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Ethiser posted:At my high school APUSH was two years with the split being the civil war. It was easily my favorite class. I learned a ton of things that would never have been covered in a regular class. My APUSH class was great for a number of reasons. One of them was my teacher making it very clear to everyone that the Civil War was entirely about slavery and that the "states' rights" argument is something done by Confederate apologists who don't want to admit the uncomfortable truth that they're romanticizing governments that separated from the union so they could keep their slave-based economies running. My high school is one of the top performers in the area, and such teachers are probably why.
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Jan 3, 2015 03:39
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My four years of high school consisted of a world history class that taught the same garbage as every other world history class, a US history class that somehow spent more time on Vietnam and the Cold War than anything else (the teacher was a Navy vet who spoke fluent Russian), a civics class using books from about the mid-80s and ancient filmstrips explaining the political process that was mostly the teacher talking about how great Reagan was, and an economics for dummies class that taught personal finance and how to write checks.
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Jan 3, 2015 04:01
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If you want uselessness, go for my AP US Government course. It actually only taught the bare minimum needed to have any kind of understanding of how the government works and the difference between branches, as the teacher tended to ignore her teaching altogether in favor of tangents about her personal life or opinions on things. I came out of the class with essentially no knowledge retained. On the opposite end was my AP Psychology class, where the teacher knew his subject quite well but was a gigantic rear end in a top hat who got praised and made famous across the campus because he happened to be funny when emotionally abusing students. One of his big claims to fame is that Rob Thomas, lead singer of Matchbox Twenty, was one of his students and he jokingly wondered to the class why he never got offered free concert tickets. My mom actually grew up with Rob and asked him when I was taking the class, and he said that he despises the guy for being an rear end in a top hat and constantly derailing the class for personal stories.
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Jan 3, 2015 04:15
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My high school talked a lot about reconstruction in ap history. This was in a very racist, segregated part of Milwaukee. Our teacher, and for the record, he was a very good teacher . . . But he'd use words like "Yankee" and "carpetbagger" unironically. We learned reconstruction like "the test/chairman Mao says:". It's why "teaching to the test" is a dog whistle. I was taught reconstruction with someone basically making the hand-wanking motion the entire time.
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Jan 3, 2015 04:35
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chitoryu12 posted:If you want uselessness, go for my AP US Government course. It actually only taught the bare minimum needed to have any kind of understanding of how the government works and the difference between branches, as the teacher tended to ignore her teaching altogether in favor of tangents about her personal life or opinions on things. I came out of the class with essentially no knowledge retained.
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Jan 3, 2015 04:37
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My high school didn't have a separate AP class for either US or European history, though I recall both of the ones I did take, and subsequently take both respective tests, were about as engaging as you'd expect for sophomore/junior classes. In European History I do remember my teacher custom-tailored paper assignments to individual interests; I got "The Song of Roland" and something on the Thirty Years War for my two.
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Jan 3, 2015 04:41
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chitoryu12 posted:If you want uselessness, go for my AP US Government course. It actually only taught the bare minimum needed to have any kind of understanding of how the government works and the difference between branches, as the teacher tended to ignore her teaching altogether in favor of tangents about her personal life or opinions on things. I came out of the class with essentially no knowledge retained. We had a fresh-outta-ivies Psych/Ed PhD teach our AP Psych course, was useful. APUSG/APCG, I took the tests without taking a class because they're easy to pass for anyone half-aware of politics. AP Art History was a bitch
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Jan 3, 2015 04:41
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chitoryu12 posted:My APUSH class was great for a number of reasons. One of them was my teacher making it very clear to everyone that the Civil War was entirely about slavery and that the "states' rights" argument is something done by Confederate apologists who don't want to admit the uncomfortable truth that they're romanticizing governments that separated from the union so they could keep their slave-based economies running. Mines is one of the best in the country, but that's because its student body is filthy rich and under tons of parental and environmental pressure to get 5.0s and 2400s and take as many AP classes as possible. Some people I knew from high school have broken down since.
