News:

And we're back!

Main Menu

April Fools Day

Started by Ed Anger, March 31, 2009, 06:40:16 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

grumbler

Quote from: Habbaku on April 01, 2009, 05:18:46 PM
Apparently none of them knew that Evo Morales has never been in charge of anything in Brazil, either?
Eh, all those B countries in South America are interchangable.  :blush: (I wrote Bolivia on the test).
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

Habbaku

The medievals were only too right in taking nolo episcopari as the best reason a man could give to others for making him a bishop. Give me a king whose chief interest in life is stamps, railways, or race-horses; and who has the power to sack his Vizier (or whatever you care to call him) if he does not like the cut of his trousers.

Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people.

-J. R. R. Tolkien

FunkMonk

Bolivia, Brazil and Benezuela  :smarty:
Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.

garbon

"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

DontSayBanana

Quote from: Valmy on April 01, 2009, 05:21:14 PM
AP History people never having heard of Clovis I?  They fail nerdom.  Anyway I presume you mean Bolivia and not Brazil.
Seriously. What level are you teaching again? My freshman world history class went over Clovis and Charlemagne. :huh:

And don't forget Beru and Baraguay.
Experience bij!

garbon

My father told me that he got a job from a friend and was moving to Southampton.  I was so relieved that he was finally going to do something with his life that I actually began to believe it wasn't an April Fool's joke, after about the third time that he denied it was a joke.  The joke was on me. :(
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

garbon

Quote from: DontSayBanana on April 01, 2009, 09:44:04 PM
Seriously. What level are you teaching again? My freshman world history class went over Clovis and Charlemagne. :huh:

And don't forget Beru and Baraguay.

It really is amazing that with all the great things that you know and can do, you always seem to be doing fuck all with your life. :unsure:
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Richard Hakluyt

The problem with people not knowing about Clovis or Charlemagne is that about 99% of them don't read any history outside the curriculum that is served up to them. In the UK this is leading to a generation of people that know nothing about history apart from Nazi Germany and some other major topics. The don't know the difference between a Hanoverian and a Hohenzollern, mention the partitions of Poland in passing and they look blank........

Though, on the other hand, a helicopter view of world history is such a superficial view that is it worth doing? Probably not.

I would think the best thing that a teacher of history could do, at the junior levels, is to instil a love for the subject in his students; so that they will study it on their own behalf in later years. I agree with Plutarch on this, " ...the mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled".



garbon

I honestly don't know how I came to like history. In school, they always seemed to be trying their hardest to suck all joy out of it.
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

grumbler

Quote from: Valmy on April 01, 2009, 05:21:14 PM
AP History people never having heard of Clovis I? 
Nope.  There is no AP course for pre-modern Europe.  Besides, these were students who were applying to take AP history courses.
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

Malthus

Quote from: grumbler on April 01, 2009, 05:11:12 PM
Today was the day people took tests to qualify for AP history courses.  Last night they had a reading package about the Morales administration in Brazil, and they were all wound up with anxiety about how they were going to need to write about Morales.   I made up the real test and then created a second one, identical, except the question:
"In what ways is the Evo Morales administration in Brazil like, and unlike, the reign of Clovis I, King of the Franks."
This was the version I handed out first.

The look on their face was priceless, as none of them, of course, had ever heard of Clovis I.  The most popular response after I said "April Fools" and handed out the real test was something about how I deserved death for that trick.  :lol:

I remember one Geography test that consisted of two words: "Why Nunavut?"

I must have been staring at the girl who sat in front of me more than usual that week - off the top, I couldn't remember a thing about Nunavut, so this was a real poser.

I was however able to fake something up - reasoning that "Nunavut" was a native word, so it must have something to do with natives, and thus a screed on the pros and cons of native self-government would be better than nothing ...   

I got an "A".  :lol:
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius

Berkut

Melanie (5 year old daughter) called me at work yesterday.

Merlanie: "Hi daddy!"
Berkut: "Hi sweetie, how are you doing!"
Melanie: "Good! Me and mommy went to the store after school and we bought a puppy!"
Berkut: "Oh, r...."
Mealnie: "April Fools!"

She needs to work on her delivery a little bit.
"If you think this has a happy ending, then you haven't been paying attention."

select * from users where clue > 0
0 rows returned

Caliga

Quote from: grumbler on April 02, 2009, 05:13:09 AMNope.  There is no AP course for pre-modern Europe.  Besides, these were students who were applying to take AP history courses.

:huh:

My AP European History class in high school spent quite a bit of time on pre-modern Europe, including on the Franks.
0 Ed Anger Disapproval Points

Valmy

Quote from: Caliga on April 02, 2009, 08:55:44 AM
:huh:

My AP European History class in high school spent quite a bit of time on pre-modern Europe, including on the Franks.

Mine did to.  But maybe that course is not offered in grumblers school.
Quote"This is a Russian warship. I propose you lay down arms and surrender to avoid bloodshed & unnecessary victims. Otherwise, you'll be bombed."

Zmiinyi defenders: "Russian warship, go fuck yourself."

Valmy

Quote from: Berkut on April 02, 2009, 08:40:25 AM
Melanie (5 year old daughter) called me at work yesterday.

Merlanie: "Hi daddy!"
Berkut: "Hi sweetie, how are you doing!"
Melanie: "Good! Me and mommy went to the store after school and we bought a puppy!"
Berkut: "Oh, r...."
Mealnie: "April Fools!"

She needs to work on her delivery a little bit.

:lol:

Awww she just couldn't wait to deliver the punch line.
Quote"This is a Russian warship. I propose you lay down arms and surrender to avoid bloodshed & unnecessary victims. Otherwise, you'll be bombed."

Zmiinyi defenders: "Russian warship, go fuck yourself."