The news has been moving at such a blistering pace of late. I know this story has already been passed around, but honestly, it was so interesting I have reread it a few times, and you should, too.
It’s about how Tim Walz, as a high-school teacher in Alliance, Nebraska, a little town in the western part of the state, decided to teach his geography class about genocide. This was in 1993, although the story linked above is from 2008, when Walz had recently been elected to Congress. And so:
Mr. Walz had already taught for a year in China, and he brought the world into his classroom in the form of African thumb pianos and Tibetan singing bowls. For the global geography class, he devised something far more ambitious than what the curriculum easily could have been the identification and memorization of capitals, mountain ranges and major rivers. It was more ambitious, too, than a unit solely on the Holocaust of the sort many states have required.
“The Holocaust is taught too often purely as a historical event, an anomaly, a moment in time,” Mr. Walz said in a recent interview, recalling his approach. “Students understood what had happened and that it was terrible and that the people who did this were monsters.
“The problem is,” he continued, “that relieves us of responsibility. Obviously, the mastermind was sociopathic, but on the scale for it to happen, there had to be a lot of people in the country who chose to go down that path. You have to make the intellectual leap to figure out the reasons why.”
How did he do this?
For nine weeks through the winter and early spring that school year, through the howling blizzards and the planting of the first alfalfa on the plains, the class pored over data about economics, natural resources and ethnic composition. They read about civil war, colonialism and totalitarian ideology. They worked with reference books and scholarly reports, long before conducting research took place instantly online.
I’m already loving his approach as a teacher. I wonder how many kids were in the school. How lucky they were to have a teacher like this. At the end of the unit, he asked them to give their best guess where the next genocide would happen, offering them about a dozen choices. And what did they come up with?
Their answer was: Rwanda. The evidence was the ethnic divide between Hutus and Tutsis, the favoritism toward Tutsis shown by the Belgian colonial regime, and the previous outbreaks of tribal violence. Mr. Walz awarded high marks.
Well. We all know what happened the very next year.
This guy isn’t perfect, because no one is. But I’d vote for a teacher who came up with a lesson like this over a guy who peddled a memoir selling out his community.
Well, how was your weekend? Mine was busy, at least until I tried to bring a heavy box in from the front porch, struggled to get the screen door open, and fell on my ass right off the whole thing. I’m fine, but I took a bang on the ribcage and my hip. The good news is, I didn’t break anything, but I do have a garish bruise the size of my hand there. And it still hurts to move. It’ll be better in a few days, but it sucks to glimpse your mortality, doesn’t it?
Another killer week ahead, with one after that, and then Labor Day weekend, and after that — relief.
This might be the last day for this for a while:
Fortunately it was a great day for it.
Dorothy said on August 11, 2024 at 10:08 pm
Ooh and oww. I’m glad you’re okay. We’re the same age so we likely move differently these days compared to – oh even just a year ago! Carrying anything up or down steps now seems to be the potential set up to any number of nasty outcomes. I’m very slow and measured these days doing things I never used to give two thoughts to.
I already did read that article. It was terrific. Tim Walz reminds me of my sophomore high school teacher Ted Phillips. He too was a social studies teacher. I remember clearly how he told us his actual name was Todor Nikolai Philopovich. I’m having a brain fart and cannot recall which European country his parents came from. But he told compelling stories and brought the book’s subject matter to life in interesting and engaging ways. At the end of that school year I suggested to fellow classmates that we get him a plaque with his real name on it. He let a tear or two fall after he unwrapped the gift. It was so nice to surprise him. He’ll always be my favorite teacher.
I looked – I think he was from Serbia! https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/triblive-pittsburgh-tribune-review/name/theodore-phillips-obituary?id=35851532
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David C said on August 12, 2024 at 6:25 am
Our niece had a hell of a time getting a teaching position in social studies. She talked to one of her college professors about why she was having such a hard time and she told her “Oh, those jobs go to coaches”. She eventually found a position here after teaching at an English school in Thailand. My social studies teacher in high school was the football coach and a Republican who wore it on his sleeve. At least being a Republican in those days was somewhat defensible. Anyway, I’m glad some students got a great social studies out of a football coach.
