Yesterday was my 1 year anniversary at Engineering Company since my return. I was hoping for a pay raise and a pat on the back, so that I could get back to my desk, finish the day and then concentrate on my next paper. I came out of my review an utterly confused person - well more confused than usual I suppose. An 8% pay raise was more than what I expected, but a compliment and suggestion that come from left field is what really surprised me.
Our discussion turned to continuing my education. Engineering Company's owners know that I'm in school; they know that I attended Associate Community College to finish my general education requirements. They simply asked what my plans are now that I'm done. Of course I couldn't tell them that I'm now taking history classes at Bachelor State. Instead, I just told them that I was torn between getting an accelerated bachelor's degree in Industrial Technology and going the more lengthy route of obtaining my bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering.
What came next is what has placed me into an even deeper state of confusion. They flat out told me that they want me to pursue my mechanical engineering degree at whatever pace I deem necessary. They've even offered to increase their educational reimbursement and would allow me to drop to 30 hours per week, when necessary, while maintaining full time employment status and benefits.
My instincts tell me to take them up on their offer, switch course and get into an engineering program with the intent of achieving partnership in the company. If I did that, I'd be going against everything that has steered me towards a career change in the first place, and that is avoiding the attraction of money and opportunity to do something on a daily basis that I truly enjoy. A poor job market for history teachers also doesn't make going to school for it any easier. For now I think I'm going to stay the course... but I can't promise that I won't bring up the word "partnership" to my company's owners in the very near future.
AE
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Friday, October 1, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Off we go... again.
Last Monday was the first day of school for me - again. I just finished up at a local community college with an Associate in Arts degree; now I'm at a local university setting off on a path that will hopefully take me to my desired destination, which is essentially unknown. The subject of History will be my focal point. My first class is about historical interpretation, and although it's required for History majors, I'm sure that I would've taken the class anyway. I'm considering this the last educational hurdle before beginning the classes that actually involve historical research. I figure a class titled Historical Interpretation will be a great precursor to the more research-based classes required for a History degree.
Our first module in class deals with a short introduction to what history is (and isn't) and whether the subject is an art or a science. In our first paper we have to take a position and defend it using John H. Arnold's, History: A Very Short Introduction. In our first class, the overwhelming majority of students, including myself, argued that history was an art. The defense of our position was that historians have to sift through never-ending amounts of documents, photos, interviews etc. and attempt to piece them together. There is a certain degree of interpretation involved; whereas science is more definitive.
After starting Arnold's book, however, I eventually changed my position. I started to see many similarities between science and history. History can be definitive. We know that Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Martin Luther King was shot and there was a hurricane in New Orleans. Science can also be definitive. Diamonds are harder than talcum and water boils at 100 degrees C. However, both can have areas in which people may have differing opinions. Global warming is happening, but scientists argue as to what is causing it. Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, but there are many reasons why it occurred. History and science can also be used to learn about the past; what happened before our time on Earth, and also to guide us in our future endeavors.
Despite those very few examples, I have changed my mind yet again. My new position that History is an art is based primarily on the few (but major) differences and not the many similarities between science and history. The differences between science and history have to do with causation, effects and repetition. The similarities between art and history also cannot be overlooked. Both involve a certain degree of interpretation to understand and their content is always influenced by the author/artist's biases. I will touch on all of this supporting evidence, and more, in my essay which you can look for on Labor Day. That's all for now, thanks for reading.
AE
Our first module in class deals with a short introduction to what history is (and isn't) and whether the subject is an art or a science. In our first paper we have to take a position and defend it using John H. Arnold's, History: A Very Short Introduction. In our first class, the overwhelming majority of students, including myself, argued that history was an art. The defense of our position was that historians have to sift through never-ending amounts of documents, photos, interviews etc. and attempt to piece them together. There is a certain degree of interpretation involved; whereas science is more definitive.
