My God! Why Doesn’t He Require Reading?!

I recall introducing myself to parents at Back to School Night. One parent asked the question, “How do you plan on making class entertaining?” Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) the bell rang just as she was finishing her inquiry. I had the time to reflect on this question and at first I was little disgusted. My first response was, “If you want your kid entertained, take them to Vegas and catch a show.” The question belittled my choice in careers. I’m not here to make people laugh or cry. I don’t plan on dressing up in period costumes, or wearing a flower that sprays water, or a magician’s top hat. It is not my job to entertain your child for an hour-and-a-half, 3 days a week. I personally find the study of history and discussing the major events that helped shape the nation incredibly entertaining. However, I cannot promise that your child will find the same interest or entertainment as I have. It would be remiss for me to tell her that by the end of my tenure as student teacher in her class that her child would come home screaming how much she enjoyed learning history and how she was going to make it her career choice. Again, that was my first reaction.
After I went home, I sat down and had a glass of good scotch and I had some time to ponder the question and the possible retorts I could have made. It made me think about my own experiences in the classroom as a student. I’ve had bad teachers and I’ve had phenomenal teachers. Some were as dry as white toast, and some brought such a colorful way of expressing the ideas of the lecture that I was entranced and an active participant throughout my time there. I decided that I would wait and see how the students reacted to my taking over class, and then decide on what the most appropriate answer would be.
Sure enough, I got to the front of my class, lecture notes in my sweaty hand, trying to remind myself that I’ve lectured countless times in the past, and I knew the information I wanted to impart on the students. I started the lecture and the first thing I realized was the 35 pairs of eyes all looked the same, rather wide-eyed and questioning what was really happening. Questions about what to write down and how to put together notes abounded. Again, I was at a loss. “What’s the important part of the lecture?” Simple answer, “Everything I say.” It is never that simple, however. I started to question the students on prior knowledge, and what they knew about the topic we were discussing, and the lack of knowledge astounded me. I asked them about their textbook and what they worked on when they got home. Simply put, they don’t use the textbook. After class I asked my teacher about this revelation and he answered, “I basically look at using the textbook as punishment.” The problem I saw with this was that I thought about the classes I found most entertaining and what helped in that assessment was me coming to class prepared and eager. Reading is not a punishment! Regardless of the book, reading shouldn’t be look upon as penance for wrong doing.
Disappointed, I retired for the day and pondered what I could do to help the students. My lectures have continued, the information is flowing and some minds have been deriving sound conclusions from the knowledge gleaned. I can speak only for social sciences but reading is such an imperative portion of understanding history. Without reading the theories and counter theories, how does one further their understanding of historical events?
When asked about possible projects or mode of giving information to the students I brought up the idea of assigning a few short essays. The idea wasn’t nixed entirely, though the comment that what probably will get turned in will be a culmination of “cut-and-paste” jobs from various websites. I was at a loss after that. I look at my own development as a historian and academic and the two main foundation points in that development was reading and writing. After hearing this, I did not have a clue on developing a curriculum that would benefit all the students in my class. I guess the only possible solution is to grab another scotch, and figure out how to hide a rabbit in my hat! YO, BARTENDER!!!!!!