Hawaii History Day: District Event

OK, so lately I've been stuck trying to find good topics to write about. It doesn't help that I've been busy with serious work during the week, as opposed to my usual goofing off. Although I have had a bunch of little mini-topics, such as Valtrex, come to mind, I couldn't find one nice, juicy topic to really sink my teeth into.

And that was a lot of commas.

Oh well. I guess since I don't have the big hits, I should write some little ones to keep you two entertained.



Today was our district's History Day contest. History Day is an annual contest that revolves around large, involved research projects. Students choose a topic that relates to a given theme and create a project based on what they learned.

There are essay categories.



Multimedia.



Performances.



And display exhibits.



So students pick something they want to learn more about. They sift through secondary and primary sources. They learn the techniques of historians, or they at least learn some skills that would come in handy in college.

That's what the brochure says.

The reality is a bit different. You get a bunch of whiny kids who have to be forced into this assignment. You pull your hair out because students can't seem to connect two and two together and can't pick a topic that actually relates to the theme.

"You mean marijuana can't be a triumph in history?"

You also get frustrated since students can't even use an encyclopedia. They lack the wherewithal to even find secondary sources. You get blue in the face explaining what a primary source is, but they still draw a blank since it wasn't on MTV (a crap station geared solely to sell crap to teens).

You give them a couple of months to collect primary sources since none are available on this island. You explain to them that they will need to request some sources by mail, and it could take weeks. In the end, your students wait until the last few days to do the project. This is even after you set up deadlines for each part of the project.

But, you can't fault the students for being late. In today's fucking hippie tree-hugging-equivalent world of education, due dates aren't important so long as the kids get the point. You gotta accept the late work with a smile even though we're supposed to be creating self directed learners according to the state's education policy.



In the end, I found four projects that were acceptable. With some extra work, they could end up being very competitive. I spoke with the students and explained the changes they would have to make. Of the four, only one made the changes. Two waited until the night before the event. The fourth didn't even want to make the changes so they decided they didn't want to participate anymore.

One of the projects still had the glaring error of stating that two atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima. Sigh.

But once again, crazy policies win. Our district is allowed to send three projects in our age group to the state event. Yay for celebrating and rewarding mediocrity.



Aha! But what did I see? One of the judges from a different category came over to speak with some of my students. It seems the judges were interested in the topic my students chose. So while we were waiting for their parents...

Kids: They really liked our project.

Me: Those judges see hundreds of projects each year. There are tons of projects about Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima. The USS Indianapolis is a bit unique.

Kids: Yeah! Woohoo!

Me: How did you guys pick that topic anyway?

Kids: You told us. But we didn't tell the judges that.

Me: What? I thought you guys found it yourselves.

Kids: No.

Me: You sure? I thought you guys found it on the internet.

Kids: That was after you told us about it.

Me: Oh... No wonder you guys had a good topic.

And that was my day. How was yours? Don't need to answer that. I really don't care.