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Suzanne said on August 12, 2024 at 8:01 am
My high school government teacher was great. He didn’t give us pat answers but made us think. He wasn’t a coach!
The chemistry teacher at my high school was a coach but I never took chemistry. My older brother and sister both had him and both told me not to bother to take the class as I wouldn’t learn a thing. That football coach teacher would give extra credit points for making copies of football plays (this was in the early 70s before Xerox came out with photocopiers). Why didn’t our parents complain? They both went to one room Lutheran schools up until 8th grade, I know neither one ever took a chem class, and neither went to college. I don’t think complaining ever occurred to them nor did they grasp why taking classes like chemistry or physics would be a good idea.
It was a different world back then.
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Deborah said on August 12, 2024 at 9:05 am
Funny my favorite teacher in junior high was a social studies teacher. Somehow he knew I could draw (probably from doodles I drew during class on my notes) and asked me to make productions for his window displays. One time I drew the Taj Mahal in pastels and it was a masterpiece. I got much needed compliments on it being a shy, skinny young girl. He obviously recognized that I could use some propping up.
Another time in his class we were studying about Eastern Europe and we had to learn the capitol cities. He taught us about mnemonic devices that you can make up to remember things. Fast forward a million years later and at the architecture firm where I worked I was having a discussion with a colleague and whatever the discussion was about he couldn’t come up with the capitol of Bulgaria and I was confidently able to supply “Sophia” because my mnemonic device for remembering that was Sophia Loren who had bulges (in the right places). She was quite popular when I, a flat chested barely teen, was in that social studies class.
That article about Walz is fantastic.
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Jeff Borden said on August 12, 2024 at 10:29 am
One of the major influences on JD Vance and his sugar daddy, Peter Thiel, is an advocate of genocide and slavery. Honest. This story is absolutely shocking.
https://newrepublic.com/article/183971/jd-vance-weird-terrifying-techno-authoritarian-ideas
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Jenine said on August 12, 2024 at 10:58 am
Thank you for the picture taken across the deck. Looking at it helps me take a deep breath. Hope the bruises fade quickly.
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Suzanne said on August 12, 2024 at 11:48 am
Jeff Borden, Vance gets more terrifying the more I know. The fact that he is so politically malleable adds to the scariness.
I wrote earlier about teachers but I either forgot to press “submit” or spelled my email wrong again. Oh well. The gist was that I had a great government teacher in high school who made us think but never took chemistry because the teacher was, according to my older siblings, horrible. He was a football coach and gave generous extra credit to students who copied football plays for him and other football related things which had nothing to do with chemistry.
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robert said on August 12, 2024 at 11:52 am
Sorry about your misadventure. It sucks getting old, but I prefer it to the alternative.
Thanks for sharing the article about Tim Walz the teacher – he obviously has Intelligence, insight and compassion in abundance.
“But I’d vote for a teacher who came up with a lesson like this over a guy who peddled a memoir selling out his community.“
truly
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alex said on August 12, 2024 at 11:53 am
Fun weekend here. I went to an art fair to hang out with friends who were selling their stuff and brought home a beautiful piece of pottery. Then I trashed my kitchen roasting and skinning tomatoes and pureeing the pulp into sauce, and I still have an enormous amount of produce in the queue waiting to be processed.
I plan to spend next weekend at a friend’s lake cottage and from there I plan to return to the Indiana Dunes where my Chicago friends have once again rented an Air B&B.
Can’t believe it’s this late in the summer and my convertible is still in the garage under a car cover and blocked in by a bunch of stuff that needs to be better organized. Right now is the perfect weather for driving it if I can liberate it.
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Pam H said on August 12, 2024 at 1:02 pm
Teaching kids to research, learn and think for themselves is needed in schools. I wonder if Tim Walz’s curriculum could even be taught in schools today.
Sorry to hear about your recent fall off the porch. Lucky it’s a bruise but bruises have a habit of waking you in the night when you rollover.
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Peter said on August 12, 2024 at 3:27 pm
I don’t want to jinx anything, but I was putting my future six month checkup in my calendar when I noticed that next year’s inauguration is on MLK Day.
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Scout said on August 12, 2024 at 3:46 pm
I got to see Tim Walz in person last Friday at the Glendale AZ rally. He is everything great you’ve heard and more. What a dynamo and what an outstanding, inspired addition to Kamala’s campaign! The rally was joyful, positive, informative and energetic. Mark Kelly helping Gabby Giffords to the stage was so emotional; I thought I was the only one crying until I looked around and saw everyone else cheering through tears. To have been there, feeling the energy, talking with so many people who were feeling as euphoric as I was is one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.
I had to laugh when I read the stupid stuff on the socials about how all 20,000 of us there were ‘paid performers’ and that her crowds are AI generated. The desperation is palpable. Contrasting the positivity of the weekend’s Harris/Walz packed venues with the sparse gathering in Montana where they played the Celine Dion video of the theme from The Titanic (do they have an undercover Dem op planning their rallies? LOL!) and I understand why they’re panic pooping their Donny diapers.
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David C said on August 12, 2024 at 4:01 pm
I hope I get to see a rally, Scout. It sounds like everything they promise it is. I saw Obama in ’08 and it was fun, but Harris/Walz rallies sound like they’re turned up to 11. Glad you got to go. Unless you’re AI, or a cardboard cutout, then nevermind.
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Dexter Friend said on August 12, 2024 at 5:32 pm
My old F-150 wouldn’t start after gassing it up 26 miles from home so I got a ride with it atop a flatbed wrecker truck, riding backwards. It felt like riding in a train. August 12, I have not had any sweet corn at all yet. 3 of my former farm stands I patronized all quit the veggie business. Tonight I will just cave and buy some at the big grocery store.
I have known the wrecker owner for 47 years by the way…he told the driver this one was a free one. That never happened before.
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Icarus said on August 12, 2024 at 5:46 pm
Peter @ 11: if you think right-wingers went nuts when Easter coincided with Transgender Transgender Day of Visibility this year, they are absolutely gonna implode if that happens.
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Deborah said on August 12, 2024 at 5:56 pm
Speaking of bruises I got one this morning while showering. A brand new bottle of shampoo fell off of the niche in the wall where bathing stuff goes. It landed on the top of my foot. And of course it’s the same foot that I’ve had hikers heel for over a month now. The heel is getting better, I can walk without limping but it still hurts. Now I can’t wear the brace for that because it cuts into the bruise on the top of my foot. I don’t think either of the injuries have to do with my old age, it’s just bad luck.
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Deborah said on August 12, 2024 at 6:01 pm
Scout, I wondered if you were there. How wonderful that you got to experience that. I hope I get to one, that would be so inspiring. I’m avoiding being in Chicago for the convention though because I’ve heard it could be ripe for violence from the gun nuts or proud boy types. Plus it’s still pretty hot in Chicago in August. I’m staying in NM.
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Julie Robinson said on August 12, 2024 at 7:26 pm
Scout, Celine Dion’s people have made it clear he played the song without permission, too, just for a little extra humiliation. It must have been thrilling to be at Kamala’s rally.
Today I looked up candidates for my mom so she could fill out her absentee primary ballot, and as usual it completed my research for the general election, as there is no way I could vote for any of the Republicans.
I was supposed to work the precinct again and sat through three mind-numbing hours of training. Then I got a never-mind, whoopsy email, when they realized they have enough people, and instead I should report downtown to go anywhere they need me. Well, I can’t see well enough to drive at 5:30 in the morning, and we only have one car anyway, which will be needed to drive our precinct’s ballots back to the Election Board. Not happening!
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Jeff Borden said on August 12, 2024 at 10:47 pm
Apparently, Elmo’s interview with the Orange King on X/Twitter was a shit show. Started late with many technical problems. Elmo mostly muttered “yeah, yeah” as tRump mumbled on and observers were struck by how terrible tRump sounded. One description compared him to the lisping Sylvester the Cat cartoon character, though there is no evidence tRump said “Sufferin’ succotash!” His whole carnival act is running out of steam. The crowds are much smaller. The energy levels are much lower. And his declining cognitive powers are more noticeable every day.
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David C said on August 13, 2024 at 6:28 am
I heard clips of Grampy Sundowner this morning and oh my. Even if he wasn’t lisping through it all what he was saying was batshit crazier than anything I’d heard before. Rambling on about his pal Kim Jong-Un, Venezuela being the safest country in the world.
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Dexter Friend said on August 13, 2024 at 6:35 am
“Thufferin’ Thuccotash”! Good catch, JeffB.
“That Camilla, she’s a beautiful woman…” Camilla?
Jeezuss!… why was Trump lisping like that?
We know cable rates are the reason not only budgeting families had to cut the cord, but middle class and well-to-do people cut the cord too of protest. Some folks won’t or can’t “do” streams either. Nightly broadcast news shows? They are not mandatory like when I was following the Viet Nam war in the 60’s. My point is people are not yet seemingly aware of the necessity to keep Trump in Florida and later in prison. That 34 felony burden means nothing, the fact Trump is an adjudicated rapist, nothing? Charged with espionage years ago , hiding Top Secrets in bathrooms and hidden closets or behind false walls? Scarborough just called Trump backers “idol worshippers.”
There is a huge Trump “army” out here. This Maga party has power. They already are talking of another insurrection and even a civil war.
The Harris-Walz honeymoon is nearly over; by Labor Day this gets serious. We must win and send Trump to history’s big ass dumpster.
I’ll tip my hat to brian stouder and others here who realized what an asset Harris could be in keeping Trump in Florida or in prison. I really thought it was going to convention balloting and Shapiro would emerge on top. I had never seen any power from a VP, not like Harris has shown.
FWIW, Trump called other immigrants , not his rapists and murderers he raves about, but non-criminals, non-productive. Let that sonuvabitch come here and watch the Mexican farm workers out in the tomato fields in 90 F heat. Let him watch roofers completing an entire job in 12 hours. Let him watch immigrants cleaning dust off Las Vegas rooftops in terrible dirty circumstances. Let him watch housekeeping staffs scurrying in hotel hallways. Kitchen chefs, dishwashers, busstaff, waitstaff? Non productive? Kiss my ass !
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Jeff Gill said on August 13, 2024 at 9:04 am
Make sure to hunt up the official statement of the Celine Dion management team, to see the last line. Nicely done.
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Jenine said on August 13, 2024 at 10:21 am
@Alex, so good to hear about your summer running around. Hope you can get the convertible on the road too.
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Jeff Borden said on August 13, 2024 at 11:00 am
Dexter,
MAGAts talk a big game about revolution, but most won’t attempt it. They bitch and moan and whine, but going head-to-head with a Marine rifle company is nothing they’d relish. I do, however, believe there will be Timothy McVeigh types who plot individual acts of violence. Zealots don’t care who they hurt –how many children did McVeigh slaughter with his bomb– and that lack of conscience and morality males them extremely dangerous.
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David C said on August 13, 2024 at 11:17 am
It’s not just facing down the Marines. It’s facing down the boss. “Hey boss, I wanna take a few days of PTO to fight in the revolution.” Yeah dude, turn in your badge on the way out the door.
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Peter said on August 13, 2024 at 12:05 pm
Deborah, I hate to tell you this, but the weather for the last week in Chicago has been beautiful – 10 out of 10. We went to the Grant Park concert last Saturday, and it was in the high ’60’s and breezy – IN AUGUST!
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Jeff Borden said on August 13, 2024 at 12:42 pm
Peter is correct. Incredible weather in Chicago. Now, I’m praying for five straight days of rain next week during the DNC, which would cool the ardor of any would-be anarchists and rioters.
Re: tRump and Elmo. The Orange King said last night he’ll move to Venezuela if he loses this fall and asked Elmo to meet him there because Venezuela is so much safer than ‘Murica. Oh, man, could we be so lucky? tRump goes yo South America? Sets up tRumptown? Invites MAGAs to join him? We should be so lucky.
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alex said on August 13, 2024 at 1:45 pm
Imagine that, Trump fleeing to a communist shithole to avoid facing the music for the insurrection, pilfered documents and fake electors cases.
@Jenine, I got the convertible out and procrastinated the day away joyriding and I’m about to go do it again. This is the most marvelous weather for it.
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Jeff Gill said on August 13, 2024 at 3:00 pm
https://www.instagram.com/p/C-gBkwBRyec/?igsh=MXBlMHA5YjZ5ZjZseA==
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Deborah said on August 13, 2024 at 6:46 pm
So glad to hear that the weather has been good in Chicago, hope it keeps up but I understand the wish for rain next week to calm down the violent crazies. At least rain could keep it cool too.
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Deborah said on August 13, 2024 at 9:53 pm
This was a first for me, a candidate for Congress in AZ, Jonathan Nez, a Native American called to thank me for my donation. He asked for me by name, it was a voice message on my phone because I don’t answer numbers I don’t recognize. It sure didn’t sound like a recording if it was. I donated because I had received a text from Gallego who I donate to monthly for his AZ senate run, asking for donations for Nez. I didn’t donate that much to Nez, just $50, now I’m so impressed I’ll donate again.
Nez is a former president of the Navajo Nation, he’s running as a Democrat. Check him out.
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Julie Robinson said on August 13, 2024 at 10:08 pm
Deborah, that’s shoe leather politics at its best.
Glad you’re enjoying your convertible, Alex. I’ll confess to not enjoying them one whit. All those movies where the wind is whipping the beautiful blonde’s long locks? My hair would get all knotted up, and scarves always blew off. Massive fail!
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alex said on August 14, 2024 at 10:11 am
One of the disadvantages of having a car that seldom gets driven is that you open the trunk and find what looks like a white Santa’s beard and then realize that it’s mouse nesting materials. I am so fucking skeeved out.
I guess from now on when it’s “mothballed” I’m gonna have to use real naphthalene or peppermint oil or something.
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LAMary said on August 14, 2024 at 10:24 am
I had a geezer mishap about three weeks ago. LA Sanitation has a compost collection feature. I have a recycling bin, a garbage bin, two garden waste bins and a composting bin. Outside my kitchen door I keep a tall kitchen trash bin. All the egg shells, coffee filters, melon rinds, avocado pits and limp lettuce go in there. It’s nearly as tall as the compost bin from LA San. So I haul the compost out to the bin. It’s heavy. No one else has taken it out in a couple of weeks. I try to heave it up to tip it into the bin and it falls over, knocking over the big green bin, and taking me down with it. I whack the top of my head on the wood stockade fence. The compost made it into the bin and I haul myself and the kitchen compost bin back inside and apply a bag of frozen peas to my head to try to minimize the bump. The blue bruise spread to my forehead. My head hurt for a few days but the bruise took long time to go away. This incident did not inspire the in house Brit to take over the compost, kitchen garbage or recycling duties. I take out the compost before the bin gets very full now.
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Dexter Friend said on August 14, 2024 at 10:59 am
The Republicans for Harris are out in force trying to get undecideds to commit to Harris. This is a strong movement in Arizona.
Undecideds have to vote. Women have to vote in greater numbers. The students and the young in general never vote in great numbers, but in November they must.
Or we get Trump 47.
White men are split or favor the rapist. They won’t change now. It’s up to the groups I list above. Trump must be mothballed and stored in Alex’s convertible with knawing mice and vermin of other species, and maybe a few snakes.
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