Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Math or History...that is the question.

Awkward title, I know. I discovered my love of history three and a half years ago. To be totally honest, I chose it as a minor because I didn't really like any of my other choices and I couldn't choose French as an education minor. I thought, Well, I would like to know more about it. I feel sorta dumb when people talk about history and I know very little. I signed up for the first half of American history with a professor I have come to call "my favorite." Her passion for history awoke in me a true yearning for learning it all, even stuff I did not think I would like. Since that first history class, I took as many classes as possible and even changed my minor into a major. After all, I thought I might just want to go to grad school for this stuff. Throughout my life, math has been my thing. To me, it is usually pretty easy. I like it and I think it is actually fun solving those multiple-page problems. I know, I must be crazy. History was more difficult for me. I did well in my classes, but I never felt that I knew as much as so many others. I do not consider myself a "history buff" at all. 

Enough about the history of my history career. Now I am student teaching and I discovered that I LOVE teaching history. I always worried that I would never know which subject to pick for grad school. While prepping for my history (well social studies for now) classes is definitely more work, it is oh so fun! I am constantly exhausted, but I find it fun to be in front of my history students. I am completely comfortable even though I know I do not know everything there is to know. Math, on the other hand, is not quite my cup of tea. I love the students, but I just feel frustrated trying to get them to understand the concepts. It is just not as fun. I know this is not interesting to anyone else, but history or math? has been plaguing me for over two years and I finally figured it out. No when I start looking into grad schools (apres Paris, bien sur), I know that math is out of the question. History all the way, baby!

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