Wednesday, March 02, 2005

my favorite way to learn about history... Posted by Hello


so, i've never been a good history student. wait. that's not totally true. my sophomore year i had mr. harper. i remember that he was a really good teacher but i was failing his class. he asked me stay after class one day and we talked about what was going wrong. i realized i was just too afraid to learn history. i really didn't think i could handle the specifics of it - the dates, the events and their consequences, etc. but, because he took the time out to talk to me (and it was a pretty harsh reality check) and believed in my potential, i was encouraged. i received As or Bs the rest of that year.

but anyway, i was thinking about african american history month (february) and womens history month (march) and how i've never been a very good student of history (bad mamazilla bad) and should be more proactive in seeking out and re-learning history. which led me to think of when i was happiest learning about history 1) mr. harper 2) the soul train scrabble board.

ah, soul train. during childhood, every sunday, after church, you could find me glazed and slackjawed watching those shiny dancers feeling that funky music under the blinking lights of *S*O*U*L* *T*R*A*I*N* with "your host, don cornelius". those were good times. and yes, i was the scrawny, weird looking asian kid lipsyncing & dancing to earth, wind and fire on her moms furry, day-glo, orange sectional. if you were a soul train watcher too you would remember that and about halfway through the show, they'd haul out this magnetic board with a jumble of magnetized letters on it. don cornelius would give the dancers their clue, the music would start again and they would resume groovin' to the music while solving the puzzle...

so, i propose an idea - a la michele. here is the mamazilla version of the soul train scrabble board. i offer you three clues, you solve them and you (meaning the handful of awesome people that read this humble blog) offer another or two or three and so on and so on (and yes, the links are the answers). happy history!

1) she invented a device that assists amputees with the most difficult task of eating by themselves.

TOESNBEUSLIB

2) she became the first african female astronaut.

NIJMOESEMA

3) she became the first and the only known female buffalo soldier.

SIIAAMLHAYLTWC

1 comment:

Unknown said...

phyllis wheatley.

(yes, i cheated)



p.s. OMG! did that original post go over like a fart in church OR WHAT!?

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