As some of you know, I have begun a pursuit of a career in teaching history. I'm somewhere in between gung ho and uncertain about it. As a matter of fact, I took two tests this past Saturday in order to get certified to teach history in the state of Oklahoma. I have to admit that both tests were very tough.
The first test was over US History, Oklahoma History, Economics, and Government. The test may as well have been called Politics and Law. I would say at least 80% of the test was about law or politics or economics. I have absolutely no interest in any of that sort of thing. My interests lie more with the latter test, World History/Geography. My mistake was taking both tests in one day. There was simply too much material to cover. I should have just taken the World History & Geography test.
I'm very interested in the ancient world. I respect those who love American History and get into the Civil War, but I simply don't have a lot of interest in that. The older I get, the more interested in the world I become. Don't get me wrong; I have no interest in listening to NPR. It bores me. But what I am interested in the ancient world and how things were on this planet a thousand years ago. I alluded in the previous blog post about how when I was ten I wanted to be an explorer. My favorite sub-subject in school was learning about the Spanish and Portuguese explorers that discovered the Americas and the various islands in the Pacific. Discovery and exploration cut deeper into my heart the older I get. In everything, from wanting to see the Vatican to wanting to buy a CB radio, exploration has become an obsession with me. I don't always articulate it because I don't know how.
The problem with all of this is learning is funner than teaching. And where do I begin? I could write here about how humbled I am about how people are the same inside all of their differences, or how reading about the ancient world makes me feel like I'm alone on a beach looking at the ocean. It makes me realize how small I am.
Honestly, I don't have many major occupational dreams. Most of my dreams have very little to do with what I want to do, and more to do with the person I want to become. But I hope one day I can teach things nobody has thought about. I hope I can learn something I can tell other people about. I hope one day I can in one semester teach a class on both astronomy and the 15th Century Explorers. I hope I can one day have an office on a campus with a little statue of Amerigo Vespucci or Marco Polo next to a telescope that points out my office window. I also dream of teaching putting aside all assumptions we've developed in the western church, and think about what we believe within the scope of world history.
