"The History Teacher"

I found an interesting poem in my AP Literature poetry book:

The History Teacher - Billy Collins

Trying to protect his students' innocence
he told them the Ice Age was really just
the Chilly Age, a period of a million years
when everyone had to wear sweaters.

And the Stone Age became the Gravel Age,
named after the long driveways of the time.

The Spanish Inquisition was nothing more
than an outbreak of questions such as
"How far is it from here to Madrid?"
"What do you call the matador's hat?"

The War of the Roses took place in a garden,
and the Enola Gay dropped one tiny atom on Japan.

The children would leave his classroom
for the playground to torment the weak
and the smart,
mussing up their hair and breaking their glasses,

while he gathered up his notes and walked home
past flower beds and white picket fences,
wondering if they would believe that soldiers
in the Boer War told long, rambling stories
designed to make the enemy nod off.

(Source: http://www.billy-collins.com/2005/06/the_history_tea.html)

 Other than being a poem with a contemporary voice in a book full of Shakespeare, Dunne, and Dickinson (not that their work is bad, but really old English gets tiring to read after a while), "The History Teacher" stood out to me as a story about decisions.  The teacher had good intentions and chose to sugar-coat his material to the point that there was no substance left.  And yet, at the same time, the children chose to take his word for granted and bully the other children.  Who is innocent?  Who is at blame?

I do realize this poem may be written at a time before the Internet was created, but applied to the present day, this poem could comment on the children's lack of curiosity.  By this, I mean research; learning outside of the classroom; fortifying the material in the curriculum.  Compared to the days of old where books were on paper, libraries where crucial to education, and the Internet was a far-fetched dream, today we have a plethora of information ready at our fingertips.  There is no excuse for us to not be learning the truth.  A quick search on the Internet could give you access to the thoughts of college professors, philosophers, other teachers, students--a customized patchwork of thousands of truths and lies within seconds.  Had the students looked further into the material outside of the classroom, they would have found out the truth behind history.  The difference between then and now is that now, researching is much easier.  It is a message to us that as students, we should be perpetually curious; never satisfied.  Question everything, and then take the extra step to find the answers to those questions.  Engage your teacher in conversations about what you've learned.  Chances are, they're there to keep learning too.  Simply put, learning does not stop outside of the classroom.

It also talks about how the children bully the others who are "weak and smart."  Learning gives us perspective into the mindsets of others.  It is the most obvious in the arts and humanities, but can also be seen with other subjects with a different tone.  As we collect experiences, viewpoints, attitudes, and thoughts, we can determine what's right, what's wrong, and what's our view.  The most obvious answer to the question "Why do we need to learn history?" is "So we don't repeat the same mistakes."  Another answer could be, "to gain appreciation for those who have come and gone, weigh their decisions, and use them to determine what kind of person we want to be."  Other than being a fancy way of saying "so we don't repeat the same mistakes," the second answer builds upon the first by broadening it to a bigger picture.  Not only can we learn from past failure and success, but we can also understand each other better.  We can hop around in other people's shoes and see life from their point of view.  This is the core weapon against hate and discrimination: being able to understand each other.  Had the students learned about the horrors of war, violence, and ignorance, they would have understood the others.  They still might bully the others, but there would be a lower probability that that decision would have been made.