Post Ten

POST #10 (Hello Christmas Break)

So the last post for this local history class is about how the faculties of our program reach a larger audience that we tend to realize. This includes the people who have been in the program in the past two. In this local history class we have talked about the eccentric circles, and how people and events can have a big impact on large scales. I believe that that includes the people from our program.

An example of this is a recent article I read about none other than John Luchin. If you didn’t get a chance to the article yet it is available on the Wright State website. Bothe John Luchens (Elder and younger) were featured about the generations of teachers at Wright State in the public History Department. It was interesting that a lot of people who may not know these men wouldn’t know their story. But what I find most interesting is how many platforms a person can affect just by holding a position in Public History. Both of these men work at the Air Force Museum and are influencing people from all over the world. This may be through an exhibit that was designed, or even just from the collection that is accessioned into the collection.

It is remarkable to think about the many levels that our work will one day affect. This can be said for almost every professor that have thought us in this program. Weather that be John Armstrong pulling boxes for researchers, Dawne talking to a local news team, or the Luchen men in the Air force museum. These are all examples we can follow that show the wide spreading impact our positions may one day take. I don’t really know where I’m going with this. Just food for thought I guess. Plus it was pretty cool logging onto the main Wright State web page and seeing a familiar face. Maybe one that that will be one of us. 

http://webapp2.wright.edu/web1/newsroom/2014/11/24/family-history/

#9

 Lets Get Rowdy!!!!

Ok, Ok…I’m sure you are all totally sick of hearing about my Octagon paper. But I just wanted toad upon something I talked about in my presentation. At the beginning of my slideshow I talked about how Heidelberg University is the home of the student princes. This seems like such a ridicules mascot. However, this made me think about how wright state got our mascot of rowdy. He always seems like such an obscure mascot for a university named after the two me who invented the plane.

After doing a little digging I found out some local history about our very own, rowdy the raider. So the original school colors were voted upon just like the name for the university in 1970. The colors and theme were both chosen after two NFL teams that were doing well at the time. The green bay packers (colors) and the Oakland raiders. (hahaha does anyone really remember when the raiders were good?!). ANYWAY! This was eventually changed to be a more market friendly image of the wolf that would propel our image into the future. Again this seems like marketing going above the heads of what the student body wanted. Sound familiar Wright Brothers University. But in the end, we came out of it with a pretty cool mascot. I am not sure how relevant this topic is in the larger scale of local history. But it is just something I have always wondered and finally had a reason to look up. Cocktail knowledge!

http://www.wsuraiders.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=205213920

Post # 8

8

 Another topic that I talked about in my final project was “the power of place”. I truly believe that one of the best ways that we can make a connection to real people from the past is by walking where they did, and experiencing what they did. This made me thinks about in what instances though my education was I thought this way. I couldn’t help but think about something that we called the heritage festival in my hometown. This is a week set up in our town where the community comes together and practice living history from the early 1800s. The people of the community dress in old-fashioned cloths and camp in the park they way the first settlers in the tiffin swamp area would have. Tiffin was founded in 1817, so this living includes some pretty rough conditions.

I always thought this was a very interesting concept. I believe that seeing people reenact this lifestyle really gave a visual for me to understand better. As a child the local schools would all take a day and have a field trip to the living festival. I think this is such an important tool that can help students and anyone learn and form connections. Again, I cannot stress enough how much this semester how much I have made a personal connection he the people we have read about as a human experience. I think that living history is another tool that had the capacity to explain to people of our current time how humanistic the people from our past were.  

If I were willing to take it one step further, I’m sure that I would really get a better experience if I were willing to participate in living history. However, I am not sure if I am willing to sleep outside for a week. Maybe I will just visit once a year instead. 

Post #7

#7

Reforming our Education System

Ok, so they next post I would like to talk about is a hot button topic issue in our country today. So…it only makes sense that we discuss how it affects us on a local history level. This topic is none other that the rising costs of education. This goes for the cost of private education at the high school levels along with higher education. I can’t help but wonder what our high prices educations will really be worth in the years to come. Everyone you talk to say that getting a bachelors isn’t what it use to be. And more and more getting a masters degree is not enough. With this growth of qualifications, so does the cost to receive these degrees. I wonder if we will be able to pay off our debt before our degrees become obsolete. This has to be something that people will be researching in the future and think, “what were they doing getting into that much debt”.

I believe that in the future the only solution is changing our entire education system. If we look at the way that many other questions run their contrived, universities are free to any of its citizens. That is not to say that they let everyone is let in. This means that standards are higher, but the money is being well spent by the government. This makes sense that this will be the future of our educational systems. I predict it will not be too long before people start refusing to pay for an education. And in America wants to stay in the running with other countries there will need to be a complex reform within their system.  

Post #6

#6

With all the talk in class, and with my own project on The Octagon, we have been talking quite a bit about saving historic landmarks. I want to tell the story about the Seneca country courthouse in Tiffin Ohio. I remember that this was a hot button topic in my hometown almost the whole time I was growing up. I remember this ongoing dispute of distorting this building that was not being used. There were two groups of opinions about this place. On one hand, many people felt very strongly about the structure and saving it. Until now I didn’t realize that it was on the national register of historic places.

On the other hand, many people were arguing that crime was taking place in this building that stood vacant and was dangerous, and many argued it was an eye soar to the town. I remember drawing the building for art class trying to make an argument to save of the building. However, I can see both sides of this argument. This issue was put to a vote for many years. Each year the polls voted to tear down the building. Yet, demolition was delayed constantly. This makes me think about if trying to save a structure is always the right thing to do? Should we save these old structures just because they are old? Or should there be some kind of significant story behind each building saved. In that case, should the qualifications for a national register site be stricter? I don’t know what the right answer for this argument is. However, It does raise a few questions about these historic sites

http://historichouseblog.com/2012/01/03/a-shame-courthouse-on-national-register-in-being-torn-down-in-seneca-county-oh/