Not All History Teachers are Boring

I've taught art for many years to a lot of students and one thing they would gripe about is 'history being soooo boring'.  It doesn't have to be 'booooring'! As a matter of fact, because of some of the complainings I had heard earlier in my teaching days, I decided that I'd take on ART HISTORY ( which to some is even more of a bore than regular American and World History ) and incorporate it into the grade school levels.

I had fun wearing a bandage over my ear when I talked about Van Gogh.  I bought a handle-bar moustache at a costume shop, and the entire class made them out of black consturction paper, and we taped them under our noses. When the principal came in and wondered what was going on, I told her, 'we're starting to learn barbershop quartet music' ( hahaha) but in reality I was teaching a lesson on the eccentric Savadore Dali.

Boy, did we have fun. I remember changing the lyrics from the 'YOU SAY POTATO, YOU SAY TOMATO' song, when I once did a lesson on artists Manet and Monet. Oh, what a blast!  And, I came up with the idea from an old movie I saw when I was a kid.

Do you remember Richard Mulligan in the 1984 movie, TEACHERS? He played the memorable Herbert Gower/Stuart Van Ark , an outpatient from a mental institution who is accidentally put in charge of a U.S. History class and makes it fun and engaging. What a crack up when he does the Washington crossing the Delaware scene. A good rental, with lots of big name stars in it, such as Ralph Macchio, Nick Nolte, Judd Hirsch and Morgan Freeman.