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Kathryn's winning essay:
A wise man, or woman, once said “History repeats itself.” It stuck and
now that one little phrase has been used for years to describe the
natural cycle our world and the lives of those people who make it spin
get caught in. Though nearly everyone has heard or have even exploited
this simple yet overdone statement, few truly understand the deep
message that can be discovered by those of whom are willing to just
listen to the voices of the past, thus opening themselves to be able to
shape the voices of the future. People are ignorant to the impact our
history has on our current actions and the actions of our prosperity due
to the futile acts of teachers. The educators of present seem to lack
the ability to motivate their students to reach a new level of
engagement and interaction with the future leaders of the world. Though
living in this mist for most of my life, I finally found the light at
the end of the history tunnel in the classroom of Mr. Patrick Hassler at
Highlands High School. Mr. Hassler’s sophomore Honors World Cultures
course opened my eyes to the joys of teaching and expanded my own love
of history that had been muted for years by inept teaching. Being a
pupil under Mr. Hassler encouraged me to declare my major in history
when I enter the University of Pittsburgh’s College of Arts and Sciences
in August.
History, from my earliest memories as a child, has always engrossed and
fascinated me. I was the only kid I knew who watched the History Channel
for fun. To my classmates I had an abnormal connection with the people
of the past but I was merely following in the footsteps of two important
men in my life. My father and grandfather nurtured my love of history by
allowing me to share in their own personal devotion to the times of yore
and legend. Both men treasured and appreciated the battle that tore our
nation in two almost a century and a half earlier, the infamous Civil
War, and bestowed onto me the same gratitude and reverence they gave to
the men and women who gave up their lives to give all people on the
earth the hope to strive for a better and brighter future. Yet, while I
was at school, I never had the pleasure of having a history teacher that
had the ability to motivate me to enjoy a history lesson, a task which I
left for home, on my own time. That deathly boring and fruitless cycle
continued to drown me in its incompetent waters until I reached the
tenth grade and was taught by Mr. Patrick Hassler. His classes opened my
eyes to the fact that sitting through a history class could be worth my
while and live up to the expectations set by my father and grandfather,
self-declared and self-made historians, that history should be a
catalyst to encourage and hearten the minds of students that they have
the power to change the problems and evils of the world. Through his
lessons and lectures, Mr. Hassler heightened my dedication to the people
of former times. That sharpened determination allows me in this time of
new beginnings and new aspirations to reach a level in which I am
willing and able to let history play a huge role in life: by devoting
four complete years of my life to learning all I can about this world’s
complex history, cultures, and conflicts in order to continue to spread
the lessons of the past to the children of the future. Not only did Mr.
Hassler revive and inspire the flame that my father and grandfather had
kindled but he also introduced to me the happiness that can be obtained
through the art of teaching.
To sum up Mr. Hassler’s style of education I would simply say he made
learning about dead guys in funny clothes enjoyable and even exciting.
He got the entire class, all nine of us in his mob of a sixth period
class, involved, competitive, and on task, a sign of a remarkable and
talented teacher. Textbooks, notes, and lectures never stole center
stage while Mr. Hassler was in control of a class. Instead, he utilized
the elementary art of group projects to bring the class together in the
educational process. I can remember one particularly intriguing project
in which I stayed up to at least one o’clock in the morning in order to
get all the details right. My lack of sleep was not because of too much
work or overly complicated directions. During those wee hours of the
morning I was running on adrenaline, an adrenaline brought on by working
on something I could see the purpose behind. This revolutionary project
was a newspaper, built of articles written by the group members, from a
World War One era city. The class was split into two competing sects of
reporters, both vying for the prestigious recognition bestowed on the
winning newspaper by a group of unbiased teachers. A knowledge and
understanding of yellow journalism, the effects of the war at home,
group skills, and responsibility, not just a grade for our report card,
were the true end results of this innovative assignment. When the class
was not working on a project, Mr. Hassler was the instigator of many
heated and out of the ordinary class discussions, discussions about the
past with a uniquely personal twist. Mr. Hassler always made sure he
furnished us with the descriptions essential to better understand the
humanistic side to the strife and pleasures we were leaning about. The
family situations, the emotional environment, and the forced choices
behind many unbelievable actions past people had to live with were all
included in Mr. Hassler’s quest to make us, as teenagers, realize what
we would have had to endure if we were placed in that funny and
uncomfortable clothing of the past. Through all of the lengths Mr.
Hassler took to keep his students with him in his journey through
history, he made me realize that as educators, teachers have the
responsibility to engross, engage, and stimulate students in all
subjects, even those where the majority of students have little or no
interest. By seeing him work his skills in acting just how a teacher
should, I also saw that I could fill the void separating the younger
generations of students and history.
The youth of the present do not feel the need to venerate or even
realize the important messages the voices of the past are shouting at
today’s leader and citizens. To them, history is in the past and is a
pain to learn because no one took the time to explain that history class
does not just have to be remembering dates and battles. A personal
connection, similar to the one I constantly strive to strengthen for
myself, could be made with the citizens of the past, triggered by a
Lithuanian great-grandmother, a family vacation to Paris, or by simply
sitting in a classroom run by an educator who truly cares about the
fragility of the past, and can be used to rope in the wayward students
who could care less about the dead guy with funny clothes. We need more
teaches who are willing to put down the textbook, talk to their
students, and engage them in a way that makes history and it’s citizens
interesting to the increasing growing members of the indifferent
populace. My craving and yearning to be a part of the joy of enriching
and adding knowledge to the lives of the future leaders of our nation
and world found it’s source in the classroom of Mr. Patrick Hassler at
Highlands High School. All of the lessons I took away from B206 led me
to one career choice with unlimited opportunities: teaching. My goal in
life is to be able to inspire at least one person in the way Mr.
Hassler, my father, and my grandfather inspired me to go against the
grain the rest of my fellow students were following and embrace history,
with all of her lessons and voices, with open arms. Whether deepening
the minds of a classroom full of youths or leading a group of all ages
through a museum, I will always remember the way Mr. Hassler augmented
my inherited love of history and inspired me to reverberate and share
that love with the masses. A memory I will cherish each day of my
college journey, each day of my career, wherever and whatever it is,
each time I watch the History Channel, and each time I think of my
grandfather and his library of knowledge stored in his room and mind.
All of the newfound knowledge awarded to me by my father, grandfather,
and Mr. Patrick Hassler led me to a quote made by H.G. Wells that
encapsulates everything I have learned and hope to fight against. “Human
history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.”
With a little help from you, I will battle against ignorance and apathy
and perhaps save the world from the catastrophe Mr. Wells warned the
world of.
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