The truth is, Life gets busy, crazy busy.
I graduated College!! I have my degree in sociology. Yep!
And then I changed my mind.
I am now going to a small Christian College, to get my degree in History Education.
And it is crazy
Each class is only 7 weeks long. And to get me going I am doing observations for two of the 3 classes this 7 weeks.
It has been nonstop. As I write this I should be writing my 8 page paper on the USSR Space Race. But let’s face it I need a break! Did you know that in Russia the last name for Smith is Kervokseriesasderpkikasd? Yeah me either! (Disclaimer I don’t know if that is a real word in Russian, or if I am cursing some of my readers out or not...It is THAT strange for me).
Tests have to be proctored, each of my three classes require a million pages to read in 5 different books each week, and a 300-million page essay each week. It is a lot!
But the coolest part is T-rex supports me in all the way. We have no idea how we are going to pay for it; we have no idea if I am going to pass my first History class (the teacher grades REALLY REALLY HARD!) But it is what I want to do. When I grow up . . ..when I grow more I so see myself teaching high school kids that it is okay to have guns, the old guys who fought some other guys said so!
I am sure once I am done with college I will sound like I know what I am talking about, but sadly these classes are sucking all thinking power right out my head.
T-rex said he loves what he does, and he would not change it for anything, and why should I settle just because it took me a little longer to find out what I really want to do. I think he is right, one way or another I am going to do this, and if that means I don’t get to blog as much, or sleep, or watch TV, or read for fun, or clean the house, or cook meals for the kids, then who cares right? These first 7 weeks classes are almost done, and then it is right back to it. But I love it.
6 comments:
I find that especially interesting as I'm happily slogging my toward a history degree. And I'd like to stay as far away from high school kids as possible ;) But if that part o'crazy makes you happy, I too say GO FOR IT!!!
And lovin' me some Industrial Revolution. :)
LMAO. Alright Meadow, what is your kind of crazy? I mean History is one mark of just down right nuts for ya, we both know that!
Truth be told I think I might HATE learning history, everything else about it I LOVE. I love when I am getting information about history but not having to sit there and Learn it.
College or Adult. I'd totally dig on teaching a series of online classes on how history is repeating itself.
And I LOVE when people think outside the box. Case in point: Last term one of our questions was to write (less than 200 words) about how we'd feel living in Oregon just after the emancipation of slavery. To a person, everyone wrote that they would be happy for the slaves and that they thought everyone should be treated equally ...blah blah blah. I wrote about my problem with the "injuns" because of the recent attacks near eastern Oregon/Idaho... how the "chinee" were taking jobs of the "good white men" and we didn't really have any "niggras" as they were in Portland and them city folks had their own problems...I needed one of them new fangled thresing machines.
Yes, I posted a disclaimer that I did use era-appropriate language, but my point was... studying history from TODAY'S point of view is nice, but useless. FIRST we have to understand THEIR point of view. WHY was it ok then? Do we really think it was that they were just "morally bad"? And I use the fact that we now bottle water - a resource that should be available to all and for free - and OUR ancestors will probably find that to be morally bankrupt. But because we're in the "here and now" it seems perfectly fine to us. People of those times - no matter what the movies portray - were overwhelmingly ok with slavery and racism. WHY?
Sorry... thinking about history in context and THEN analyzing the connections to today, as well as challenging the status quo, is ALWAYS a passion. I find history textbooks that have these incredible biases and nobody is willing to question those biases.
All the women wrote about how they LOVE Margaret Sanger (the leader of what would become the birth control movement) and I asked "you DO realize that she also was a proponent of eugenics and some of her writings thought one of the best reasons for birth control was that it would keep the "less desireables" (other races and the poor) from breeding"?
OK... sorry. I LOVE history. And I love learning. Of course, I'm at a state University, all online. It sounds like your classes are hard and fast. We have no proctored tests but tons of weekly writing. I get caught up in some of those "write two paragraphs" and the next thing you know it's 3 hours later and I'm still researching citeable evidence to prove my point. ;)
Whew. Done now. lol
IF I had a teacher like you I would LOVE IT! I just hate all the facts and junk we have to learn just reading this book that would put anyone to sleep.
The reason I went to History after Sociology is because I do want to be able to teach people the ties the past has on us now, and how much we are falling into the steeps of the past. IF my teacher would let me I would so go into compare American society now with that of Germany the years before the Nazi party took over. It is crazy. BUT I have to stay on european history, and sadly that is one history that has only intrested me at times (lol lame history joke).
I think if the classes were a normal semester and not just 7 weeks that would help. All my classes are online which I love, and is why I picked this college.
I first started to go to College for Elem ED. and then it hit me that 8 year olds are annoying! So Middle school or High School came up, but I finished my degree in soc. Still teaching was nagging at me. I hope I dont have to teach Middle School. . Middle School is hell for everyone.
I did 8-week accelerated classes when we lived in Hawaii (although they were physical classes, not online). They're tough.
You could consider Eastern Oregon University. ;) Maybe we'd run into each other!
Feel free to send any history thoughts my way. I love figuring out *why* we do what we do.
Peace and happy studying!
Meadow
Congrats and good luck with the new challenge. I enjoy learning--from both sides.
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