Day Two: The Museum of the Future

Washington day two.

On the second day of our Washington excursion we visited an old friend, saw the Holocaust Museum, the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History and very briefly took a look at the National Carousel (it was broken so we could not take a ride).  But the highlight of day two, for me, was The Holocaust Museum! I loved the holocaust museum. It was the most interesting presentation of any museum I have gone into.  They were beta testing an interactive exhibit, the building’s design was to give the impression of a 1930’s European city, and throughout the museum they encouraged guests to respond to what they were seeing.

To be honest, I was not that excited to see the Holocaust Museum, it was my wife who really wanted to visit the Holocaust museum.  I feel a sadness for the millions of lives lost during the Nazis’ reign.  I had a hard time getting through Elie Weisel’s Night let alone an entire museum.  However, as I walked through the exhibits I was struck by the presentation, it was not merely facts and numbers that they tried to convey, it was the emotion of it all.  Firsthand accounts and filmed interviews were everywhere.  They not only had exhibits about the Jewish holocaust but also the Cambodian genocide, and an exhibit on the war in Syria and refugees from that conflict.  I began to think it is rather like traveling through hell.  Some have described heaven as a place where one is united with passed loved ones and reminded of happy times. What if hell were the opposite and one must go through the most heinous acts humans have done (That definition of hell is not supported by any Biblical text by the way)? But it did strike me that is what the exhibits are supposed to do, they are meant to hit you on an emotional level. Which brings up an interesting question, are they giving an honest interpretation of history? Is this form of emotional history a legitimate way to present what happened?  Food for thought (A thought that I am still mulling over)!

 

By far my favorite exhibit was the interactive exhibit!  A beta testing program that features an image of a holocaust survivor by the name of Pinchas Gutter.  Mr. Gutter was interviewed 6 hours a day for a week and was asked 1200 questions.  His answers were downloaded into a computer so that patrons could ask him any question and he could answer as if he were sitting right there in front of you, much like how Siri on your IPhone would answer you back. According to the docent this exhibit is merely the beta prototype and in the future the Shoah foundation will develop a dozen digital survivors so that these survivors could tell their stories for generations to come.

Mr. Gutter requested that his interview not be edited so when you ask questions often there are long pauses where he was remembering the past (it actually adds to the realism of the interview). Here is a link to the Shoah Foundation’s site. https://sfi.usc.edu/news/2014/07/5882-audiences-interact-pinchas-gutter-early-new-dimensions-testimony-pilot

I also loved how the Holocaust Museum encouraged guests to interact and react to the museum. In one corner, the museum had three terminals available so that guests could post their thoughts about the museum.  Yet another way the museum attempts to not only see the museum but to participate in the museum (an example that other museums would be wise to follow).  Even the museum’s official guidebook says "This museum is not an answer. It is a question." It requests guests to reflect and react to the concept of genocide. What if all history museums asked their patrons to not simply accumulate knowledge but use that knowledge to make the world better.

The Holocaust Museum brought up many different emotions for me, the powerful message of stopping future genocides made feel sad yet hopeful. The museum’s use of the high tech digital survivor and the way they used oral history and artworks in many of its exhibits made me believe that this was a museum to be emulated.  The Holocaust Museum is the museum of the future.

How did you feel when visiting the Holocaust Museum? What is your favorite museum ever? What do you think of the concept of emotional history?  Write your experiences and thoughts in the comments below!

Day One: Woodrow Wilson Tour Goes Awry!

Last weekend my wife and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary by taking a trip to the Mecca of school field trips, Washington D.C. First, I would like to say Leah and I had a blast! Second, it started off rocky.  Leah and I woke up at about 5am (because we are nerds and we were super excited) so we could make it to the Metro by 7 and to the first stop by 9. I feel like I should also tell you that I am a pretty big fan of Woodrow Wilson, shout out to Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library (:http://www.woodrowwilson.org/) And I am kind of cheap so instead of buying breakfast at the hotel we decided to get something on the way (like McDonald’s). There was no fast food joints between the Metro station and our first stop (what kind of city doesn’t have McDonald’s on every corner)!  That first stop was the Library of Congress! The location of Woodrow Wilson’s presidential papers (or so I thought).  Did I mention it was raining this whole time as well?  Hungary and soaking wet we toured the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress is beautiful! If you have a chance to go…do it! Here are a few pictures of what we saw.

By the way Woodrow Wilson’s presidential papers are actually in the National Archives not in the Library of Congress (The Library has the books and some amazing artifacts but it is the Archives that maintain the historical documents). We did eventually eat by the way. Refreshed, we proceeded to our second stop.

    

The Woodrow Wilson House on S Street (http://www.woodrowwilsonhouse.org/). This is a beautiful house near embassy row.  It is also the house that Woodrow Wilson spent his last days in.  Here are a few fun facts about Woodrow Wilson and his family! Did you know that Woodrow Wilson loved the movies? He famously (or notoriously) screened the first movie seen at the White House which was D. W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation.  After he left office, Woodrow Wilson was presented with a Vitascope (old movie projector) by movie star Douglas Fairbanks Sr. Woodrow Wilson would sit and watch movies in his study.  Edith Wilson (Woodrow’s second wife) was very proud of her heritage. She hung portraits of her parents (like the rest of us) in the hall but she also claimed to be a direct decedent of Pocahontas.

