Professor Elam

Edward Owens was an 1870s pirate who turned to the trade after losing his oyster fishing business. Or so a history class at George Mason U would have us believe.  In fact there was no Edward Owens as y ou will read. The teacher had the class fabricate the story and a blog and a house where he supposedly lived. I am not sure what this is supposed to teach students, supposedly that we should be more critical of what we read. At  a time when so many are intentionally deceiving many others. like Bernie Madoff, this seems a poor idea to me.

I think the far better idea for history or perhaps our ethics class would be this. Assing each student an historic figure. The student must study what that person did, said, and lived. Then the student comes to class dressed in period costume and addresses the class as that person. Think Florence NIghingale or Ghnadi or Churchill or Sam Houston.  Steve Allen actually did a PBS series based on this idea,

Meeting of the Minds juxtaposed actors laying hyistoric figures in the same time frame to discuss contemporary issues using their historic perspective.

Hmm, good idea?  I am putting the syllaus together now!