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Jan 3, 2015 04:44
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Jerry Manderbilt posted:Mines is one of the best in the country, but that's because its student body is filthy rich and under tons of parental and environmental pressure to get 5.0s and 2400s and take as many AP classes as possible. Some people I knew from high school have broken down since. Pretty much the same here. Lake Mary is a drat wealthy town in the Orlando area, so the student body is filled with residents of McMansions who show up in brand new pickups, SUVs, and coupes. I was in Drama Club, and popularity with the two teachers in charge was primarily determined by how much money your parents donated to the program. AP and Honors classes were drat near the standard for most of my peer group, regardless of actual intelligence. I was also one of the lucky ones to be in the final graduating class that didn't require a full 4 years of math classes. I completely bailed on the upper level math for my senior year (made up for it with Astronomy, which is a lot more fun and actually involves applied math) and never looked back.
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Jan 3, 2015 04:53
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My APUS history teacher disappeared mid first semester and we spent the rest of the year watching movies under the supervision of an 80 year old sub. Good times.
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Jan 3, 2015 05:10
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sullat posted:My APUS history teacher disappeared mid first semester and we spent the rest of the year watching movies under the supervision of an 80 year old sub. Good times. Not as good as my English teacher in senior year. We came back the second week to find that he was gone; he had been fired over a bunch of poo poo on his blog that included admitting to faking a drug test. Good riddance, really. He spent the week seeming like he was almost too high to stay awake.
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Jan 3, 2015 05:13
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God, this reminds me of my eight grade US history teacher. He spent almost the entire year jerking off about the constitution and ARE FOUNDING FATHERS, and he always seemed pretty unhinged. Now here's where it gets funny: in seventh grade I heard rumors from classmates that he watched porn in class, and so he'd just have them watch movies during class period while making creepy smiles at his computer screen. He got the boot during my freshman year in high school, when he was discovered in his car high on meth, and then one of his students got into his room and pulled up his cache—he was too stupid to clear it.
Jerry Manderbilt fucked around with this message at 05:27 on Jan 3, 2015 |
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Jan 3, 2015 05:20
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Jerry Manderbilt posted:He got the boot during my freshman year in high school, when he was discovered in his car high on meth, I hope he had some kind of porn with him and was jerking off when caught, it'd make the story so much better.
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Jan 3, 2015 05:30
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Most of my social science instructors were no-gruff ex-union men, whether they were ex-Chicago cops, ex-union foremen at the steelmill, or ex-business manager for the IBEW local. America needs more no-gruff ex-union teachers.
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Jan 3, 2015 06:10
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My Imaginary GF posted:Most of my social science instructors were no-gruff ex-union men, whether they were ex-Chicago cops, ex-union foremen at the steelmill, or ex-business manager for the IBEW local. If the Republicans get their way, all teachers will be ex-union!
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Jan 3, 2015 06:18
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The only AP classes my high school offered were English and European History. Fortunately, the guy who taught about half the history classes was one of the most cynical people I've ever met, so it wasn't four years of history classes entirely wasted.
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Jan 3, 2015 06:28
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My Imaginary GF posted:Most of my social science instructors were no-gruff ex-union men, whether they were ex-Chicago cops, ex-union foremen at the steelmill, or ex-business manager for the IBEW local. I had a class where we learned CPR and watched Lifetime movies about eating disorders while hearing Nam stories from a football coach. Does that count?
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Jan 3, 2015 06:41
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WhiskeyJuvenile posted:isn't it in the interests of house democrats to join with the tea party to elect someone insane to the speakership? Who would be this magical Speaker that the Tea Party (which we should define as the far-right Gohmert/King contingent for the purposes of this discussion) would trust to uphold conservative principles, unlike Boehner, but would also be trusted by the Democrats to agree to bring must-pass bills like a clean debt ceiling hike to the floor?
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Jan 3, 2015 07:02
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My junior year american history teacher didn't actually teach us history. She made us read a book a few times, followed by the one time she did teach, where she tried to equate ford motor company's assembly line efficiency as the cause for an event 20 years before the business even begun. It made absolutely no sense. One year later, enough students complained to get her fired. I'd like to think I've learned more about american history just reading these forums than I ever did in high school.
