If people are not laughing at your goals, your goals are too small. (Azim Premji)
Thinking about the musings from DAY 3: 108 Billion Legacies…
I believe that Bob Dylan was right.
The Times They Are A Changin’.
On the first day of school, as soon as the tardy bell rings, I play Bob Dylan’s song: The Times They Are A-Changin’ to my students. I have the lyrics on the screen at the front of the room, and the music playing on my 25 year old boom box at the back. (That reference alone should be an automatic giveaway that I was born in the last millennia.).
After the song ends, I begin the process of asking the students to discuss portions of the song lyrics that stick out to them and why. There are several goals that I am trying to accomplish in the time following the completion of the song:
1) To get the students to start thinking about history;
2) Who wrote the song?
3) When was the song written?
4) Where was the song written?
5) Why was the song written?
6) What part of the lyrics helped to give parts 2, 3, 4 and/or 5 away? and perhaps most importantly;
7) Is the song applicable today?
Every year, after the first day of school comes to a close, I continue to draw the same two conclusions:
1) I get a chronological year older and;
2) The incoming students’ ages stay constant.
Every year, I get a new group of sophomores, [aged 15 to 16], taking my Advanced Placement World History class. (For my AP European History students, I begin their first day of class with a different song, Bastille Day, by RUSH.)
As the years have rolled by, I get less and less hands raised when I ask what I used to believe was an elementary question:
“Does anyone in the class know who Bob Dylan is?”
The process of listening to the song and going through the 7 questions mentioned above can range between 10-20 minutes, usually depending on the time of day, (my first period class always needs extra prodding and assistance getting to the answers for some reason). When I believe that I can get about all I can get from them and transition to the next activity, I leave them with 3 big takeaways:
1) History does matter;
2) History Repeats Itself, Just Not In The Same Frequency Nor Intensity and;
3) Knowledge Is Power or Reading Is Fundamental….
Now, to expect a 15-16 year old to be able to grasp one or more of these ideas within minutes of the first day of class, is a tall task indeed. To then have them consistently be able to, not only identify them throughout the 18 week semester, but to also explain their historical significance within the context of a college-level World (or European History) course…
That is a whole other issue indeed.
These Advanced Placement courses that I teach were ultimately created by a company called CollegeBoard, who also runs the SAT exams as well.
I do not wish to dig deeper to unpack my overall frustrations and general angst regarding CollegeBoard for that alone could be an entirely separate blog. What I want to highlight here before moving forward is the fact that CollegeBoard decided to re-design the Advanced Placement World History course.
In 2019, they split the original content of history from basically 10,000 years of human history, (approximately from 8,000 BC to the present), into:
1) AP World History: Modern. This re-designed course now covers the historical events of mankind from around 1200 AD, to the present, and;
2) What I believe will eventually become AP World History: Ancient. This eventual, re-designed course should then cover the historical events of mankind, from around 10,000 years ago to the 1200 AD mark.
Why does this matter?
For a couple of reasons:
Each school year, I get a new round of incoming sophomores coming from different academic backgrounds*:
A) AP Human Geography. This course has the blessing of CollegeBoard because it is one of their courses;
B) pre-AP World Geography. A theoretical hybrid I suppose, between AP and Regular academic rigor and;
C) Regular World Geography. Regarding regular world geography these students were taught by either a regular education teacher or a coach.
*That does not include the various students that come in from other districts in state…out of state…or literally, from another country.
The point here is that these new, AP World History students, are entering my class with varying personal experiences and backgrounds socially, politically, economically, and culturally.
With that being said, it is no small feat to get all of these minds on occasion to be thinking as one, especially when trying them to get to understand the following:
History Repeats Itself, Just Not In The Same Frequency Nor Intensity.
Once I can get the students to buy into this idea, then I can move forward with the class. (Actually, I just move forward whether they get it or not on the first day. They have an entire semester to try to figure it out. After all, we are all one day closer to death aren’t we?)
Does it really matter that beginning back in 2019 the ability to fully integrate the social, political, economic, and cultural ramifications of the Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Indus River Valley, Shang, Olmecs and Chavin civilizations experienced globally beginning around 5,500 years ago, will no longer be a part of the expectations of my class? Perhaps not, as those historical events are now reserved for the new, ‘Ancient’ course beginning in the near future.
In the end it really does not matter if these civilizations were still a part of the course or not. Either way, one of the most important takeaways that I continue to get students to walk away with before they leave my class is:
History Repeats Itself, Just Not In The Same Frequency Nor Intensity.
In other words, whether discussing the Ancient Civilizations from thousands of years ago, or discussing those currently living in the United States, Paraguay, Spain, Uganda, Laos or New Zealand, in the end, nothing has really changed….
Do not feel discouraged if you ‘don’t get it’. Do not feel discouraged if after reading or viewing or hearing an idea, or many ideas, that those ideas just seem to splatter all around your brain with no sense of order, with no rhyme or reason, never to be fully understood, let alone acted upon. Instead, if you agree with the basic premise that: History Repeats Itself, Just Not In The Same Frequency Nor Intensity, then you can, I believe, be able to truly move forward. Combine that first idea with the following two: Knowledge Is Power and that Reading Is Fundamental, and your journey for the rest of the day just got a lot more interesting. Where will these three ideas take you tomorrow?
9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1:9 KJV)
Was today’s blog a little confusing at times? Was the content perhaps a little overwhelming? Did you feel lost not understanding some or most of the subject matter?
Those feelings are totally understandable and it is ok to have one or more of those feelings. Remember that you are reading Day 4: The Times They Are A-Changin’.
If you haven’t been in class since the first day of school…or when the project began…or when the contract was first signed, etc., these feelings make perfect and logistical sense.
Please feel free to go back to where all of this began: