Entry Title:
The Jacksonian Era
by Christopher Pence For all of my life, I have been a student of history. I marvel in the lessons that history teaches us, and cannot even begin to imagine what life was like during the most terrible moments in history. I value history’s lessons more than any other that formal education offers, believing that “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” (George Santayana) and that history is the greatest teacher of them all. Only through learning history can the world hope to make peace within itself, and live as one. I hope to instill this value in the students of tomorrow, by becoming a high school history teacher. In my own studies, one teacher has stood out to me more than any other. I took but one class with this teacher, an American History course that spawned from the Indigenous Peoples of North America, to the American Civil War, and left me begging for more. This teacher not only educated me in history, but also educated me in how to teach history, and how to create meaning in the history for each and every student in his classes. If I could choose anyone in the world, living or dead, to teach me, I would choose Mr. John Newell. Jack, as we called him in the classroom, was the single greatest history teacher I have ever come into contact with. He questioned conventional values, both in teaching and in history, and brought to his students’ attention secrets and stories about history and its figures that no history teacher had or would ever bring into a modern history classroom. Through his humorous anecdotes and comments, Jack made the class laugh uncontrollably each and every period, and used jokes and stories that had the classroom in stitches. Hidden deep in these anecdotes and jokes were lessons about the past that would forever be cemented in the students’ minds for the rest of their lives. I learned a great deal about history from Jack Newell, experiencing first-hand what it was like to be a slave in a ship crossing The Middle Passage, that Abraham Lincoln, while a great humanitarian, had secrets of his own, including offering the Southern states the ability to keep their slaves if they agreed not to secede from the Union, and other historical lessons that will never leave me. Jack also taught me how to be a teacher. Jack, a natural-born performer and comedian, kept the attention of each and every student from the first second of class until the end, making sure that the material was sinking in. Jack had absolute control of his classroom, leading to an unwavering respect from his students. A knowledgeable and powerful teacher, I choose Jack Newell to be my mentor as I enter into the famed profession of teaching. Jack will make me the teacher I need to be, and equip me with the knowledge that I need to know to change the world of tomorrow through my own teaching. |
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Teaching: If you could pick anyone, dead or alive, famous or not, to be your teacher, who would it be and why? |
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danielle said @ August 16, 2011 at 4:50 pm
Congratulations!!!…I’m the winner of the other scholarship…I with you all the best!!!
Jacque Sharp said @ July 25, 2011 at 10:48 pm
Good job!!!!!!!
sharon rimer said @ July 24, 2011 at 6:36 pm
i know how great a teacher and mentor he is for he is my brother and not only do i love him dearly he is the smartest man i know
brooke businsky said @ July 23, 2011 at 9:34 pm
Nice work