After starting Arnold's book, however, I eventually changed my position. I started to see many similarities between science and history. History can be definitive. We know that Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Martin Luther King was shot and there was a hurricane in New Orleans. Science can also be definitive. Diamonds are harder than talcum and water boils at 100 degrees C. However, both can have areas in which people may have differing opinions. Global warming is happening, but scientists argue as to what is causing it. Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, but there are many reasons why it occurred. History and science can also be used to learn about the past; what happened before our time on Earth, and also to guide us in our future endeavors.
Despite those very few examples, I have changed my mind yet again. My new position that History is an art is based primarily on the few (but major) differences and not the many similarities between science and history. The differences between science and history have to do with causation, effects and repetition. The similarities between art and history also cannot be overlooked. Both involve a certain degree of interpretation to understand and their content is always influenced by the author/artist's biases. I will touch on all of this supporting evidence, and more, in my essay which you can look for on Labor Day. That's all for now, thanks for reading.
AE
Friday, October 30, 2009
Professional Writing Devolution
I just started a late start English class. The class is completely online and the teacher has decided to put us into groups. Don't get me wrong, I love group work, but attempting it in an online class is not fun. One of our first tasks was to answer the question, "How will professional writing evolve in the 21st century?" To answer it we have been provided three chapters of reading and several handouts. Couple that with our own individual work and area-of-study experiences and you'd think we could get somewhere right? Wrong. I kicked off the discussion with this post just to get the ball rolling:
"The evolution of professional writing frightens me. I work as a mechanical designer at an engineering company. Mechanical designers and drafters most often have two-year technical degrees whereas engineers typically have four-year degrees. The difference in email structure between a new graduate and an experienced employee is like night and day, especially when talking about a new, two-year graduate. This is because a two-year, technical degree often times does not include writing courses. We usually will not allow new grads to email clients directly until we have seen a handful of interoffice emails from them. They might not know that we are monitoring their writing, but we do. Grammatical, punctuation and spelling errors are definitely more common with new hires right out of school.
I believe this problem stems from the emergence of texting and social networking platforms in this world today. Young adults have become accustomed to speedy communication while simply ignoring the quality of their words. When sending a text message for example, it is a lot quicker to send a message without capital letters or punctuation. Doing this enough times may cause an individual to carry these poor practices over to professional or educational communications without even realizing it. Texting and social networking sites are a great thing, but individuals must be able to differentiate when it is appropriate to take shortcuts in writing. When you write at the professional level, you and your company are being judged based on what and how you write."
I made this post hoping for some feedback, especially from teenage students in my group. Instead, four days later only one other person has participated in the discussion. After making a post to try to encourage my teammates to participate before the week is over (keep in mind we are graded based on group participation), this was one of the missing students' first post:
"Evolution of professional writing? ok... I think what the teacher was saying is now days you have to have a general understanding of how to navigate online and need to know how to use professional resources online? well if this is the case I think in the near future, all students and employees will have to know how to navigate themselves in the world of cyber space and utilize the resources online provided to them"
Thank you teammate for providing justification for my first post.
AE
"The evolution of professional writing frightens me. I work as a mechanical designer at an engineering company. Mechanical designers and drafters most often have two-year technical degrees whereas engineers typically have four-year degrees. The difference in email structure between a new graduate and an experienced employee is like night and day, especially when talking about a new, two-year graduate. This is because a two-year, technical degree often times does not include writing courses. We usually will not allow new grads to email clients directly until we have seen a handful of interoffice emails from them. They might not know that we are monitoring their writing, but we do. Grammatical, punctuation and spelling errors are definitely more common with new hires right out of school.
I believe this problem stems from the emergence of texting and social networking platforms in this world today. Young adults have become accustomed to speedy communication while simply ignoring the quality of their words. When sending a text message for example, it is a lot quicker to send a message without capital letters or punctuation. Doing this enough times may cause an individual to carry these poor practices over to professional or educational communications without even realizing it. Texting and social networking sites are a great thing, but individuals must be able to differentiate when it is appropriate to take shortcuts in writing. When you write at the professional level, you and your company are being judged based on what and how you write."
