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Monday, October 7, 2013

25. Please, don't tell me that story

History never was my favorite subject. What should I learn from the past?. I suppose one idea is to understand that others made mistakes and we should not repeat those mistakes,  but the truth is that many of them are repeated over and over again. Seems that some things are simply recycled.
 
I am not ashamed to say that History didn't make sense to me, not to say that I always made sure to have good relations with anyone who would like to study it, regardless of whether they were pleasant or not, I learned quickly anyone an expert on everything, so you should look for specialized support.

How would teach history to children?, I could not inspire them if it was never inspiring!. This idea kept me awake for several days. I was so tired that one morning I decided to be honest with children. That day after laughing out loud after reading a story, from nothing, I looked to the children and they thought that it would go to an unforgettable speech, but instead, I said openly that I never find my way with History. 

I was surprised when I finished my small confession children looked at me, and their   eyes seemed dishes, all of them quiet for a second, until Mita got up to hug me, incredibly, I felt better, especially when she said almost in a whisper: "don't worry teacher, nobody is perfect, I do not I like lentil soup".

Children began to smile like when they see ice cream during a hot summer day, and every one began to say different confessions. From Joseph who doesn't like if his sister fight for their  remote control, to Johary who admitted that she hates when her mom buys her pink dresses. 

I thought for a moment: What a Heck?,  all of us have to endure something when we are children thanks to  parental desire to make usgood persons!, and the worst of all is that making history... all we went through something that we hate and not makes us best!.
When I cleared my amazement, children told me that they would be the best to learn history and there was not reason to feel worried because they wouldn’t say to anyone about my secret.

I proposed them to learn history as I would have liked to learn it, with movies, games, music  and jokes. If someone would  had taught me that way, perhaps I would love it and now would be giving lectures about the Civil war or seeking lost stones in the Arctic, but no one made me fell in love, anyone care, I only had to choose between A, B or C and if you I did it wrong, nothing happened, and if it did it well either. 

In third grade, as the rest of the group, I paid $5 to John Mulder by every exam for answering my tests. He has made himself even richer since then designing tests, and I became a teacher, wishing to make children suffer as so many persons did it to me during  my childhood. 

Maybe, after all the history makes sense, allows us to understand the past to laugh at ourselves. But I hope that children understand better and learn to feel passion for something, even for someone’s else life who probably didn’t know a toilet or  cleaned  his ass with ecological paper.