Apr 25, 2011

We Didn't Start the Fire

I'm currently writing a history library lesson plan that involves a Cold War culture review,  and as much as this song is horrible (read: amazing), it gets the job done. Was it just my school, or was absolutely none of this ever covered in class?  


I'm fairly certain that the only way to keep history teachers on track is to have a holiday for every major event.  There's no student out there who doesn't know about Christopher Columbus by Columbus Day, Pilgrims and Indians by Thanksgiving, and slavery by February.  That's great, but there's no holiday for Roe v. Wade, so it tends to get shoved to the sideline in favor of a more celebratory, we can make pictures of this holiday, type of history lesson.  Two weeks before I took my AP U.S. History exam, we still had about 40 years of history to cover.  I'm still not 100% sure what the Vietnam War was except I do know that Tom Cruise came back in a wheelchair because of it. 

I think that's why librarians need to exist.  Seriously.  They're the ones who have all the resources that contain these hidden pieces of history.  Obviously history teachers know what they're doing (hi LLT!), but they can't cover everything.  So library teachers can provide the missing pieces and work with the subject teachers and students to help uncover the missing history.  That sounds super corny, but I'm keeping it anyway. 

On an unrelated note: Happy April 25th!!!!


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