 

It was pouring down rain again, and we decided to go to our next stop, the National Cathedral! Another fun fact: Woodrow Wilson is the only president to be buried in Washington D.C.  He was offered a place at Arlington Cemetery but Edith refused because she was a southern lady. (Arlington was Robert E. Lee’s old family estate it was confiscated during the Civil War and made cemetery for fallen Union soldiers).

The National Cathedral became Woodrow Wilson’s final resting place (I hope you see the theme here).

It was wet, cold, and cloudy all day long, and above all the cathedral is about ten blocks from the metro station.  And so the march began!  Half way there I began to remember every forced march in history, from Napoleon's campaign in Russia to the trail of tears. I developed a blister (side note: Chucks are not the right kind of shoe for a city hike). I began to imagine myself in General Washington's army wintering at Valley Forge (even though it was May and seventy degrees).  As tired as I felt, I could not complain, it was my idea to go in the first place.  Also, my amazing wife (who is six months pregnant with our first child) walked the whole way with me. She shall be forever known as Momma Trooper!  When we turned the corner and caught our first glimpse of the cathedral, it was like the heavens opened up and the Angels started to sing. Granted the sky was very hazy from the rain and we may have been hallucinating (we were very tired).  As we approached the cathedral, a wedding was about to start and Wilson's grave was corded off.  I still managed to see the grave and I had every intention of taking a picture of his crypt.  But after I saw the beautiful stain glass windows and the spectacular gothic architecture of the grand old church (coupled with the worry that I was destroying someone's joyous nuptials) I could not bring myself to photograph the inside of the church. Some things should be kept sacred.  I snapped a few pictures of the outside and we started on our long trek back to the Metro station.

Despite such a day we had fun. We learned about the Library of congress, we visited Woodrow Wilson's home and saw some amazing architecture at Woodrow Wilson’s final resting place.

The second day was a little better…

Have you ever been to Washington DC? Tell me your experiences in the comments below!

The GRE: My Results!

Last time I explained that I had to retake the GRE and shared some of my strategies for studying.  Well, my scores from my second attempt have just come in! I was told that I should share them so you can make a comparison. So here the are!

Notice a great improvement in writing! Which was what I was aiming for this go-round but I also an improvement in the Verbal Reasoning portion as well. And miracle of miracles I didn’t lose any points in the math portion. To be honest these scores are somewhat mediocre but GRE scores aren't the only thing grad schools are looking for. There not to bad.

Moral of the story is, study every day.  It doesn’t have to be a lot, just thirty minutes every day.

  

The GRE: Greatest iRritant Ever

Since in my last post I explained my impressions of grad school, I thought it would be appropriate to explain my experience with the GRE in this post.  For those who don’t know the GRE stands for Graduate Records Examinations (it’s kind of like the SAT for college grads who desire go for masters or PhD work).  I took the GRE for the first time in January 2015.  These are my actual scores.

 (Don’t judge me! I actually did make it into grad school. Granted it had very little to do with these scores…) I really did get into grad school but it was on a probationary basis, meaning I had to take the GRE again and bring up my writing scores. So here are some of the things I learned while studying for the GRE both times.

The GRE is set up into three sections, Writing, Vocabulary or reading comprehension, and quantitative (math ewwww!)  The first part is the writing, you have to analyze an issue and write a response in 30 minutes for the first essay and for the second you must analyze and respond to an argument in 30 minutes. Here is an example for one of my better “analysis of an issue” Essays.

Equal opportunity is a foundational ideal for Americans.  It is part of the American dream that someone can be anything they want to be and get paid for it.  In accordance with this, a person should get paid according to the work they do and how well they do it.  Athletes are an excellent example of this concept. Athletes are paid in proportion to their ability, their work load and their desirability.

 Everyone has the opportunity to be a professional athlete but not everyone has the ability to be a professional athlete. Athletes have unique skills and abilities that allow them to play sports at a level higher than most.  I certainly do not have the abilities of my friend Darius who is an excellent football player let alone someone like Kobe Bryant or Eli Manning who have spent their whole lives perfecting that ability.  These individuals make a salary based on those abilities.  Likewise many athletes would not be hired let alone paid well as a nurse or a teacher.

An athlete’s work load is quite high as well.  Athletes must literally dedicate their lives to be the best to stay desirable to their employers, with workouts every day, practices, and games.  Many times an athlete must be far from their families for long periods of time.  Many contracts stipulate that athletes must make appearances at functions they may not personally support.  As someone once said the price of fame is high.

All this being said, some may still have a hard time understanding why an athlete is paid so much more than a nurse or teacher.  Do not these professions require the same dedication and sacrifice?  That is true, however desirability also plays a part in our society of equal opportunity.  Teachers and nurses are not watched on television or asked to promote products.  It is about what the public is willing to pay and let us face it, the general public sees healthcare and education as rights.  Things they are entitled to, therefore believe these things should be free and provided for them.  The public does not invest in these areas of employment as they do professional athletes.

