When my youngest daughters started school I wanted to be involved, but I wanted to do something that was worthwhile. When my older children began school I joined the PTSO (Parent Teacher Student Organization), but later when I taught school myself I discovered I really didn't appreciate everything that group did. A lot of times their well meaning activities and projects added a lot of work to my already busy schedule, and I wished they would go back to just hosting classroom parties and providing snacks on Parent Teacher Conference days.
There always seemed to be a need for Art Masterpiece Parent Helpers, but I really didn't want to do that. Maybe I'm a reverse snob, but I have a problem with modern art. It seems to me that some artists and their wealthy clientele have created a system where only the elite can appreciate or understand their pictures. I feel towards their art the same way I feel about some literary classics. Scholars have dissected them so thoroughly, finding hidden meanings and themes and symbols, that only the highly educated can figure out what they are supposed to mean. I think they've done this on purpose to create a class system so the people with education can feel smarter than the average person. Personally, I think it's a bunch of bunk. What's the point of writing something if only a small segment of the population can understand it? I suspect the great authors of the past wrote to communicate their ideas with all of us, not just so the gifted members of society can tell us the real meaning. Likewise, modern art, which can only be understood by an educated person, looses it's value in my mind. If the colors appeal to me, if the picture is pleasing to my eye, then it is worthwhile. If not, why bother figuring out all the hidden meaning the artist says he has put into it?
With an attitude like that, how could I possibly teach Art Masterpiece?
Consequently, I decided I needed to find something I could teach that I did care about, and that would benefit the students at my daughter's school. In the end, that turned out to be American History. I loved teaching that at the Junior High level, and one of my favorite things had been dressing up like famous Americans and telling my students stories. Why couldn't I do the same thing for elementary school children?
I talked with my daughter's teachers, and they thought it was a good idea. I checked with their principal, just to make sure he didn't mind, and then I began my program. Each month I researched an American hero or heroin, created a costume to make me look the part, then came and spent half an hour or so telling stories about this person. It was so much fun! Since I was prepared and at school anyway, I asked if any of the other teachers would like me to come to their classrooms, too, and the response was overwhelming. Maybe it was just because I gave the them a half hour break from teaching, but almost every teacher wanted me to come to their room.
I called myself the History Lady, and had such a good time. I loved seeing all the kids paying attention and involved, their hands shooting up into the air every time I asked a questions. Best of all I loved seeing their eyes light up with understanding when they caught onto something I was telling them. Many times children told me they had thought history was dumb until I came to their class.
Once I became the History Lady, visiting my girls school became the funnest adventure. Suddenly, all the children knew me, and loved me. Little girls would run up and give me hugs as I walked down the hall, boys would stop to give me high fives, older children would wave and smile and run over to tell me hello, and my two daughters were often told how lucky they were to have me for a mother. Man, that felt good.
I hoped that as well as having fun, I was helping those children also gain a love for their heritage and the brave men and women who founded our country. Most of all, I hoped that I was laying a foundation for them so that when they were in Junior High and High School they would give their history teachers a chance, believing that history was cool, after all. I think I made a difference.
No comments:
Post a Comment