Do NOT Tell Me I Am Too Old!
By: Linda Moran
Tags: Writing, Politics, Education, History, Reading

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Just because I have lived a number of decades more than most people….

Perhaps the most annoying thing my mother would say to me was “You’re too old to do that.” The last time I was 55 and wanted to start a doctoral program. I didn’t do it because I didn’t have the money, not because I was too old. If I weren’t so busy with this new project, I would still consider it. If I win the lottery I’m doing an MFA in studio art…another dream I might get around to…

But I digress. I have always believed that it you want to do something, then DO IT! Weigh your options and make a decision. That’s what I am doing right now.

I want to change how history is taught in the schools and in the news and in life. I’ve lived through a lot of history — enough to see trends and events repeating themselves — and 12 presidents. I also see what is NOT being done — critical thinking is sadly lacking in all aspects of life — in the school classroom (regardless of level), in business, in the day-to-day growth of individuals.

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We just do. We react. We rarely think long-term.

This is not helping us as a country. We are in a fight for democracy that has been going on for decades.

The lure of the simple 1950s is a myth. Civil rights, equality in all areas, school desegregation — these are still issues today. The older white males who are controlling elections, corporations, and the economy were raised in a time where they had the economic and political power simply because they were white.

They were/are the ones writing our history, crafting our laws, setting us on paths that are destroying us today. And yes, I know, it started long before the 1950s.

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Reading was a smaller goal this year — I’d been reading what I call “beach trash” and wanted something considerably different. Well, it has gotten a bit out of hand: I discovered an amazing book (Gandhi and Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age) on a fluke — looking at the spines of books in the public library, in the 900s, to see what popped out at me.

I thought this was a strange pairing, so I pulled it out and read the flap, which triggered an article I had read a number of years ago about Gandhi in South Africa (?) and his racist beliefs (?).

I had to take this book, and 6 renewals later, I was finished, with this new project on changing how we teach history percolating in my head — suppose we worked from primary sources of a wide variety and investigated every question that came up as we were reading?

Don’t tell me I’m too old to try and change teaching, just because I’m retired.

My reading for this year has been wide-ranging, and what is noticeable is not only the depth and breadth of it, but how, regardless of the title, everything keeps tying itself together nicely. Rationally, I know that, but I proved it again to my more emotional self.

History isn’t just a single chapter in a book. It’s one long interrelated book with lots of notes and paragraph headings and questions for us to pursue.

The key is recognizing when events overlap — and asking the “What if” questions.

Some brief examples:

Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right — yes, the Koch brothers and a whole lot more old white males. I didn’t realize the Koch family had dealings with Hitler in the 1930s and 1940s and encouraged the development of libertarianism in response to the New Deal.

Prairie Fires : The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder— Little House on the Prairie author, with a whole new take on the New Deal and becoming involved in World War Two. Plus, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s daughter was considered one of the primary women (along with Ayn Rand) to spread libertarianism.

The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America’s Enemies— another unsung woman, Elizebeth Smith Friedman who broke the Nazi codes (started to develop the field of cryptology by breaking bootlegger messages), and her realization that fascism was spreading rapidly into South America, and folks like J. Edgar Hoover were unaware — as well as Hoover causing massive problems with letting Germany know the US had broken its codes, all for his self-aggrandizement.

Grant — huge insight into the Civil War and the decisions he had to make with Lincoln, and then the analysis of Reconstruction — way beyond just his reputation as a drunken president. There is so much more to the Civil War than what we get in school (and probably even less in today’s climate). I am amazed at how much I didn’t know about the western front of the War.

Couple that with We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy to begin to truly understand the black experience in America — probably the most moving, informative book I’ve read this year. The New Deal wasn’t a deal for black Americans — most of the legislation was written to exclude blacks from taking advantage of help, leading to discrimination in housing and the systematic incarceration of black males.

Kristallnacht: Prelude to Destruction looks at the attempted emigration of Jews from Europe as Hitler came to power and the analysis of the countries of the world tightening restrictions on immigration — many of the dispatches could be written today.

I could go on (and will, in future articles), but my point is that history is fluid, continuous, never discrete (the math teacher in me), and never just about one country.

Try reading The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, and Betrayal and the Real Count of Monte Cristo for a look at the development of true equality considering slavery in France during their revolution. Eighteenth-century France was so far ahead of the United States in the ideals of liberty. But all we hear when we study the American Revolution is that Lafayette from France came to help us. Without French help, we would not have succeeded in becoming a new nation. France basically bankrupted itself in coming to our aid (yes, in an attempt to stop England…not purely altruistic). Sure didn’t learn that in class.

It’s an amazing journey I’m on. It’s not planned — it just happens in my book selection. So many questions to ask and answer. As I note-take and journal, I see all the possibilities of students becoming better world citizens because they understand so much more of how our lives have happened and intertwined.

Right now I’m trying to sort through how I can put all of this together — and try to find an organization that wants to try it all out. Suggestions?