Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Obscure, Yet Powerful Science

Having discovered that a colleague, Nancy Bosch is also very interested in teaching literacy through the use of primary sources, I was most impressed. Her work at A Very Old Place and that of her students, A Really Different Place is represented well.

I too have spent most of my life reading and learning about primary sources. My mother is a librarian, and my father is a science teacher.

While I love history, my own personal interests lay within the realm of science under the auspices of many researcher/professors who allowed me entrance into their world when I was a little girl. Most of their work was often obscured to the general public, but they were recognized by their researcher peers as the experts that they were. I grew to appreciate the power of science, and a distrust for those who seem more interested in publicity. I appreciated these scientists work and their humility, and it marked my love of science.

Nonfiction writing and its practice came from the lessons learned from my high school American History teacher. He taught us to properly approach the essay and how important primary sources were.

My teacher was a WWII vet, and I will never forget the primary source documentary movies he used with our lessons. Especially poignant remains the documentary of the Americans opening the prison camps, such as Auschwitz, and freeing the walking dead.

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