Lessons Come Alive

Teachers strive to "make the lesson come alive" in a classroom setting.

I fondly remember working on a diorama of Washington crossing the Delaware and creating my very own spurting volcano. The very best "lesson come alive" was when my Physics class all joined hands while Mr Davis revved up the static electricity generator. Every hair on 25 heads stood at attention when we got that electrical shock and we looked like a reunion of Rod Stewart and Bride of Frankenstein impersonators.

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, a Virginia 4th grade teacher had her class do something equally hair-raising. She ordered black and mixed race students to one side of the room. White students then took turns bidding on their classmates in a mock "slave auction". Parents complained (hard to believe) and the school principal wrote a letter to them stating that the teacher "had gone too far" (Do you think?).

Let's not limit ourselves to American History in making "lessons come alive". When the Mongols conquered a particularly obstreperous Russian village back in the thirteenth century, the Khan marched its inhabitants past a wagon wheel. All those taller than the wheel were beheaded. "OK, World History class. Line up alongside the window. Can you see over the sill? Too bad, here comes the sword."

Lessons could also come alive in science class. "Solar eclipses occur only when the moon is between the Earth and the Sun. Lunar eclipses occur only when the Earth is between the Sun and the moon. What does that tell us? Johnny? You say that the Earth revolves around the Sun and the moon revolves around the Earth? Wrong answer! The Church tell us that everything revolves around the Earth. Obviously, you are one of those smart guy heretics. Repent or be burned at the stake."

"Lessons come alive" teaches us that being black, being tall, or being an intelligent observer results in slavery, beheading, or a fiery death. Maybe we should stick to non-lively lessons.