Veteran's Day

The next two episodes are Veterans Day focused and the introductions give me a chance to geek out on history. When I was in my young 20’s and had shown just a little aptitude coaching and teaching PE at a K-8 catholic school in Venice called St. Mark, they did what most catholic schools do, tried to get you to do more. Next thing you know, I was teaching History, 8th and 7th grade. I got into it big time. I didn’t care, and apparently the school didn’t care, that I didn’t have a degree. Good times. I would start each class with current affairs, where the students could bring up stuff and we would break that down, then a quiz on the previous nights reading (super easy) then a lecture on whatever they read, but with my spin…which always included some of Howard Zinn’s “A Peoples History of the United States”. I subscribe to the idea that history is written by the winners, and Zinn’s book tells it from the other side, so I felt that was necessary. Who cares if they are in 7th and 8th grade? I needed to stay engaged. I’d wrap up the class with allowing whomever had made the most improvement in class choosing a quote from a famous person out of Jonh Bartlett’s “Famous Quotations”, that made them think a little. Good times…