…An Interesting Combination for Lessons in Life from the Past.
By Scott Cole
I am a history teacher. I have always been fascinated by the subject. Growing up in the Philadelphia area, it’s hard not to with the spirit of Ben Franklin and the Revolution swirling around you at all times. I also lived within a few hours drive to places like: Valley Forge, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, Gettysburg, Baltimore, the Civil War Battlefields of Virginia, and Washington DC. My father was also very big on family history as well. I grew up hearing tales of the Coles of the past who lived in Plymouth, settled in the New England Colonies, fought in America’s wars from the Revolution up to the Second World War, and about the ancestors who lived in Merry Old England.
My father instilled in me the idea that it is important for you to understand where it is that you came from so you know where you are going. To understand the lessons of the past can help to prepare for what is to come. We can take inspiration from people and follow their lead to do a little bit more than we thought we could have achieved. This is one of my goals as a history teacher. I try to reach back into the past to make it more relevant and meaningful for today’s world.
Teaching here at the Family Foundation School is a lot different than what I experienced in a public school. I don’t mean better or worse…I mean different. One of the things, as a staff of the Family School, is that I am supposed to be a sponsor and help them in the “Steps of the Program”. However, I have often found that I could use these as part of my lesson in my classroom to great advantages. I have found that by incorporating basic step work or “program phrases” into my lessons, the kids are being reinforced in their program work while making connections to the material I am trying to make for them. While I am not an addict nor in the program, teaching the program through history lessons have helped me understand the basics of the program a lot more; which in turn helps me to help the kids at the school.
For example, there have been many great conquerors in the world who became very prideful and have seen their empires and plans crumble all around them. May tragedies could have been avoided if clearer minds had prevailed. Napoleon, Hitler, Montezuma, Mussolini, and many others in the past rested on their laurels and believed in their own invincibility only to fall very short. Resentments helped to destroy the Axis Powers in World War II, the Confederacy in the Civil War, and the Carthaginians against the Romans. Blind arrogance doomed the Titanic and the townspeople of Johnstown, Pa as well as British efforts during the Revolutionary War.
So I will teach the students in my classes important lessons from the past by using program speak. When talking about the Eightfold Path of Buddhism, I will show how they relate to the steps by comparing them to different steps. When teaching about how Jefferson Davis’s resentments with many of his generals led to several problems with the Confederate armies, I will relate that to how resentments hurt us in our own lives. I will share how the pride of the British in failing to stop Washington many times or the Germans in letting the British escape at Dunkirk is easily related to how our pride holds us back from doing the right thing even though the goal we wish to attain is clearly in front of us and that we underestimate the strength of our enemies (in this case, our disease).
Every attempt that I can make to supplement my history class with program lessons, I will do. I think it makes connections to the subject matter and to the program much easier for students. I also see that it does work with the students in getting better grades. Hopefully, it helps them work with their program work as well. After all, it doesn’t hurt.