I made this post hoping for some feedback, especially from teenage students in my group. Instead, four days later only one other person has participated in the discussion. After making a post to try to encourage my teammates to participate before the week is over (keep in mind we are graded based on group participation), this was one of the missing students' first post:
"Evolution of professional writing? ok... I think what the teacher was saying is now days you have to have a general understanding of how to navigate online and need to know how to use professional resources online? well if this is the case I think in the near future, all students and employees will have to know how to navigate themselves in the world of cyber space and utilize the resources online provided to them"
Thank you teammate for providing justification for my first post.
AE
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Dear Erin
Dear Erin,
I’m a thirty-one year old student at a local community college near my home. A few years back I decided to make a career change out of the corporate world and into public service. Because of my desire to help people and my belief that impacting kids early on is so crucial, I decided to pursue a teaching career. I’m currently enrolled in a class that is devoted to the history of the Holocaust. I thought it would be a perfect compliment to my pursuit of a history degree. What I’m finding, however, is that it may end up playing an intricate role in defining my future teaching methods. After watching the movie Freedom Writers, I became even more excited about educating teenagers. Although it is not directly about the history of the Holocaust, it has broadened my view of how a catastrophic event can be used to better our world. Your story directly justifies that belief.
I have become a proponent of the sociological imagination. In today’s world we are often too quick to pass judgment on someone or something without examining the historical background. Along that same line of thinking comes the ability to use history as a tool used to craft our own behaviors. You’ve shown me that the Holocaust is the ultimate, historical tool we have to influence young lives. By utilizing all of the Holocaust’s historical elements you were able to unite a substantially diverse classroom. The benefits of a book like Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, can only get you so far. By implementing venues like the Museum of Tolerance and its artifacts, movies and pictures, you effectively complimented what a book has to offer. You did not stop there. By providing your students with the ability to sit and talk with actual Holocaust survivors, you gave them an experience that only a few people will ever encounter.
Just like the Holocaust should never be forgotten, neither should your story. Finding out that none of your students were aware of what the Holocaust was must have been shocking. I cannot fathom an entire class of freshman being entirely oblivious to Nazi war crimes. This frightening realization is exactly why we should remember your story. Room 203 didn’t forget about the Holocaust – their families did. Proof, that if we fail to teach our youth about crimes against humanity the crimes will be forgotten – if they are forgotten, they will get repeated. We cannot just simply tell our children that we must not discriminate; we need to tell them why we must not discriminate. The Holocaust is the epitome of prejudice in human history. Learning about it is depressingly effective. Seeing such positive life transformations, like those of the Freedom Writers, come out of such evil acts vindicates the teaching of the Holocaust.
As morbid as it sounds, I can’t help but ask myself one question. With the benefit of hindsight, can it be possible that the magnitude of the Holocaust was a good thing? Of course that is easy for me to say as I sit in my own home, buy my own food, vote in elections and go to my own job. But what if the Holocaust hadn’t happened – this tremendous educational tool would not exist. And if the Holocaust hadn’t happened in the 1930s and 1940s, would one have happened in the 1950s or beyond? The simple fact is that it did happen – it’s what we decide to do with it that will perhaps define its true purpose. Strictly sympathizing with the victims is an act of pity, but utilizing the horrific magnitude to influence our youth for the good of humanity is honorary. You motivated a group of hopeless teenagers to show us that there is hope. Erin, you’ve chosen to honor the victims of the Holocaust by using their experiences to enable our youth to grasp the consequences of discrimination. That very act is worthy of honor itself. Thank you.
I’m a thirty-one year old student at a local community college near my home. A few years back I decided to make a career change out of the corporate world and into public service. Because of my desire to help people and my belief that impacting kids early on is so crucial, I decided to pursue a teaching career. I’m currently enrolled in a class that is devoted to the history of the Holocaust. I thought it would be a perfect compliment to my pursuit of a history degree. What I’m finding, however, is that it may end up playing an intricate role in defining my future teaching methods. After watching the movie Freedom Writers, I became even more excited about educating teenagers. Although it is not directly about the history of the Holocaust, it has broadened my view of how a catastrophic event can be used to better our world. Your story directly justifies that belief.
