is no excuse for us not to address the problems that Superman highlights, reading passionate student papers written for a history project makes me realize that in spite of problems in our educational system, we are producing some students who care about learning.  We need to keep producing more of them.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dallas Cowboys Stadium (orginally posted December 6, 2010)        I got my first chance to be inside the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas for the Big XII Championship game on December 4, 2010.  As a Huskers fan, I was disappointed in the outcome of the game, but it was great fun being inside that facility, which is something like the Disneyworld of Stadiums.  The stadium looks like a giant spaceship from the outside, complete with a retractable roof that opens onto massive bridge support-like tracks.  From the outside, one could expect a grand roof opening with the Cowboy greats of the past ascending out... Tom Landry, Roger Staubach, even Dandy Don Meredith who just passed away this weekend (R.I.P. Don).  Inside, the facility features the famous Giant Screens (two large, two smaller).  One is tempted to watch the entire game on the big televisions, but you need to look at the action on the field, because there is literally...
Read more

Why I Imposed a Twitter Moratorium on Myself--Why I am Lifting It

  My Twitter Rules               I imposed a Twitter moratorium on myself in April 2023 because I did not like the person I was becoming. I do not want to be a snarky, small-minded person who responds to petty insults and becomes angry because someone questions me. But I have thought through a set of self-imposed rules which I think will help me produce useful content on Twitter and also help me preserve my own sanity. Just a note to anyone reading this: the rules apply to me, not to anyone else. But the rules help any other readers understand where I am coming from.  WHY I NEED TO WRITE: 1. I have worthwhile things to say. I returned to this blogger site now, in May 2023. As I read my January 2, 2021 post, I realized that my thoughts are worth reading. At least they are to me. I wrote that blog post four days prior to January 6, 2021, the day Donald Trump and his followers attempted to violently interrupt American democracy in progress....
Read more
 The Final Assault will Fail               It appears that as of this date, January 2, 2021, Donald Trump has largely failed in his attempt to hold power after the Inauguration on January 20, a little less than three weeks from now. However, he has dramatically succeeded in his attempt to divide Americans, to pit American against American, to make Americans decide whether to love him or hate him, and there is very middle ground remaining. That does not mean that middle ground is not viable, nor is it invalid. However, simply put, the middle ground is a return to our Constitutional norms and the institutions that keep our society somewhat intact.                First, Trump's efforts to intimidate voters, bully voters, delay ballots, and in general suppress enough votes in key states to win the election was, thankfully, a failure. The response of Trump and his team ("The Election was Rigged") was le...
Read more