Wife and I don’t have any family nearby really so we get zero help with our youngest. We make okay money but my god any help at all would be a SUPER NICE use of my tax money over bombing brown children.
The GOP is a death cult.
In similar news, my oldest, who’s in honors classes, didn’t know what the Scopes Monkey Trial was. I hate the fucking Bible Belt.
I’ve never heard of it before now, so here’s a summary for anyone else with a major gap in their education:
The Scopes trial was a famous legal case in Tennessee where a teacher was accused of violating a law that banned the teaching of evolution in public schools.
Evolution was never specifically covered in my education. I remember at least one class skipping it on purpose because evolution was controversial and the instructor was not going to get consent forms for every student.
Wild.
I learned evolution. It was a whole segment in science class around the 8th grade. Blue state education… can’t believe we used to make fun of it.
I feel you. We ended up having to move for more help with the kids. Socialized childcare of some kind would have kept me working and contributing to wider society. Instead I had to move back to the village. It seems like taxes being used to support people would help “line go up.”
At first it seemed wild to me that you weren’t taught it, but now that I’m thinking about it, I don’t know where I learned about it from. I might have learned it in a high school class, but I came out as an atheist at that time and did a lot of research on my own, so I’m not sure.
It doesn’t seem like something that should be esoteric, but something that should be taught alongside other educational and civil rights battles and milestones.
i’m 35, took AP us history in high school in california, and i’m pretty sure i’d never heard of the scopes trial before just now. It seems like a somewhat esoteric thing to teach about to me? idk why he would be expected to know about it.
The Scopes Trial is integral to understanding the build up of the Religious Right in the US. People forget that Scopes lost the trial, the real win was the court of public opinion. It made that “literalist” fundamentalist christianity look ridiculous, regressive and anti-science in the public eye. Fundamentalists basically made a retreat to lick their wounds and plot other strategies over the next few decades.
William Jennings Bryant was involved and he’s a pretty critical character to understanding a lot of US economic history too - the idea that economic policy should benefit the common person, that we should not “crucify mankind upon a cross of gold” is something at has resonance today. It’s fascinating to consider how different his views on social welfare are to the people who would agree with him on creationism/teaching evolution in schools today.
For an APUSH project, I did a Comedy Central style roast of William Jennings Bryant. Used clips from the movie to show him getting owned by Darrow.
I did another one where I made a shitty Java game where you played as Nixon stealing papers from Watergate.
APUSH was lit. I had no interest in history, wanted to be a scientist, but my teacher took me aside and told me that I was really good at history. (He was awesome - he actually took a moment to show us how ridiculous Alex Jones and 9/11 Truthers were by showing how quickly you could get to David Icke’s lizard people shit from those forums. He put that man on my radar all the way back in 2009!) That moment kept me alive through high school and is why I picked up a history degree alongside my science one.
History is so important to understanding what is happening now; it’s often inconvenient to the powers that be. That’s why it gets shafted off to coaches who wouldn’t know the Monroe Doctrine from Marilyn. (I’ve begged for someone to let me teach a section of US alongside my chemistry…)
A great history teacher can be amazing. I was fortunate to have a variety of excellent teachers. I was always gonna do something bookish (hah! Im an electrician, funny how that goes) but I had a physics honors teacher who stood out like that. Made me see the world completely differently.
Unfortunately, I think the places you have to learn a lot of history are outside of classrooms. Most of my history teachers were very pro status quo, unlike my literature teachers. I usually played devils advocate.
Now that one kid is in those classes I feel obligated to round out that education.
Wife and I don’t have any family nearby really so we get zero help with our youngest. We make okay money but my god any help at all would be a SUPER NICE use of my tax money over bombing brown children.
The GOP is a death cult.
In similar news, my oldest, who’s in honors classes, didn’t know what the Scopes Monkey Trial was. I hate the fucking Bible Belt.
I’ve never heard of it before now, so here’s a summary for anyone else with a major gap in their education:
Evolution was never specifically covered in my education. I remember at least one class skipping it on purpose because evolution was controversial and the instructor was not going to get consent forms for every student.
Wild. I learned evolution. It was a whole segment in science class around the 8th grade. Blue state education… can’t believe we used to make fun of it.
I feel you. We ended up having to move for more help with the kids. Socialized childcare of some kind would have kept me working and contributing to wider society. Instead I had to move back to the village. It seems like taxes being used to support people would help “line go up.”
At first it seemed wild to me that you weren’t taught it, but now that I’m thinking about it, I don’t know where I learned about it from. I might have learned it in a high school class, but I came out as an atheist at that time and did a lot of research on my own, so I’m not sure.
It doesn’t seem like something that should be esoteric, but something that should be taught alongside other educational and civil rights battles and milestones.
i’m 35, took AP us history in high school in california, and i’m pretty sure i’d never heard of the scopes trial before just now. It seems like a somewhat esoteric thing to teach about to me? idk why he would be expected to know about it.
The Scopes Trial is integral to understanding the build up of the Religious Right in the US. People forget that Scopes lost the trial, the real win was the court of public opinion. It made that “literalist” fundamentalist christianity look ridiculous, regressive and anti-science in the public eye. Fundamentalists basically made a retreat to lick their wounds and plot other strategies over the next few decades.
William Jennings Bryant was involved and he’s a pretty critical character to understanding a lot of US economic history too - the idea that economic policy should benefit the common person, that we should not “crucify mankind upon a cross of gold” is something at has resonance today. It’s fascinating to consider how different his views on social welfare are to the people who would agree with him on creationism/teaching evolution in schools today.
It was a major event that had a lasting impact for the rest of the century
Inherit the Wind at least was on AP lit course lists, im a few years older than you and took most of those classes in Florida
It involved Clarence Darrow, one of the most noteworthy attorneys of the century
sigh this fuckin system…
For an APUSH project, I did a Comedy Central style roast of William Jennings Bryant. Used clips from the movie to show him getting owned by Darrow.
I did another one where I made a shitty Java game where you played as Nixon stealing papers from Watergate.
APUSH was lit. I had no interest in history, wanted to be a scientist, but my teacher took me aside and told me that I was really good at history. (He was awesome - he actually took a moment to show us how ridiculous Alex Jones and 9/11 Truthers were by showing how quickly you could get to David Icke’s lizard people shit from those forums. He put that man on my radar all the way back in 2009!) That moment kept me alive through high school and is why I picked up a history degree alongside my science one.
History is so important to understanding what is happening now; it’s often inconvenient to the powers that be. That’s why it gets shafted off to coaches who wouldn’t know the Monroe Doctrine from Marilyn. (I’ve begged for someone to let me teach a section of US alongside my chemistry…)
A great history teacher can be amazing. I was fortunate to have a variety of excellent teachers. I was always gonna do something bookish (hah! Im an electrician, funny how that goes) but I had a physics honors teacher who stood out like that. Made me see the world completely differently.
Unfortunately, I think the places you have to learn a lot of history are outside of classrooms. Most of my history teachers were very pro status quo, unlike my literature teachers. I usually played devils advocate.
Now that one kid is in those classes I feel obligated to round out that education.