Looking Beyond the Surface

The best social studies teacher I had was Mr. H. He seemed to always be at the door to greet us when we entered his classroom. He made a point to know people's names and was able to carry on conversations with people about other activities going on in school: sports, club events, art exhibits or performing art performances. Mr. H. was aware of the students themselves, what went on within his own classroom and within the school itself. He was friendly and approachable yet maintained a professional attitude and distance. The combination of his manners, his personality, his professionalism and the vast knowledge he had about his subject caused many to automatically treat him, his classroom and the subject with respect. Or, if not respect, students at least did not cause disturbances or distractions in Mr. H.'s class.

Though Mr. H. was authoritative you never felt that he was an authoritarian who demanded respect. Instead, how he was, how he acted and how he treated students earned our respect. He set the tone and led by example with a serious directness that was neither cold nor removed. He was a living breathing example of how one reaps what they sow.

Mr. H. made sure the course work was rooted and connected to a few central themes he had outlined and established early in the semester. He believed (or so he said but the truth was he knew), and made us believe, that these basic themes were ones we would be presented and confronted with daily. To understand these ideas, to see how they worked and influenced us, our surroundings and those in and around our surroundings, would empower us with a clearer, truer understanding. Mr. H. wished to help us learn to critically think so that we could become less dependent on others and be able to draw conclusions from our own study.

The themes themselves were usually based on the amorality of life and history. While general perceptions, attitudes and actions of individuals in society were usually moral or immoral the actions taken by larger institutions and governments rarely were. Though morality was a veil often hidden behind Mr. H. would have us dig deeper, past the rhetoric to find the actual motivations. More often than not, we found, the course of history was not determined or dictated by what was right or wrong but, instead on amoral examination and evaluation of what would be most expedient and beneficial for the powers that be.

By demonstrating and illuminating the underlying reasons and mentalities for present and past conditions Mr. H. made us discover how it was rare that emotional displays or outburst brought about change. Instead, rational observation and understanding of root causes could promote and create rational and effective means and methods to affect change. While issues might cause emotional reactions, and though he never tried to make us emotionally immune or jaded to these things, he showed how lasting positive solutions rarely evolved from non-rationally constructed perspectives and understanding of events.

Mr. H. made students come to see how true change could only come from true understanding. That, he said, meant usually looking far beyond the surface.

-- Paul Aburrow