I have become a proponent of the sociological imagination. In today’s world we are often too quick to pass judgment on someone or something without examining the historical background. Along that same line of thinking comes the ability to use history as a tool used to craft our own behaviors. You’ve shown me that the Holocaust is the ultimate, historical tool we have to influence young lives. By utilizing all of the Holocaust’s historical elements you were able to unite a substantially diverse classroom. The benefits of a book like Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, can only get you so far. By implementing venues like the Museum of Tolerance and its artifacts, movies and pictures, you effectively complimented what a book has to offer. You did not stop there. By providing your students with the ability to sit and talk with actual Holocaust survivors, you gave them an experience that only a few people will ever encounter.
Just like the Holocaust should never be forgotten, neither should your story. Finding out that none of your students were aware of what the Holocaust was must have been shocking. I cannot fathom an entire class of freshman being entirely oblivious to Nazi war crimes. This frightening realization is exactly why we should remember your story. Room 203 didn’t forget about the Holocaust – their families did. Proof, that if we fail to teach our youth about crimes against humanity the crimes will be forgotten – if they are forgotten, they will get repeated. We cannot just simply tell our children that we must not discriminate; we need to tell them why we must not discriminate. The Holocaust is the epitome of prejudice in human history. Learning about it is depressingly effective. Seeing such positive life transformations, like those of the Freedom Writers, come out of such evil acts vindicates the teaching of the Holocaust.
As morbid as it sounds, I can’t help but ask myself one question. With the benefit of hindsight, can it be possible that the magnitude of the Holocaust was a good thing? Of course that is easy for me to say as I sit in my own home, buy my own food, vote in elections and go to my own job. But what if the Holocaust hadn’t happened – this tremendous educational tool would not exist. And if the Holocaust hadn’t happened in the 1930s and 1940s, would one have happened in the 1950s or beyond? The simple fact is that it did happen – it’s what we decide to do with it that will perhaps define its true purpose. Strictly sympathizing with the victims is an act of pity, but utilizing the horrific magnitude to influence our youth for the good of humanity is honorary. You motivated a group of hopeless teenagers to show us that there is hope. Erin, you’ve chosen to honor the victims of the Holocaust by using their experiences to enable our youth to grasp the consequences of discrimination. That very act is worthy of honor itself. Thank you.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
The Holocaust and Our Youth
In class today a fellow student made this comment, "If the new generations are brought up with love, peace and respect for life, the hope of unity between all mankind will mean a bright future free from prejudice and strife." I totally agree, it all starts with children and how they are raised and what they are taught. As crazy as Adolph Hitler was, he was smart enough to know that as well, hence the formation of Hitler's Youth and the implementation of teaching practices that taught German kids that Jewish people were bad.
This fact really made me think about the current events of today. With the population of this planet approaching 7 billion people it is impossible to rid Earth of all political or religious extremists such as Hitler, Hussein, Bin Laden or Ahmadinejad, but we have to try. Sometimes by force, yes, but also by education. If we can teach as many youths as we can to embrace other's cultural, religious, political and personal beliefs we can say we attempted to make a difference. We have to teach them that you don't always have to agree with a person, but you should respect the fact that they might have a different opinion than you. If we don't try to educate young people, extremists will continue to pass down their extreme beliefs to the youths of their current followers.
This fact really made me think about the current events of today. With the population of this planet approaching 7 billion people it is impossible to rid Earth of all political or religious extremists such as Hitler, Hussein, Bin Laden or Ahmadinejad, but we have to try. Sometimes by force, yes, but also by education. If we can teach as many youths as we can to embrace other's cultural, religious, political and personal beliefs we can say we attempted to make a difference. We have to teach them that you don't always have to agree with a person, but you should respect the fact that they might have a different opinion than you. If we don't try to educate young people, extremists will continue to pass down their extreme beliefs to the youths of their current followers.