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Jan 3, 2015 07:03
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Joementum posted:Who would be this magical Speaker that the Tea Party (which we should define as the far-right Gohmert/King contingent for the purposes of this discussion) would trust to uphold conservative principles, unlike Boehner, but would also be trusted by the Democrats to agree to bring must-pass bills like a clean debt ceiling hike to the floor? I don't think Gil John Biggs has a counterpart in the House.
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Jan 3, 2015 07:04
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My APUSH class is the reason I'm the leftist I am today. I guess public schools really are a Marxist indoctrination system!
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Jan 3, 2015 07:08
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Must've been nice to go to a school with an AP curriculum. All we had was calculus and the teacher was an arrogant rear end in a top hat.
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Jan 3, 2015 07:08
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My HS American History class (with very Conservative teacher) consisted of: Going over the civil war very slowly (with apologia regarding STATES RIGHTS) Zooming through 20th century history in about two weeks Making our own presentations with research we did about events post Civil War (One of my more memorable presentations was about Saint Ronnie Reagan. During this presentation, I made sure to touch on his 'bloodbath' quote on People's Park, as well as his snitching during HUAC hearings and false campaign promises during his gubernatorial races. I got an C, but I would do it again in a heartbeat.)
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Jan 3, 2015 07:12
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Shbobdb posted:he'd use [the] word "Yankee" unironically.
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Jan 3, 2015 07:13
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Ugh. My APUSH course was trash compared to some of these: * Basically glossed over the Trail of Tears (we spent a couple of days talking about it, that was it) * The teacher wouldn't STFU about how "both sides have a point" whenever talking about current events * Thought "states' rights" was a legitimate complaint re: anything to do w/ race relations * Glossed over slavery in re: the Civil War * Played the "WELL THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION ONLY FREED SLAVES IN CONFEDERATE STATES SO LINCOLN WASN'T THAT GREAT AT ALL" card etc. etc.. Though I suspect some of these were due to time/curriculum constraints, and the teacher did seem to get the whole  race card thing was bullshit which was nice.
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Jan 3, 2015 07:15
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My APUSH teacher was an early boomer who retired after I took her class, but she was pretty liberal; she talked about how the Supreme Court of 2010 was incredibly reactionary and out of control, likening it to Taney's court, and told us about how she supported JFK while at San Jose State. She also had pretty biting disdain for the Tea Party, talking about how they cry about government while never stopping to think about how they've benefited from government since day one.
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Jan 3, 2015 07:24
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Look at all you nerds that took AP classes. In the real America we took standard classes and we liked it  Went to school in south Georgia and most teachers were about what you'd expect. I did luck into a few good history teachers and two good English teachers while I was in high school, though. The economics class was pretty poo poo though.
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Jan 3, 2015 07:31
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Gen. Ripper posted:* Basically glossed over the Trail of Tears (we spent a couple of days talking about it, that was it) Trail of Tears isn't even worth one day, let alone a couple. Unless of course you use it as an example of the dynamics of American/Indian relations or relations between the branches of government and government itself versus the popular will of the people/populism. But then, as I briefly mentioned earlier, that is something true of almost any historical event. There are so many that the best way to teach is to use them as broader example of many similar events that occur, and what effect they had on society and the country.
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Jan 3, 2015 07:35
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AP classes are funny because they in no way should be worth college credit (but no high school taught class should), but they are resulting in many students like be being stuck flipping cards into a hat for our first few semesters waiting to get into our major because we knocked out 9/10ths of our gen ed requirements with AP tests.
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Jan 3, 2015 07:37
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Satsuki Kiryuin posted:AP classes are funny because they in no way should be worth college credit (but no high school taught class should), but they are resulting in many students like be being stuck flipping cards into a hat for our first few semesters waiting to get into our major because we knocked out 9/10ths of our gen ed requirements with AP tests. They were pretty comparable with the classes they replaced in my experience. I mean in general you will probably get a better experience because you're not being taught in a 300 person class or by a distressed grad student in high school. The only reason I didn't take my calculus credit in college was that I had done it my junior year of high school and I didn't want to take the next level of math having not reviewed calculus for a year.
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Jan 3, 2015 07:40
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Nah. Teach kids about that one bad thing that happened and how it is better now.
