Posted on 05/23/2008 5:09:33 PM PDT by snugs
History and heritage - this mean many things to each person. It can mean a dry and boring lesson at school that appeared to have no relevance to today's world or it can bring up warm rich memories of being taught the importance of the part and how it has shaped our future.
I agree my thoughts are similar.
History is the facts and figures such as events and dates and heritage is what comes from the historical events and the human interaction with it and belongs to us all.
What is favourite period of history?
I suppose it would be the industrial revolution of the 18 and 1900's. I enjoy life today because people accomplished so much in such a short period of human history. (IMO)
What do you think is the best way of teaching history?
Learn to develop a "sreet attitude" about historical events so you can teach what you know and have the credibilty of a scholar, and the connection of just a normal person ... telling a true story to fertile minds.
Where did history rate in order of your favourite subjects at school or did the way your school taught it turn you off the subject?
I didn't realize history was my favorite subject until I got older and tried to understand, "What's it all about, Alphie" ... so I guess it was a closet favorite ... although, at the time I thought my favorite subject was girls, trying to get laid, and lieing about getting laid.
One of the tools of teaching history I enjoyed was story type teaching where there was TV type program featuring a fictional family during a period of history and how affected them.
Now .. perhaps unable to outwardly cry for embarassment, he mulls over a question he asked once ... "Ma, what'ya want for your birthday?"
"Just be a good boy, she replied.
Soon, they come to get him, treating him like an animal and .. he really didn't think of himself as an animal .. but, out in the street, they put a huge length of wood on his shoulders ... and start to march him with a couple of other guys out of the city to the execution place.
The people mock him, "Yeah .. y'ain't so cocky now are ya, @$$hole"
The tears start to flow as he is layed down on the ground and nails are pounded into his wrists .. and he is hoisted up and the cross memeber he's nailed to is dropped into a notch that forever ... for all cognizant time ... is his last memory of anything that was not painful.
In time, one of the other guys starts raggin' on the third, calling him names and asking impossible questions.
At least for once in my life, I'm going to speak words that are not hurtful or meant to deceive ...
"Shut up, jerk ... what's your problem? This guy ain't done nuthin' wrong ... but you have ... and .... so have I"
"Lord ... remember me when you get to heaven ... put in a good word for me, will ya' ?"
"Verily, verily I say unto thee, this day shalt though be with Me in Paradise."
I think a smile came over his face and he slumped down ... no longer struggling to stay alive ... not in this world ... and breathed his last.
The famous clock at Highbury (Arsenal FC) Highbury is no more as Arsenal have redeveloped the ground and moved to the Emirates Stadium
The Norwegian Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square
The British Museum
Westminster Clock commonly called Big Ben which is actually the largest Bell
The National Gallery
One day I was not really paying attention in my history class and my teacher said "Hey, do you want to teach the class?" I then said "yeah, are you assigning homework at the end?" "Well could you make sure to pay attention next time?" "No, I was serious, I'll take over for you and teach the rest of the period."
Amazingly she wouldn't let me, but I think my main concern was if I would get paid union scale for doing so. :)
Hearst Castle is about a hundred miles from me. Does that count? LOL!
Favorite character: Cicero (if you would have said favorite person or Icon, I would have probably said Jesus. Cicero was a character, just read his Philippicae.)
Favorite period: 60BC-Resurrection
Best way to teach history: I really can't answer this one. I like many here went to US public school where history is not taught well. It wasn't until after university that I became interested in history.
Where did history rate in order of my favorite subjects: At the bottom of the list. I had no idea how interesting and funny history could be.
History was the first class I ever skipped. It was Jr. college. And that was American history, too.
I think one has to almost wait for history to come to them. It is very dry to force it. Yes, I suppose that is true of most things. But I could force myself to learn math or other things more readily than history.
Nowadays I don’t mind history. I enjoy watching the PBS historical series. That may not be the best source but I imagine all history tellers tweak it to some extent. Who really knows.
<Who is your favourite character in history?
Elizabeth I, absolutely.
<What is favourite period of history?
I guess there are intellectual favorites, periods you like to study, and emotionally appealing favorites, times you’d like to live in. Intellectually, the Revolutionary War, the US labor movement in the 1930s, England between the Wars (esp. changes in the class system and the Bloomsbury group), and the Renaissance. I used to want to live during the Renaissance, but the more I think about life w/o antibiotics and painkillers, the less appealing I find life in the past. I would probably be dead if I lived in any other period, so I’m happy in the now.
<What do you think is the best way of teaching history?
I think the computer re-creations that are available now of ancient sites, and even more recent sites such as Civil War battlegrounds, are great for making history come alive. You can really see what these places looked like and a get a feel for how people might have lived in them.
I also am in favor of learning history via autobiographies and biographies. Let the people tell it!
<Where did history rate in order of your favourite subjects at school...?
I designed my own major, with English lit as the predominant courses, supplemented with history and political science. I didn’t see how you could understand literature (I was reading the old stuff), without an understanding of history and the political current of the times.
I love history and was at one time quite the Anglophile. I was fortunate to attend the Univ of London as an undergrad and was able to see much of what I had read about for so many years.