In a perfect world there would be people to invest in education and healthcare on the same bases as they do their entertainment but that world does not exist.  To raise the opportunities for nurses and teacher to that of athletes those in charge must change an entire culture.  As Sam Walton once said, the customer is all of our employer. – Practice Example from me

Not bad for 30 minutes.  And no fair stealing my ideas! Practice a lot on this portion, take advantage of every practice essay prompt you can find, this was my fifth practice essay. (The ETS or company who produces the GRE offers a pool of practice prompts on their website. https://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/prepare/analytical_writing/issue/pool)

The second part is the Vocabulary section.  The first time I took the GRE, I used a book from the Kaplan test preparatory company. It was quite helpful (I did make it into grad school remember). I remember one particularly helpful hint and now I pass that hint to you.  The book said that the most common vocab words were as follows (in no particular order):

Assuage Opaque Mitigate Precipitate Prodigal Vacillate Adulterate Abstain Apathy Corroborate Engender Audacious Anomaly Erudite Propriety Zeal

Placate Fervid Lucid Loquacious Gullible Laudable Pragmatic Ephemeral Laconic Pedant Equivocal Volatile Enigma Capricious Desiccate Homogenous

No! I’m not going to tell you what they mean, you still have to study, but it was true I started seeing these words all over the practice exams, in the exam itself and later on in Grad level classes. Alright I’ll give you a hint on one! (see video below)

A cool side note is that Liberty University (my alma mater) offers a senior cap class for history majors and a requirement for this class is to take three GRE practice tests. (I did not realize this before I took the exam the first time.) It was in this class that I was introduced to my new best friend (at least for the GRE prep).  I had to take the GRE a second time and The GRE for Dummies was the most helpful of any resources I found.  I have never much liked the “For Dummies” books before but this one has lots of good stuff in it.

Another resource I found when I was searching for study aids, was Magoosh’s (https://gre.magoosh.com/) app for vocabulary words in the GRE and other standardized tests, in a flash card style game that helps you learn and practice vocabulary used in the test and the best part is that the app is free. So if you have access to the technology, take advantage of it. [Here is a screenshot of this app.]

I learned all sorts of great long words that I use every day since taking the GRE…just not in this post.

And there is of course a math portion as well but I’m a history so…guessing is a perfectly fine strategy. Unless you are, you know, a math guy.  In all honesty, most of the math portion is to test your logic skills.  So, if you know a little math and your logic skills aren’t bad and you have a forgiving grad school, you’ll probably do fine.

If I may summarize what I have learned while studying twice for the GRE it is this, always take advantage of the many tools offered to you.  I hope the few that I provide in this post help.  The other point I would like to hammer home is study.  I did not do that great of a job preparing the first time and it hurt me.  The second time I wrote seven practice essays while being timed and practiced my vocab words almost every day.  If you do a little each day leading up to your GRE it is not as intimidating.  I hope you do well and good luck in grad school!

Graduate School, What Is It Good For!

I wanted to write a piece for those of you who are thinking about pursuing their master’s degree.  I have not had the easiest time trying to get my grad degree but I intend to stick with it and I encourage you also, because of three very important reasons. A master's degree gives you credentials for professional work. It is a learning experience that includes learning what is being debated in your field.  Lastly, a Master's program allows you to network with likeminded individuals.

A master's degree gives you bona fides, credentials that open opportunities for employment wide open.  If you desire to teach a collage level class than you will need at least a master's degree.  Other professional positions like to see that you have a master's, like museums looking for a curator or an archivist.  Saying that you are a master's student also gets you certain opportunities, for example when I'm applying for jobs I always tell potential employers that I'm a master's student.  It tells them that I am ambitious and that I care about what I am doing with my life and that I have chosen to further my career with them.  I have also told people that I am a master's student when I'm doing research, people often seem more helpful when they realize you are a students doing a project for class (that’s my experience anyway).

I'm sure most professors believe that my next point should have been the first mentioned or least considered the most important but in my opinion it is the second most important (The first is using my degree and getting a job). That is learning, you will work your butt off and by doing so you will learn.  As an undergraduate history major you have learned to research, write and have a knowledge of who are the best scholars in your field.  Grad school will push that knowledge to the max! While you read a book per week, per class.  While doing that, you will also be expected to research on your own and write a graduate level paper.  You will be introduced to debates and to the leading minds in your field. And you will be introduced to their books, lots and lots of books.  Professors will push you to do the best job you can, to make you the best scholars possible (hint: pick a good school or at least one you like the professors at).

Finally a master's program will give you networking opportunities. If you do it right this will be the greatest asset you take out of grad school.  As the old proverb goes "it's not what you know, it's who you know," so make friends.  Be on good terms with your professors, and your class mates.  Those class mates will graduate and become fantastic teachers and scholars and if you know them, jobs, research projects and looking for advice can be that much easier.

Now it is time for me to be honest with you, these points are only my impressions of grad school. I did not do much (or any) research in preparation for this post.  After only one semester, this is why I think it is important for me to finish what I have started and why you should start.