Pampered Chef Michelle

On 4/21/06, aplan4life <aplan4life@...> wrote:
>
> Really, I don't care if Brooke doesn't care
> to know history right now, and I probably shouldn't even have it in my
> mind as if it is something that she 'must' care about ever.


The other thing is that there may be a small period of history that she will
love or an aspect of history. I know people (thanks to the SCA) who could
talk your ear off about the middle ages but are clueless as to what the Bay
of PIgs was about. I know people who were so deeply involved in Civil War
recreation that they decorated their whole house like a mini-anetebellum
mansion. And I've known people who were so fascinated with wars that the
only thing that they knew about history was what wars happened. They can
tell you about the armament, the "sides" the issues, all the battles, but
the only reason they know that GWB is president is because he started a
war. :) I know people who love the history of fashion, or the use of
horses throughout history, or theatre, or historical film, or makeup, or
music, or cooking, or kings and successions. It may be a long stretch of
time or a short period of time. It could be music throughtout history or it
could be limited to the creation and evolution of jazz.

History isn't about facts and dates. The reason we study history is to
learn about ideas! History is taught SO wrong in schools. LIst of dates,
lists of names, lists of places and you have to put them all together.
That's not history. History is not WWII. WWII isn't about a bunch of
battles and the holocaust. WWII is about how a dictatorship, allowing one
small-minded person to have too much power, is not a good thing. WWII is
about righting an injustice of several groups of people. The important
thing about WWII was not Hitler, Germany, the Japanese and Mousellini. The
important thing that people should know about WWII is that it is wrong to
persecute people because of who they are. If that is all that someone gets
out of WWII then that in itself is enough history (IMNSHO).
The same could be said of just about any subject. What about science? Some
people really like science. They watch the Science channel all day and have
a periodic table hanging on their walls. Other people only know enough
about science to be able to know that if they let go of something that it is
going to fall (gravity) unless it is filled with helium (or hydrogen) and
then it is going to rise. They don't need to know that the reason that a
helium filled balloon rises is because helium is lighter than the
surrounding air nor that the surrounding air is made of a mixture of
nitrogen and oxygen (and a bunch of other things.) Some people will want to
k now why other people are happy just knowing that if you drop something it
will fall and if you let go of a helium filled balloon it will rise. And
that is good enough for them! :)
--
Michelle
Independent Kitchen Consultant #413652
The Pampered Chef
850-474-0817
http://www.pamperedchef.biz/michellelr
Ask me how you can save 60% on some of our most favorite products!


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Su Penn

On Apr 21, 2006, at 10:43 AM, Pampered Chef Michelle wrote:

> Other people only know enough
> about science to be able to know that if they let go of something
> that it is
> going to fall (gravity) unless it is filled with helium (or
> hydrogen) and
> then it is going to rise.

A few years ago, I read Benjamin Franklin's electricity papers. He
was fascinated with science, and people were trying really hard at
that time to figure out what the heck electricity was--was it a
fluid? Little particles? They didn't know. But they could tell they
were going to know soon, because people were doing all kinds of
experiments, formulating hypotheses and testing them. It was pretty
exciting.

But at one point in his papers, he says something like--wait, thanks
to Google, I can quote him:

‘’Tis of real use to know that china left in the air unsupported will
fall and break; but how it comes to fall, and why it breaks, are
matters of speculation. ’Tis a pleasure indeed to know them, but we
can preserve our china without it."


Su

trektheory

--- In [email protected], "Pampered Chef Michelle"
<pamperedmichelle@...> wrote:
>
> History isn't about facts and dates. The reason we study history is
to
> learn about ideas! History is taught SO wrong in schools.

I agree - I hated, hated, HATED "social studies", because it was just
dry facts, not how this effected people, what they thought. My son
and I read things together and discuss them -- and you know, it is
astonishing (and often scary) how often history repeats itself.

The only ss class I ever had -- just a 1/4 of the year in 9th grade --
that I enjoyed was a teacher deemed easy by the kids. He taught India
(that year, each quarter, you studied a different area, out of 6
possible, so no one got every area of the world). He taught it in a
wonderful way, that was accessible to all the students. It wasn't
that he was an easy teacher in that he gave easy tests, it was that he
was a GOOD teacher, and made it easy to LEARN. But I did have one
friend that found his class harder -- she was lost without the
structure she was accustomed to.

Linda

Pampered Chef Michelle

On 4/21/06, Su Penn <supenn@...> wrote:
>
>
> On Apr 21, 2006, at 10:43 AM, Pampered Chef Michelle wrote:
>
> > Other people only know enough
> > about science to be able to know that if they let go of something
> > that it is
> > going to fall (gravity) unless it is filled with helium (or
> > hydrogen) and
> > then it is going to rise.
>
> A few years ago, I read Benjamin Franklin's electricity papers.


If you have a chance to read his autobiography do! He was a fantastic
"unschooly" person. He was ridiculed once when he was a young boy because
he wasted time by floating on his back on a lake. He was holding onto a
kite (Ben and his kites) and letting the kite pull him around the lake. His
mind was all a whirl on how this was happening and he enjoyed the feeling of
being pulled across the lake by just the wind's influence on the kite. It's
a great story.

BTW, the Mythbusters busted that Ben held a kite and it got struck with
lightening. They believe that he was feeling the electrical particles in
the air, but that had his kite actually been hit by lightening, Ben would
not have been able to write about it afterwards! We LOVE Mythbusters. The
"farting" episode was our favorite!





--
Michelle
Independent Kitchen Consultant #413652
The Pampered Chef
850-474-0817
http://www.pamperedchef.biz/michellelr
Ask me how you can save 60% on some of our most favorite products!


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

trektheory

--- In [email protected], "Pampered Chef Michelle"
<pamperedmichelle@...> wrote:

>
> BTW, the Mythbusters busted that Ben held a kite and it got struck
with
> lightening. They believe that he was feeling the electrical
particles in
> the air, but that had his kite actually been hit by lightening, Ben
would
> not have been able to write about it afterwards! We LOVE
Mythbusters. The
> "farting" episode was our favorite!
>

We LOVE that show, too, and tape it regularly (we love to skip past
commercials). We enjoy the explosions -- especially that cement truck!

Linda

Deb

--- In [email protected], "trektheory"
<trektheory@...> wrote:
> >
>
> We LOVE that show, too, and tape it regularly (we love to skip past
> commercials). We enjoy the explosions -- especially that cement
>truck!
>
> Linda
>
Mythbusters is a biggie at our house too - the more explosives, the
better.

--Deb

aplan4life

Mythbuster fanatics here too! :-) Just this afternoon we were
discussing the whole shooting bullets into the water episode while
enjoying a swim in the pool.

~Sandy Winn

--- In [email protected], "Deb" <soggyboysmom@...> wrote:
>
> --- In [email protected], "trektheory"
> <trektheory@> wrote:
> > >
> >
> > We LOVE that show, too, and tape it regularly (we love to skip past
> > commercials). We enjoy the explosions -- especially that cement
> >truck!
> >
> > Linda
> >
> Mythbusters is a biggie at our house too - the more explosives, the
> better.
>
> --Deb
>