The History Teacher

After going through and analyzing or at least reading most of the poems in our packet, I decided my favorite and most memorable is The History Teacher. All of the poems and even sonnets tend to have a deep and intense vibe on the shell, beginning with the Colonel. which concluded with cut off human ears lying on the floor. Continuing through the packet, there was always something thought provoking but also intense about the poems. But when I came across The History Teacher by Billy Collins, it gave me a different feel than all the other poems. At first read, it made me chuckle at the outrageous examples the teacher would give the children: from dropping a single atom on Japan to the ice age being times in which you needed a sweater. The poem really had no meaning or effect at first, the last stanza about him wondering whether the kids believed him or not seemed like an interesting thought, but only for a brief period of time. Then I thought about the first line of the poem, "Trying to protect his students' innocence". After thinking about it for a while, it made me realize the significance to that poem as a whole and also culture as we know. It made me question, is it necessary to take measures like this? Do children need people to control their innocence? Is their even a right time for innocence to be 'lost'? What even fits into the criteria of losing innocence? Addressing the first question in my head, I thought that this was in fact doing too much to help protect young students. I think it is necessary for people to take in information that could be 'harmful' to their innocence even at a younger age. I know for myself, I did not process the entire meaning and effect of hearing they dropped an atomic bomb on a city. But, later on learning about it at an older age, it helped to have some knowledge of what it was. If you are protected from all things 'evil' and are then exposed to them, which is inevitable, all at once, I think the harm is much greater. I also think that their is no real time of 'loss of innocence'. I do not remember a time when I felt exposed and vulnerable because of information I learned, but maybe that is just me. Overall, the poem gave me a good laugh, a change of mood, but also a deeper insight after thinking and reading it over.