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Jan 3, 2015 07:40
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computer parts posted:They were pretty comparable with the classes they replaced in my experience. AP classes in my experience teach you to pass a test, not to actually know stuff that you will need in future classes. Sure it's pretty harmless because most gen ed requirements are stupid poo poo shoe horned in for the sake of making kids more "rounded" (code word for we want them to pay more money), but for classes you get to skip that are required as part of a succession of classes that build one another it's a bad deal.
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Jan 3, 2015 07:43
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Mantis42 posted:My APUSH class is the reason I'm the leftist I am today. I guess public schools really are a Marxist indoctrination system! We read Zinn in my apush class, so I'm with you there. But I think listening to Jello Biafra as a pre-teen gave me the first push.
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Jan 3, 2015 07:48
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Satsuki Kiryuin posted:AP classes in my experience teach you to pass a test, not to actually know stuff that you will need in future classes. Sure it's pretty harmless because most gen ed requirements are stupid poo poo shoe horned in for the sake of making kids more "rounded" (code word for we want them to pay more money), but for classes you get to skip that are required as part of a succession of classes that build one another it's a bad deal. Maybe it's different in the social sciences (although my later experiences in history classes were nothing like the jumbo introductory classes that the tests replace) but I've found for math and physics anyway that the tests are fairly similar, and in many cases more informative.
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Jan 3, 2015 07:54
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Satsuki Kiryuin posted:AP classes in my experience teach you to pass a test, not to actually know stuff that you will need in future classes. Sure it's pretty harmless because most gen ed requirements are stupid poo poo shoe horned in for the sake of making kids more "rounded" (code word for we want them to pay more money), but for classes you get to skip that are required as part of a succession of classes that build one another it's a bad deal.
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Jan 3, 2015 07:55
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LookingGodIntheEye posted:I would say that the AP Chemistry class I took in high school was comparable to the Chem 101 class I've taken in college. The problem is that my AP Chem teacher just had so much poo poo to pack in one hour five days a week for what is normally a multiple-hour class 4-5 days a week. He may have smoked crack just to keep pace, based off his general demeanor. This is my biggest complaint with AP in general, to much class shoved in to small an amount of time.
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Jan 3, 2015 07:58
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computer parts posted:Maybe it's different in the social sciences (although my later experiences in history classes were nothing like the jumbo introductory classes that the tests replace) but I've found for math and physics anyway that the tests are fairly similar, and in many cases more informative.
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Jan 3, 2015 08:10
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LookingGodIntheEye posted:Are we talking about college physics for biomed, or college physics for engineers and physicists? Because there is a big difference between the two courses. The latter, at least for me. Well, I'll append that by saying the mechanics portion was fairly similar, the electricity and magnetism was different but everyone I've talked to seems to indicate that that course is always a bit arcane.
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Jan 3, 2015 08:16
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Cliff Racer posted:Trail of Tears isn't even worth one day, let alone a couple. Unless of course you use it as an example of the dynamics of American/Indian relations or relations between the branches of government and government itself versus the popular will of the people/populism. But then, as I briefly mentioned earlier, that is something true of almost any historical event. There are so many that the best way to teach is to use them as broader example of many similar events that occur, and what effect they had on society and the country. Yeah, who cares about your country committing genocide? Germans probably don't need to talk about the Holocaust either. E: seriously, anyone who could write that post needs to reexamine themselves as an exemplar of the banality of evil. You disgust me. Hodgepodge fucked around with this message at 08:26 on Jan 3, 2015 |
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Jan 3, 2015 08:21
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Hodgepodge posted:Yeah, who cares about your country committing genocide? Germans probably don't need to talk about the Holocaust either. I read that one as more like "too much focus on specific events takes away from teaching the trends and overall conditions," i.e. that you get taught about the Trail of Tears and it's like "that happened and it was really bad, now on the next page we're covering the run-up to the Civil War"--so at the end of the year you can answer a multiple-choice question about the Trail of Tears without really being conscious of the ongoing patterns of genocide and native cultural erasure that continue through US history 1776-present.
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Jan 3, 2015 08:45
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