Cyberpope wrote --

I hated history as a student, because I was ripped off & never given a teacher who loved it.

That goes for most any subject. You have to have a love of any subject
to be a good teacher.
Some just read from the book. Poor teachers.
Others will make whatever the subject happens to be come alive. Good teacher.

I'm not even narrowing my focus down -- just whatever humans were doing at any place or time in the big Ago.

I like to start at one point and carry that forward, rather than hop
skipping around: This/that event caused whatever to happen which lead to...
IOW putting things into perspective.

I'm not a Historian, per se -- more an Anthroplogist

Often the two go together.
History reflecting the place/society of the time.
What people thought as well as what they did. One often explains the
other.
Sort of like people believed X because society thought Y.
And why some people rejected what society thought and changed history.
I went to parochial school and often taught by Jesuits who brought
philosophy into most everything they taught. Not deep scholastic teaching but to
just think things through for the "why" of history. Not just this or that happened why did it happen then a

these events & people all lived somewhere & geography often shapes history,

Agreed.

plus I play a lot of trivia games & I'll pick Geography over History, usually. (I plaY more to learn than to win)\

When Trivia Pursuit was a popular game people refused to play with me
since I won so often.
I have a head full of "useless" information.
Joe
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
* Origin: Fidonet Since 1991 www.doccyber.org bbs.docsplace.org (1:135/392)

JOE MACKEY wrote to GEORGE POPE <=-

That goes for most any subject. You have to have a love of any
subject to be a good teacher.
Some just read from the book. Poor teachers.
Others will make whatever the subject happens to be come alive.
Good teacher.

I struggled with math all through high school and college; I ended up
getting into computers because I flunked a math class my senior year and needed another class for credit. The only class taught semester by semester was computer problem solving, as it was called.

I went to a small private college, and had a calculus teacher who would keep office hours for as long as people needed him. Gave insane amounts of homework, and had an love of math that rubbed off. He was one of the first people to practically apply computers and technology; we could use step programmable calculators for everything in the class and learned how to automate everything. His vision was that in the future, computers would do
all of the graphing and "heavy lifting" and we'd be freed to do the thinking and creating. He was right.

We had a month-long semester between fall and spring semesters. You could
take one course 5 days a week, 4 hours a day and get full credit for it.
Some people got creative, like a french class in Paris. He took a handful of kids on his sailboat out of the San Francisco bay and sailed for a couple of weeks using sextants and HP calculators to navigate.

My statistics teacher the following year read the book verbatim in a droll monotone, stopping only to draw sloppy diagrams on the chalkboard.


... Find a safe part and use it as an anchor
--- MultiMail/DOS v0.52
* Origin: http://realitycheckbbs.org | tomorrow's retro tech (1:218/700)

Cyberpope wrote --

I hated history as a student, because I was ripped off & never given a teacher who loved it.

That goes for most any subject. You have to have a love of any subject to be a good teacher.
Some just read from the book. Poor teachers.
Others will make whatever the subject happens to be come alive. Good teacher.

True enough; my seeming natural affinity for reading & English styuff in school goes back to my mom teaching me young & instilling a love of reading by example, & by furnishing me with many choices at & beyond my apparent level, and including much of that which my current interests were.

I read adult scifi(e.g. Asimov) before reading young persons' scifi(e.g. Heinlein- then reread as ab adult to discover another world in his writings)

I read the original text fairy tales (all murders, rapes, beating, dismemberings intact in full gory detail) at around age 6 or 7 & was not damaged by such, asd the censorial types suggest is inevitable.


Sure, it was lurid, but it put it all in a perspective -- these were warning stories, not a handbook on advoisory behaviours.

I read the Bible fully at a young age, too -- inductively, drawimg my own conclusions, & triggering questioins I asked my Sunday School teachers, who were lovely women, who didn't gedt offended, & answered aptly & age appropriately. I've since learned these were extremely rate then & even more so now. . .

I later taught Sundsy Sdchool mysdelf & carried on the traditions I received: answering all questions without dithering. I had one 10-year-old whom I referred to the elders for baptism. I had to argue the case, but they agreed, even though it would cosxt the church money. I just didn't care -- do what is right, I said & they had to agree once they 'got it,' too.

This isn't current religion; it's about appropriately teaching, even with a hot button subject!

I'm not even narrowing my focus down -- just whatever humans were doing at any place or time in the big Ago.

I like to start at one point and carry that forward, rather than hop skipping around: This/that event caused whatever to happen which lead to...
IOW putting things into perspective.

Same, as I figured out whjaty tyhey m,eant by "those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it"; schools don't teach "history" they force the memorisation of names(people & places) & numbers, usually out of contect of the nmotivations involved. Nobody's learning from history, because nobody's teaching it any more, to kids, anyway.

I, thankfully, being an avid reader, have connected to authors who love the subject and write from various POVs, in enjoyable reads.

They only tauight me there was a war that went from 1914-11/11/1918.
Why? I easily found: "the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand."
Why was he killed & to what goal? (still seeking this bit)

I'm not a Historian, per se -- more an Anthroplogist

Often the two go together.
History reflecting the place/society of the time.
What people thought as well as what they did. One often explains the other.

Yup, just like I enjoy reading the letters in the newspaper as well as the news stories.

Sort of like people believed X because society thought Y.

Yup, & this is readily accessible now by digesting popular TV, movies, & books.

And why some people rejected what society thought and changed history.

People say, "One person can't change the world"; I now know to reply, "It's only ever been done by one person."

& other kneejerk isms, like "war solves nothing." (hmm? Slavery, Nazism?)

I went to parochial school and often taught by Jesuits who brought philosophy into most everything they taught. Not deep scholastic teaching but to
just think things through for the "why" of history. Not just this or that happened why did it happen then a

Lucky!

It's all the whys & wherefors; the whats, whens, & hows are too easy.

When Trivia Pursuit was a popular game people refused to play with me since I won so often.
I have a head full of "useless" information.

Same here; I knew how to maximize each die roll to hit green squares(science & nature) as often as possible, then I was unstoppable. On Sports(for the obligatory pie questions), I had to hope for a games question, especially ones I know!

I miss the game, but get some fun playing iPhone trivia tournaments, seeimg how quickly I can zip to best in my country, or world. . .

I'm more a parlour game for socializing kind of gamer, but that period was in the 1800s & not so much around now. . .

I figured out I develop a sort of Game Theory strategy in any activity I'm in: assess the goal & the most efficient way to get there, including benefitting from chance & randomness when they inevitably make ab appearance.

I'd love to terach, but getting a 5-year education at this point is out of my reach. I get opportunities in my jobs & volunteering, to keep the interest & interaction skills.

I've got so many ways I can jumpstart into some paying options, but covid put the kibosh on so much. . .

Your friend,

<+]:{)}
Cyberpope, Bishop of ROM
--- SBBSecho 3.14-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)