Some time back, rahirah joked about Willow/Snyder being someone's OTP. So of course, I had to make some creepy Willow/Snyder icons. Later she said something about Giles/Lunch Lady, but I haven't gotten around to making those yet.
I don't know-- Most of the social studies teachers I had were really good-- interested in ideas and how people really are. I see him as more of a math guy-- a place where everything is orderly and predictable. As a young guy just starting to get his degree, I mean. I can't imagine someone as unimaginative as he is going for a history/ social studies major.
Interesting, because my experiences were the exact opposite. Most of my social studies teachers in junior high and high school were either nuts (they were the good ones) or idiots. My mother still hasn't gotten over the junior high SS teacher who said something at parents' night about Swahili being the "national language" of Africa! But I think my feeling that Snyder must have been in social studies is based on my 12th-grade American History teacher. He'd been an assistant principal (read: guy in charge of discipline) for several years and, for some reason, decided to go back to teaching the year I had him. He may well have been the most boring teacher I ever had. His particular hobbyhorse was William Jennings Bryan and the gold standard, in particular the quote "Thou shalt not crucify mankind on a cross of gold," and that's literally the only thing I remember from that class. Then there was the chair of my high school social studies department. He was a John Birch Society member who warned us not to take 12th-grade AP History unless we were going to give up all our other activities, which resulted directly in my going into that "regular" American History class. Basically, in my experience, Social Studies teachers tend to be wedded to their theories abut life to the point of ignoring reality. Very Snyder.
My math teachers, on the other hand, were mostly very cool, interesting people. In general I find that math people are creative and open-minded. Most of them love music and all of them love games. One of my high school math teachers was a former world tiddlywinks champion! Bach was a math guy. My father-in-law, who loves jazz and poetry, is a mathematician. The math people I know see rules and structure as pieces of a game that they can play endlessly, not as a way to keep people locked into one spot.
Therefore, IMO, Snyder could not possibly have had a math background (though I suppose he could have been pressed into service as a math teacher after the eighth-grade algebra teacher drank himself to death). He certainly could also have been a civics teacher, but as far as I know, most high schools don't have civics classes anymore--mine didn't, and that was 30 years ago. So I'm sticking with Social Studies!
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-06 06:31 pm (UTC)Some time back,
I don't know-- Most of the social studies teachers I had were really good-- interested in ideas and how people really are. I see him as more of a math guy-- a place where everything is orderly and predictable. As a young guy just starting to get his degree, I mean. I can't imagine someone as unimaginative as he is going for a history/ social studies major.
Interesting, because my experiences were the exact opposite. Most of my social studies teachers in junior high and high school were either nuts (they were the good ones) or idiots. My mother still hasn't gotten over the junior high SS teacher who said something at parents' night about Swahili being the "national language" of Africa! But I think my feeling that Snyder must have been in social studies is based on my 12th-grade American History teacher. He'd been an assistant principal (read: guy in charge of discipline) for several years and, for some reason, decided to go back to teaching the year I had him. He may well have been the most boring teacher I ever had. His particular hobbyhorse was William Jennings Bryan and the gold standard, in particular the quote "Thou shalt not crucify mankind on a cross of gold," and that's literally the only thing I remember from that class. Then there was the chair of my high school social studies department. He was a John Birch Society member who warned us not to take 12th-grade AP History unless we were going to give up all our other activities, which resulted directly in my going into that "regular" American History class. Basically, in my experience, Social Studies teachers tend to be wedded to their theories abut life to the point of ignoring reality. Very Snyder.
My math teachers, on the other hand, were mostly very cool, interesting people. In general I find that math people are creative and open-minded. Most of them love music and all of them love games. One of my high school math teachers was a former world tiddlywinks champion! Bach was a math guy. My father-in-law, who loves jazz and poetry, is a mathematician. The math people I know see rules and structure as pieces of a game that they can play endlessly, not as a way to keep people locked into one spot.
Therefore, IMO, Snyder could not possibly have had a math background (though I suppose he could have been pressed into service as a math teacher after the eighth-grade algebra teacher drank himself to death). He certainly could also have been a civics teacher, but as far as I know, most high schools don't have civics classes anymore--mine didn't, and that was 30 years ago. So I'm sticking with Social Studies!