Living History by Aneirin

Living History by Aneirin - October 2016 Scholarship Essay

The academic subject I would like to teach, if the roles were reversed, would be history. It was a common comment throughout my undergraduate career that students loathed history. They spoke of the droning professors and how they could barely keep themselves awake during the lectures. The commentary I witnessed throughout my time in school would motivate me to become one of the most memorable history professors, and I would not let my students fall asleep in my class.
Students find history to be a dry and boring subject unless they are directly engaged; the main issue is that none of the professors are interactive enough with their students. The best way to understand history is to live it, which is something I learned when participating in re-enactment companies that focus on the medieval and Renaissance periods. However, my area of expertise lies in the ancient realm so that I would incorporate all aspects of ancient Greece or Rome into my curricula.
Politics, art, architecture, warfare, gender studies, technology, and religion would all be incorporated into practical lessons for my students; they would engage with one another with roles assigned to them to create an experience that will stay with them more than a ninety-minute lecture on the Peloponnesian War. The students would be assigned different roles in each activity so that the rotation of the class systems will allow everyone a chance to partake in different roles.
The political activity would re-enact the proceedings of an ancient election, and a government would form. The elected officials would be appealed by the people for laws to be passed or halted; a mock-jury could form to convict someone of crimes; an assassination attempt of the current ruler could be planned, and a new official would take their place. The students would be guided through this model, explaining the different rights and powers one had in a position they are assigned, and they would act accordingly during the unit that discussed politics.
The class would be taken to the nearest venue that exhibited the forms of art and architecture described in the unit of history they are assigned. The group would interact with the tour guides and professor to formulate enough to create a paper on the experience of the art and architecture of that period, with supplemental sources from books or peer-reviewed journals. The paper would be turned in for the grade at the end of the unit, or the students could opt for an artistic option and present either an artistic representation or creative writing assignment for what they have learned.
As long as I obtained the proper permission and waivers to do so, I would conduct the section on warfare by contact re-enactment with boffer weapons. The students would gain training in the warfare of the ancient people, with the class split into two teams, and assigned an army role dependent on the course of study. For example, the students would be assigned as Greeks or as Persians, and receive instruction on the fighting styles of both; at the end of their training, the class would take up their boffer weapons and clash with each other to battle using live action role play rules to know who has "died." Once the entire class has "died" and there is a victor, the students will write a short reflection of how this activity helped them understand ancient warfare.
The gender studies would be taught through literature, such as the analyzation of Penelope's role in the Odyssey and how the women used their gender to stop the war in Lysistrata. This section of study would end with the students putting on a small production of their choosing, or an original piece of their own, either written in the style of a Greek play or epic. The production will be performed in a school theatre, and the students will pass as long as they have participated in the aspect of building up the production during the section of study.
Technology would be more difficult to utilize in a practical application; the students would have to choose an ancient mechanism that they then would have to recreate. The students would be granted free time out of class to work on their projects and would be required to present the finished product to the class at the end of the unit. The speech that the students present and the object's ability to function will be the deciding factors for the final grade.
Religion, in a historical context, is often difficult to cover in a short amount of time. Each student would be put into groups with an assigned deity, and then be instructed on how they would conduct a religious ceremony. The professor would lead an example and allow the students to present how they believe the deity was worshipped based on the small amount of information they were given by their professor; they would later receive a demonstration on how each deity was worshipped and would write a reflection of how their worship and the historical worship differed, and explain why they believed there were differences.
If a student is involved in the material that they have to learn, then they will remember it. This would be the most effective way to teach history, especially to students who many not be interested in this material, and I hope to utilize this in the future.