Thoughts from a day of travel
So, I am traveling for work. My first time overseas for work in probably 5 years, and it feels great. I missed getting to travel overseas.
I will admit the trip itself was exhausting. I took an overnight from Seattle to Heathrow, and then had a four-hour layover before taking the 2 hour hop to Spain. But now that I'm here and have a night of sleep, I feel great.
I think traveling truly is one of the most beneficial things people can do. I recognize finances are hard, and as I flew I was considering the moral ethics of it in light of the climate crisis, which I recognize are big things to be considered. And I didn't come to a resolution one way or the other.
But I truly believe much of the issue with people's shrinking views of the world, where it's just their bubble and everything outside their bubble isn't important, doesn't matter, or is even the enemy - being able to expand their bubble, or pop it altogether through travel is a wonderful thing.
If I had the money, part of my gifts for nieces and nephews would be money for college, and money for an overseas trip. I've added that to my list for when I eventually win the powerball. 🙄
One thing which made the travel to Barcelona much better was that I had a story idea before getting on the plane, and I was able to spend a great deal of my time in the area thinking about it and developing it. We'll see what becomes of it, but I think I've got a really fun and interesting concept.
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Thinking about history curricula
I saw a TikTok video about a guy ranting about America's history education, discussing the notable oversights and political framings which come with the nationalist viewings of history. That set me thinking about how to improve history education, ignoring the fact that the simple realities of history (even/especially recent history) are impossible for some people to agree upon.
I think history is the topic in school which is most hurt by a non-nationalized curriculum structure. Consider math. Math has a pretty clear progression in terms of education. Similar for language. Elementary school provides fundamentals. Middle school builds on those. High school begins offering specialization paths.
But for History, it isn't as simple. Sure, you need some fundamentals to understand things which come after them, but you can't progress in the same linear way, which is rather ironic now that I think about it. It felt for me like history was a lot of retreading the same topics year after year as you progress from one school to the next. Sure, some of it was retreading topics to go deeper on them, but not always. And looking back as I've continued to learn more over my life, there is a hell of a lot more which seems like it should be included as part of core history curricula.
I envision a structure where it iterates over era and sections in an organized way where school years properly build on past years. Not entirely linearly as I think some of the pre-history stuff, while interesting to kids (yay dinosaurs!) also merits investigation and discussions when they are older. But also for things like current events and recent history too, discussing race and the issues there, etc.
I think there would still be retreading of topics, but I think it could be slimmed down and it would ensure students learn new and more than what they currently do.
Standard "I don't really know what I'm talking about" disclaimer: I am not a teacher, and perhaps there is more structure in place for teaching history than I'm aware of. I am speaking only from my recollections and observations from others. Neither of which should be considered as making me an expert on this topic.
Automated Archives for July, 26th 2023
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Chess For the Day
Record: 2-0-1
Net Elo Change: +7
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- 2013-07-26 (1 post)