A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. (Henry Adams)
Thinking about the musings from DAY 7: Rest…Relax…Reflect…
I would submit to you that rest is as important as work…
And play…
And family life…
And more.
However, once that day of rest is complete, and the sun rises on a new work week, whether it is a Monday, Sunday, or any day in-between, eventually, it is time to get back to…
Work.
Usually, the way the school-year is set up, we are by now going into the second week of school. With that being said, I begin to dive a little deeper into the content of the course. Being a teacher in the public school system, teaching an AP World History course with the expectations mandated by Collegeboard, here are a few things that I would like to share with you regarding the teaching expectations that I am must work with, before the redesign that came along in 2019-2020:
1) I have 90 minutes a day, 5 days a week, for 18 weeks total, to teach the course, AP World History. This schedule is referred to as the accelerated block system;
2) I need to cover hundreds of people, places and things that mankind has accomplished over the 10,000 years on 6 continents and;
3) The content and analysis presented is, in theory, to be presented at the college level.
The age of my students range somewhere between the 15 to 16 year-old range. Those years are chronological…
Not maturity age.
Nor intellectual age.
Combine the chronological age of the students with the fact that for many, this is their first go around in an AP level course. I make it very clear that they are in Advanced Placement, World History class.
Not regular.
Combining all of these ingredients on the surface appears to be a recipe for disaster.
Dealing with the trials and tribulations and the wailing and gnashing of teeth of the students as they experience the journey through my class is a whole other story in and of itself…
In fact, an entirely separate blog in and of itself.
Back on point….
The first unit in class that we discuss is referred to as the ‘Foundations’ unit. A couple of things that I bring to the students attention are two-fold when introducing the ‘Foundations’ unit:
1) As a general rule, the ‘Foundations’ unit covers content from approximately 8,000 BC to 600 AD;
2) It matters not as far as CollegeBoard is concerned, whether you believe that human history can be traced farther back in time. Or as I have on the board in multiple choice format:
How old do you think humans started on planet Earth?
A) Adam and Eve (or Creation);
B) Monkeys (or Evolution);
C) Aliens (or…Aliens); or
D) All of the above;
Now, back to my classroom. The classroom is dark. At best, once the classroom lights are off, there are several iPad screens that are on, (or cellphones…those are the students that most likely are not going to be successful in my class), giving off a faint glow around the room.
After instructing the students to turn off all of their technology, the dark classroom is just about pitch black now. Then the glow of my red dot from the laser point in my hand appears on a ceiling tile above their heads.
I explain to the students that what they are currently looking at, the red dot, is a representation of their life here on Earth. (As a general rule, after I left that hang in the air for a moment or two, even those still on their iPads or cell phones are now for the most part, fully engaged, wondering where I am going to go with their red dot.)
More specifically, I tell them that the red dot is actually the dash that is sitting on their tombstone. The dash, which sits in-between their date of birth and date of death, represents their life on planet Earth.
No one moves. The students wonder where I am taking this…
I continue.
“This dash that is on the ceiling represents your life and everything that you did during the time you were alive here on Earth. All the good. All the bad. All the ugly. None of that matters now. What matters now is, (I remove my thumb from the remote and the ceiling is now black), that sometime in the future, much later hopefully rather than sooner, you will die, and your life will be nothing more than a, (I press down again to bring the red dot back up on the ceiling), dash on a tombstone….”
“So, if the classroom that you are sitting in represents eternity, then it is safe for everyone in the room then to agree that we are going to be dead much longer, (red dot turned off), than we are going to be alive, (red dot on), from an eternal perspective (red dot off)?
Look at the size of the room. Do you remember your red dot, (red dot on), your life here on Earth? The red dot that is now sitting as a dash on a tombstone for the rest of eternity? Do you really think that, that is all there is to your life on an eternal scale? That once you die here on Earth, (red dot off), that is all there is? Nothing else? In your heart, do you really believe that? That you are nothing more than worm-food once you check out here?
Really?”
“Still not convinced? Let’s extend eternity out some more. Instead of the just the classroom representing eternity, let’s include the entire school…the lunchroom, the library, auditorium and gyms…plus the football stadium, and student and staff parking lots…in other words, eternity now is represented by the entire property of the property of the school itself….
Look at the dot again (red dot on).
Are you sure that once you die, (red dot off), all you have for the rest of eternity is that little dash, (red dot on), on your tombstone? Are you sure that’s all there is once you eventually checkout, (red dot off), from planet Earth?
I don’t believe that…I don’t believe that at all. To me, and to the overwhelming majority of humans that have lived here, (red dot on), for the past 10,000 years, to think that that’s all there is once you breathe your last breath, (red dot off), doesn’t make logical sense either. The idea that assuming that we are nothing but worm-food once we check out here on planet Earth, that that is the end? Does that sound logical to you?
Seriously?”
“I would submit to you that there has to be something more than this….”
As I move towards the light switches to turn them on, I can usually hear a few uncomfortable students shifting in their desks as I finish off this idea of where humans are, and more specifically, where they themselves are, not only in the scale of AP World History’s 10,000 years of human history, but on an eternal scale.
I finish off this concept, while putting the red dot remote control into my pocket, with the following takeaway:
“If you truly and honestly believe that once you die, that is it…that is all that there is for you…why then, throughout human history, humans have believed in this idea of your spirit…or soul…or whatever you wish to call it…a part of you while alive…
Goes somewhere after your death?”
“Call it Heaven. Call it Nirvana. Call it Moksha. Call it Paradise. Call it whatever you want to call it. The fact remains: the overwhelming majority of those 108 plus billion people that have lived, and are currently living on planet Earth believe, that there is something more to this after we die.
Combine that idea with this: where do humans historically turn to for advice, not only while alive on Earth, but when preparing for their afterlife in eternity? The overwhelming majority of humans around the world look up for guidance.
Now, for those who look down…that is a completely different issue and perhaps we will address that some other time. As for me, I highly recommend that you look up.”
“The thing is, the reason why humans throughout time look up and not down is because of a human continuity that I refer to as ‘SURTS’ or:
Someone Upstairs Runs The Show….”
What exactly is SURTS?
That will be addressed next time….
Do not feel discouraged if you don’t believe in the concept of eternity or an afterlife. Do not feel discouraged if you feel that your life is so out of control right now on planet Earth, that the idea of focusing on getting through another day, let alone eternity, is anywhere on your radar. Instead, embrace the idea that eternity is a good thing. Embrace the idea that perhaps there really is more than the years you put in here on planet Earth. That is something to look forward to, in addition to the sunrise…isn’t it?
26 Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth. (Isaiah 40:26 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 8: Someone Upstairs Runs The Show – Part 1.
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:
I’ve read all your posts and wish I’d had been one of your students! Thanks for ‘enlightening ‘ my mind. Your students are lucky to have you.