African American History

It is easy to get depressed and anxious about the problems that we are encountering in our society. We read the headlines in the paper and listen to the news reports and it seems like the entire world is falling down around us. Unfortunately the media does not do a very good job of reporting the good things that are occurring on a daily basis. I know that there are good things that occur on a regular basis because I am an educator and I see the young adults that I work with do special things all the time. The media stands in line to report about a youth that carries a gun into a school, but they take no notice of three students that will carry a fellow paralyzed student up a flight of bleachers so they can watch a basketball game. When I have talked to members of the media about this they report to me that feel good stories do not sell papers or get viewers.

The school setting that I teach in is quite diverse. The main focus we have with our students is respect. Respect yourself, respect other students and respect each other’s differences. I believe that in order to respect others you need to understand them and they’re believes. I spend a great deal of time talking about the various cultures that are prevalent in our school. This month we are concentrating on African American history. I involve the students in the lesson plans. Three students are going to present the African American history of their particular families. The neat thing is that these students did not know the full story until they began working on the project. They are learning things about their great grandparents that they never knew before. All students are involved in each segment that we do. Those students that are not African Americans will report on a more general topic having to do with African American history. The purpose is not only to have a better understanding of each other’s past and culture, but to realize that most cultures have common elements. The Native American students and the Hispanic students will realize that some of the celebrations they practice within their culture are done for similar reasons.

I do not correlate the different months or topics with national observances. January is the national African American history month. I do not do it then because some of the importance gets over shadowed by the media coverage of national events at the time. The students report to me that they are enjoying learning about each other and understanding each other better. As an educator I need to say that I am optimistic for the future of our country because I see young people doing great things.

Ancient Military History

I’ve always considered myself somewhat of a history buff, and I have always liked to study the military, but I’ve never really checked out ancient military history until recently. It did not seem relevant to me, to tell you the truth. I was more interested in the evolution of the modern world, and I couldn’t see how ancient history would have anything to do with that. One of my friends is a classical studies major, and he convinced me to take another look at it. What I found really surprised and fascinated me.

The fact is that ancient military history is still studied in many cadet schools to this day. Nowadays, with high-tech weaponry, it is easy to get lost in technological fetishism and forget how an army works. With ancient military history, you see much more continuity. To this very day, the high ground is the most valuable place on the battlefield. To this very day, strategy can win or lose a battle. And to this very day, a small difference in arms technology can make a big difference in results.

With ancient military history, battles and even wars between civilizations would sometimes be decided by a single technology. Iron could easily overcome bronze, for example, and the long bow could render many traditional troop formations worthless. A great example of a technology in ancient military history is the phalanx. Once the Romans developed the phalanx, they were all but unstoppable. Projectile weapons of the time couldn’t smash through their wall of shields, and basically they could present a united cluster of spear tips and an invincible target. Although they could be somewhat vulnerable to flanking movements, the Roman generals were good at countering this threat. It just shows you how important coordinated movement is for a successful army.

One of the most important developments in ancient military history was that of siege engines. It actually took quite a while before good projectiles could be used against an encroaching army. A wall of shields is a powerful defense, but once you learned how to throw great big rock into a block of troops, you have the advantage. The interesting thing about advances in short range projectiles and siege engines is that they caused defenses in medieval military history to get bulkier and more powerful. Armor got thicker, castle walls got thicker, and even shields got thicker. Up until gunpowder, there was a continuous arms race between defenses and things meant to batter through them.

I would definitely say that gunpowder was the end of ancient military history and the beginning of the modern age. Although it had been around for a while, once it was successfully weaponized you couldn’t really effectively protect your troops through thick sheets of metal anymore. People had to rethink strategy.