So the other day I droppd by my cousin's house for a little while after work because I didn't want to go home and had nowhere better to go or anything better to do. It turned out to be really wierd and cool at the same time. He's getting to the age where he can talk intelligently on a number of subjects, and we ended up just chilling out, talking shop about the stuff I study. It was weird to see him in that arena, but at the same time, I haven't had an intelligent conversation in months, so it was welcome. Anyway, that night made me more certain than I've ever been in what I want to do with my life.
We talked about everything from history to psychology to sociology (I steered away from religion and politics with this one). I've always enjoyed seeing that look of awe at my incredible wealth of knowledge, but I was more satisfied at seeing the wheels turning in his head as I began to explain it all to him in a way he could understand. Everyone has always said I'd make a good teacher, but for the first time I felt like they weren't all jiving me. Here on the Desk I can just ramble and never really get to the point, but with a live audience you get that instant feedback. I could see when he was losing interest, or when he didn't understand a word or a concept, and I found a way to change my approach. I put everything I've done to the test. Being on stage has taught me to accept and relish attention. I knew how to read him like that from studying people like I do, and from knowing him and his responses personally. Improv trained me to think quick on my feet and put words together without thinking. Working with kids at camp and in the scout troop gave me a lesson in how these little people think, and how you have to talk to them like adults so they don't feel patronized, but still find a way to simplify the concept so they can understand. And how you have to keep them entertained at the same time as teaching them. But I had done all that before. What made this different was the subject.
In scouts I'm always doing first aid or leave no trace, and those are all well and good, but that night, for the first time, I was teaching history, and it was more than I thought it could be. Everybody thinks history is boring because it's all names and dates, and he was no different, and I expected that. But I got him to see it like I see it. I got him to see that history isn't just stuff that happened to happen a long time ago, but that it's everything that is and has ever been, that the way we live, indeed his very existence, is a product of the course of history. That it's not just the happenstance of a series of events to be memorized, but a living, intertwining, constantly changing beast. Later I asked him what subjects he likes in school and he said math, and that's when he realized he had just engaged in an academic conversation about history. He now agrees that a knowledge of practical and relevant history is critical to a satisfying engagement in whatever you intend to pursue. You can know all the math and science there is to know, and indeed we need people to know those things, but (as I have said before) "Unless you know some history, you don't know jack shit about a damn thing." Without history, you cannot know who you are or why things happen the way they do in the world.
Anyway, point is I was able to give another person some amount of appreciation for a matter for which I have a great passion, and I did so by speaking on said matter with a degree of passion, intelligence, and the ability to read my audience and adapt. I have taught many sorts of people many sorts of things, and I have performed in many venues, but, ladies and gentlemen, as of that night, I can call myself history teacher. And a damn good one with a damn fine gift (and the accompanying responsibility).
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