I love history of all kinds. I started out as an archaeology major and then became a history major. (My poor daughter grew up to be a history teacher.)
I particularly like tracing how things evolved. There was a series years ago called “Connections” that was great. I tend to go from one area of study to another. When I was younger, it was the ancient world. In college, it was the Rennaisance. As an adult, I got into studying the history of property law and government which took me through Roman, Viking, English and American history.
I currently have gained access to all the BBC series on the Victorian and Edwardian era romances. It is interesting to mark the influence of the Empire on fashions in dress. I also have a curiosity as some of my ancestors came from Somersetshire, near where many of the stories are set. Of course, they were wool weavers and left in the 1600s, not the upper class.
There are also some stories set in northern mill towns. That was a hard life. Another branch of the family were linen weavers in Northern Ireland. It fascinates me imagining what their life was like in the industrial revolution.
I had another ancestor, de Cramner, who started the Anglican church. It is curious seeing him portrayed in the HBO series The Tudors. (He was eventually burned at the stake.)
Another branch was caught up in the Mary Queen of Scots intrigue. He was a Scotish earl. Pretty cut throat and brutal from all the portrayals.
I sure would love to know more about them all. I have their names and some tin types, but most of the rest is from my imagination.
Had ancestors who settled in Maine in an Anglican settlement in the 1620s. Must have taken a lot of courage to do that. I say the “Colonial House” series on PBS and it is a wonder they survived.
When I was a child there were many educational programs in the schools recorded from the TV broadcast especially for schools that used to do that. Later on of course many programs have been made following an imaginary village or town set in different eras many of which are adaptation of novels written during that period.
Some modern writers also set their novels in different eras and again have been shown on TV.
Two recent series I think both on the BBC have been set around time of the coming of the railways and just before showing the lives of simple country folk through to seated gentry and how they interact and how as things start to develop and the ordinary folk as they start to get access to different things and in particular an education start questioning the order of things. Of course most of it portrayed with a socialist/liberal slant but even so you can start appreciate that the ordinary man did have a case to be treated a full member of society.
The best series recently IMHO was called Candelfoot if you get the chance to watch it do so even if one of the character is liberal a lot of what he says portrays how badly in one respect the ordinary people were treated and thought of by the ruling classes often not with any malice but from the point of view that was the order of things and not to be questioned or challenged.
Unfortunately with how things have gone in Britain with binge drinking etc I am not sure whether I would enjoy that now. Yes Scotland you have always had the drunks in the streets and on a Saturday night stepped over them but his new generation who get violent when tanked up and the worrying trend of carrying knives not to protect themselves but to attack others such pleasures as hogmany unless it was the very best hotel available scares me off a bit.
The middle of the road hotels where these sort of people would either not have access to due to money or they themselves would not want to go there and certainly the hotels would resist them is no longer true. With the breakdown of most class barriers (good in one respect bad in others) and the only thing that matters these days is the colour of your money make certain places less appealing and I think Scotland during Hogmanay unfortunately be one unless you can afford to stay a tip top hotel or a very remote place.
I think my dream of the log fire and small group of people welcoming the new year in with a few Scottish dancers may well be a pipe dream and reality it would be drunken rowdy bash with the fear of the police being called at any moment. Sad how life has progressed or otherwise in this area in Britain.
I think drink and how people handle is much to do with it and unfortunately however one tries to to spin there is more access by the ordinary man and women to more money whether legal or not these days and with the breakdown of family and religious life the youngsters in many areas have turned to violence and drink.
We have more people in Britain carrying knives and guns than ever and not to protect themselves but the sole purpose to hurt or kill at worst and least to frighten and show power over weaker people.
I am using Britain as an example but I am sure I could use this for any developed western country in the world.
Drink is a major factor and the worrying aspect is the number of women who go out to get drunk and then complain they have been assaulted or raped. Not that anyone condones this behavior by others but if you put yourself in a venerable situation or place you have to take some of the responsibility of the outcome.
Only last weekend an 18 year old was stabbed to death in my own county he was again outside a Night Club and obviously he and his mates would have been drinking (legal age in Britain is 18). He was attacked by someone carrying a knife heavens knows why take a knife to night club unless you are intent on wounding or frightening someone. This young lad had recently had a part in the new Harry Potter film coming out later this year so one can only speculate the reasons for the attack, jealousy money or was it just booze and this lad and his mates were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
It will be interesting when plays and TV programs and books are written from an historic perspective of this time in our history whether or not booze and drugs will be highlighted as one of the major causes which I do believe is so but behind it I also believe what plays a bigger role is the breakdown of the traditional home and religious beliefs.
I am certain though things will change whether again for the better I am not sure but I think we will move on from the present booze orientated society where all youngsters want to do is get off their face with drink and drugs but what to.
I do think with all the natural disasters and wars and rumousrs of wars around the globe and the breakdown of morals in society we are indeed in the last times as the bible warns see these things and look upwards.
As I said earlier up the thread the breakdown of society whether it be morally or religiously which IMHO stems from the same thing has much to answer for with youngsters only wanting to blind drunk or drugged needing some sort of artificial high or blot out the world.
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