Declaration of Independence from APUSH

Jeff says it's too satirical to be done. He's right. Teachers won't ever listen to that. Let's face it, I'm no Jonathan Swift... yet. 

This blog isn't for teachers. I'll make my list of grievances here, although it's no way a parody of the Declaration of Independence.

1. Horrible book - There's this book called Made to Stick by the Heath brothers that examines why ideas stick in people's minds. First thing it says, simple, as in keep things compact, and stick to your point. Tindall doesn't do this. If the core of his Tindall is to teach about history, then it's buried under a mess of useless details. Do I need to know about ship building? No. Do I need the history of each and every president ever? No. Do I need the name of obscure artists or writers who will never be significant in our time? No. Then why, why, why Tindall do you include them? They add nothing to your goal! All it does is make me facepalm, wishing we had Palmer back.

Now that's a good history book.

2. Waste of class time - ________________________________________________________________

Nothing to say because we do nothing in class. That space contains all the knowledge I've ever gained from class time activities. Watching movies may be nice, but when it's about topics we've just read or will read in a day, then it's honestly pointless. Making posters about traveling west through the Oregon trail doesn't teach me anything about the Oregon trail. It's just training in artistic BS. Debates go nowhere when we don't care about the subject. It's all just a matter of points. The worst part, though, is the opportunity cost. Every second I stay in the class, be it talking to Jeff, writing Haikus, or trolling our activities, is a wasted one where I could be reading Tindall, doing calc homework, or doing comp homework. Heck, I could be preparing my next blog post. All these choices are more productive than learning nothing.

Productive use of APUSH class time

3. Stupid projects - I have multiple sections for these.

• Teaching projects - I have learned nothing from our projects outside of the one that I participate in. The rest of the teaching projects are just for food. We don't even get outlines like in Euro anymore. At least those were useful. APUSH? Please. I take notes for 10 daily points, and scribble whatever I want over the backside, then I toss them away. 
• DBQ project - The hassle of doing each step one at a time annoys me to no end. We're not fifth graders that need our hands held. If you want us to make a genuine DBQ, at least let us do it ourselves. If it's not good, oh well, grade us harshly then. But please, don't force redundant steps on us like "outside information" and "outlines." Outlines should COVER outside information, except it's organized. I organize my outside information into outline format anyway. What's the point of having two? My biggest complaint is the point of this project. What are we supposed to take away? I don't care about making DBQs. They don't help me understand them at all! I care about understanding how AP readers grade them. It would be much better if we just wrote in-class DBQs with our "library time" and graded/critiqued each others. At least we get practice that way.
• Wiki project - Let's face it, I will never use this. It's supposed to be for studying, but why would I use that source? There's a reason I have a Princeton Review AP US history book, because it's concise (unlike Tindall), it's geared toward the AP test, and it's credible. Who knows what sources people will use on the Wiki. Furthermore, it's a wiki. Why should I be forced into doing it when I KNOW I won't use it? It's supposed to be voluntary, not mandatory. Do I even get anything back from doing this project? No.

4. Tests - Tests make me go

Okay, let me kill the selfish warrant first: tests aren't hard, I get As just about every time. But once again, tests are POINTLESS. They ask about the most minute, useless details like how many electoral votes did candidate X get? What bill was passed in 1854? What was President X's home state? What food isn't native to America?

Awwww, cute charmander! Get the reference? 

Well, let me ask one back. Why do I care? These questions don't help me get a better grasp of social/political/economic conditions of the time. They also don't help me see a bigger trend in history. All they do is force me to memorize obscure facts that will be irrelevant and forgotten come May. APUSH could learn from Euro once again. It's the big patterns, the momentous events in history, that matter. It does not matter if I know that Lyndon B Johnson came from Texas.

5. Vocab quizzes - Why do we need these? We're an AP class. If you don't know a word, you should search it up. If you don't search it up, you should suffer the consequences (or lack thereof) on quizzes, tests, and FRQs. Just because a few people don't know these terms, and won't search them up, doesn't mean that the class should force us all into these quizzes. Maybe it just bothers me because it's appealing to the lowest common denominator. I hate that. It'd be better to set standards for your students and elevate them to that standard. Oh, and vocab quizzes aren't even helpful. I don't learn anything new from them. Abolish these time wasters, please. 

That's it for now. I have to read Tindall again... T_T SPARE ME THE PAIN. I can't wait until term 4. God I can't wait. I will miss McIntyre though. She was a cool teacher. :P