Hitler
Saddam
Can the next one be prevented?
Friday, July 10, 2009
John Adams
Good afternoon everyone. I cannot just simply read a book; one of my many faults. I'll read a passage and earmark it for a later date so that I can copy some of my favorite quotes into a Word document that I have started. I also have to log any important dates/events into a timeline spreadsheet that I have. I think I'm subconsciously preparing myself for my future position as a history teacher. I will also become inspired rather easily and attempt to pass on said inspiration to my, most-often-disinterested, wife (love her to death though :)). Now that I have a blog I have a secondary outlet to voice some of my thoughts. Most of the inspiration I'm talking about comes from real life characters from America's past. I'm a firm believer that there should be an increasing amount of emphasis put on history in the classroom. Not just the "learn-the-facts-and-dates history" but, an emphasis should be put on how we can use history to our advantage. Learning from our mistakes as well as other's, and being able to provide factual evidence to back up an argument. Not to mention simply having the knowledge of where we came from and who got us here.
With that rant I suppose I'll finally get into the subject of this post. It has to do with John Adams. I'm currently reading Rise To Rebellion by Jeff Shaara. A diamond in the rough if you ask me. It is based on actual events but written like a novel. I'm about 25% of the way through it and have already developed a new gratification for John Adams' place in history. A farmer and a lawyer who daringly took on the case to defend Thomas Preston and his men after The Boston Massacre. He knew that his cousin, Sam Adams, and the other Sons of Liberty might peg him as a loyalist to the King. But his dedication to the principles of law, American law, motivated him to do what he thought was right. In the end Preston was acquitted. Adams not only saved the life of an innocent man, he also demonstrated the ability of the colonies to conduct a fair and proper trial. He used that case as ammunition when England took away America's power to appoint it's own judges after the burning of the Gaspee. Jeff Shaara as John Adams, "Whether you agreed or disagreed with the acquittal of Captain Thomas Preston, the most important message that came out of that courtroom is that we are a people who rely on the law. We have proven that we can judge ourselves. There is justice in our courts" (106).
Events and stories like this are worth telling. These are stories that help explain why America is the way it is. Why defendants are innocent until proven guilty. What taxation without representation means. Why power in politics will be given back to the Iraqi people. Why America will always prosper.
Works Cited
Shaara, Jeff. Rise To Rebellion. New York: Ballantine Publishing Group, 2001.
With that rant I suppose I'll finally get into the subject of this post. It has to do with John Adams. I'm currently reading Rise To Rebellion by Jeff Shaara. A diamond in the rough if you ask me. It is based on actual events but written like a novel. I'm about 25% of the way through it and have already developed a new gratification for John Adams' place in history. A farmer and a lawyer who daringly took on the case to defend Thomas Preston and his men after The Boston Massacre. He knew that his cousin, Sam Adams, and the other Sons of Liberty might peg him as a loyalist to the King. But his dedication to the principles of law, American law, motivated him to do what he thought was right. In the end Preston was acquitted. Adams not only saved the life of an innocent man, he also demonstrated the ability of the colonies to conduct a fair and proper trial. He used that case as ammunition when England took away America's power to appoint it's own judges after the burning of the Gaspee. Jeff Shaara as John Adams, "Whether you agreed or disagreed with the acquittal of Captain Thomas Preston, the most important message that came out of that courtroom is that we are a people who rely on the law. We have proven that we can judge ourselves. There is justice in our courts" (106).
Events and stories like this are worth telling. These are stories that help explain why America is the way it is. Why defendants are innocent until proven guilty. What taxation without representation means. Why power in politics will be given back to the Iraqi people. Why America will always prosper.
Works Cited
Shaara, Jeff. Rise To Rebellion. New York: Ballantine Publishing Group, 2001.
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