"I'm bad with dates."

I love history. I majored in history in college, I teach the subject now, and I watch an embarrassing amount of educational/historical programming in my free time. The one thing I do NOT like about history is memorizing dates. Yes, of course, dates are important, and you should at least have an idea of when things happened. You should know that, say, Pearl Harbor happened before D-Day, which happened before V-E Day. Extra credit if you know that V-J Day came after V-E Day, and my undying love and affection if you can name the actual dates for all of the above (I'm looking at you, Chuck M.). 


Anyway, my point is that with the exception of a few key dates -- December 7, 1941, for example -- I generally do not require my kids to memorize dates or specific years. I think that the really important (and interesting!) stuff in history is so much bigger than that. Knowing that the Battle of Hastings took place in 1066 does not make you a better person than the guy sitting next to you, and it certainly does not make you more popular at cocktail parties. I found that last one out the hard way. Long story...


But like I said, having an idea of when things happened -- during this decade, before this, but after that -- is kind of, like, you know, IMPORTANT. I was setting up my classroom today and thinking about all of that, and I remembered an exchange that took place way back in June, just before school let out. I was talking to a student who would be in my 11th grade US History class this year. This is the actual conversation that took place. 


Student: Um, Mizz B*, I am bad with dates, so maybe you can clear this up for me.
Me: (Big smile! I love talking history!) Sure! What's the question?
Student: So, when you say that next year's course will start in the 1890s, that's around the beginning of the Civil War, correct?
Me: (Pause.) Uh, close, but not quite. The Civil War was the 1860s. We're going to start with the rise of cities, industrialization, immigration, that sort of thing. Really exciting stuff!
Student: Oh, I see. And when you say that we will end in the 1970s, that's kind of like, World War II, right?
Me: .......


How could I NOT be excited for school to start next week when this is what I have walking into my classroom??? Yay September!


* Students in our school apparently have great difficulty differentiating between "Miss," "Ms." and "Mrs.". Rather than try to, you know learn the difference between the three, they just call everyone "Mizz," much to the dismay of some of the female teachers who prefer one title over another. To be honest, I don't really care... I figure there are much worse things they could be calling me.