crash course | Mr. D's Neighborhood

I know that it’s been quite a while since I post anything on here anymore. Let’s just say the multi-headed hydra of life keeps ensnaring me, allowing less and less time to devote to the Neighborhood.

This year, with a lot of the bulk of lessons and materials already developed, it’s important to get back on the horse and do what I do best: pontificate on history and education…and possibly say something intelligent in the process.

It’s baby steps, though, getting back into things, so let’s start (or re-start) with a recent favorite of mine. Crash Course World History by John Green–the author of The Fault in our Stars among other works–has been an interesting and entertaining series of web videos condensing the large ideas of history into manageable chunks with just enough insight to keep high school students engaged. I’ve attached a recent episode on Disease for your enjoyment.

Don’t worry: more substantive posts will be coming soon.

I cringe at the word “kid-friendly” — sounds like a bad Law and Order: SVU episode.

One of the constant missions of the Neighborhood is to find resources that tap into the caffeine-addled brains of young people. In the quest to find “kid-friendly” material, most of what I find is directed at…okay, I’ll say it…good little white children. Good little pasty white kids that sit still and believe anything told to them because a happy smiling face in a toga (or bonnet or Abe Lincoln-esque stovepipe hat) tells them so.

Today, even the good little white kids aren’t really that good nor that white–you can thank TMZ, MTV and YouTube for that.

So to connect with today’s kids, we need something a little edgier. Crash Course! is a series of films about history and science, told in an irreverent, snarky way by brothers John and Hank Green. The World History series I saw was pretty entertaining, although the producers do make clear that historical people have sex (they get around it with a folksy word that I forgot). They are, however, loaded with data, facts and historical debate, when necessary–these guys don’t hide their biases, and it’s important for kids to see someone unashamed of their opinions.

If it weren’t for the occasional sex references, I’d recommend Crash Course! to middle schoolers on up. It’s perfectly fine for high school, but you may need some discretion with younger viewers. I’ve attached the episode on Alexander the Great to get an idea. Enjoy.