Textbooks. Bulky and big, expensive and easily-forgotten, wordy and worthless. For years we are taught to bring our textbooks to class and open them up to page 121 to read about "How the Ancient Europeans came to America." Boring. I am never up for reading 150 pages on cow-herding. I know I am not alone on this one. We get assigned pages to read and we instantly check the SparkNotes website to see what condensed lecture we can look at instead.
In high school, most students fall victim to the history teacher who instructs us to open up a 1990s textbook and outline what we learn. Shout out to you, Mrs. Johnson. I dreaded going to AP World History the first semester. Here was this short and sassy woman teaching me about Vikings and various explorers blah blah blah. My notes actually said "blah blah blah" on quite a few chapters. I couldn't stand the extensive outlines we had to write and my grade reflected that.
She would veer down her glasses, call me to her desk and say "Jared, I know you are capable of learning this material".
Of course, I would give her my sassy remark, whatever it was, and sit down. One day in class, she brought up an abroad opportunity and I thought it wasn’t for me. Why would I want to spend days and nights with my AP World teacher bossing me around? My brothers and friends convinced me to go however and soon enough I was sitting on an international flight flying into Frankfurt, Germany with Mrs. Johnson giving me her “staring eye”.
My perspective changed however as soon as we landed in Berlin from our connecting flight. We were paired with this local German woman named Marina, who practically wore the same coat every day, along with her signature septum piercing. I must say, she was pretty badass and had the capability to walk as fast as Usain Bolt’s sprint. This woman could take us around all of Germany in 6 hours. As soon as we met Marina, I felt the spirit of Germany. Her lectures were enriching and her knowledge on the different countries we went to was exciting. Being abroad was something a textbook could not do. I was flipping my own pages, bookmarking the information I wanted to learn, and writing my own story.
As I outlined my trip I went to Mrs. Johnson and thanked her for the long days of highlighting my notes and writing 30-plus pages on Chinese civilizations because it all made sense now. Coming in person to see the history and feel the culture changed my perspective on how I saw the world.
Being abroad, especially in high school is very necessary. Being trapped in our United States bubble, we are blinded by authentic history and what has happened internationally. If you can ever get the chance to go outside of the country and study language, culture, or even food it is a trip worthwhile.
Thank you Mrs. Johnson for forcing me on this trip. Oh and thanks for those long outlines. It made me appreciate the trip and you so much more. With you retiring this year, our high school loses a legend, but one that will not be forgotten.
