The Life Expectancy of a Lesson

I have to admit that I used to be a HUGE fan of LOST. It lasted 5 years. On the night of the last episode I was relieved.  Even though I loved it, I was ready to be done.  Seinfeld lasted 8 years.  Friends lasted 8 years. If you remember Moonlighting, you remember that it was over fast.  Number one show one year, three years later, gone.  The Beatles were only together for about 8 years.  Even Jesus only actively taught for three years.

Things have a time and a place.  Sometimes that time passes.  (Think bellbottoms, the mullet, legwarmers, the beehive hairdo and Glam Rock- also feel free to insert others here...)  If you were to dress as you did in high school today it would likely result in jokes, lots of jokes.  When a fad ends, though we make look at it fondly, we need to accept it and let it go.  If we don't we face the risk of becoming a relic.

We all know someone like this, the person stuck in the Grunge era or surfing the the internet on Netscape Navigator.  Well, maybe not that bad.  To sum up: things have an expiration date.  The best shows, good music, technology and even the way that we teach will one day be past its time.

This line of thinking led me to ask myself a hard question.  What lesson I need to retire?  Somewhere in my repertoire is something that was once great, but needs to be put out to pasture.  I weighed a lot of lessons.  I thought about the reasons behind why I do what I do.  When it was finally done I had chosen to retire a lesson that is one of my favorites.  It is my "Why Study History?" lesson.  The first one I teach each year.

Now, I love this lesson.  My kids leave the room talking about this lesson.  It is powerful and passionate but it lacks content. It lacks a historical take away.  It left them with no new skill.  It should be a discussion of history as an interpretive process.  It should discuss the fact that history is hard because they will not leave the room with definite answers like in math, but questions. They will be questions that I can't answer for them, that no one can answer for them.  They will need to answer these questions for themselves.

So that lesson has been retired. Permanently.  I will really, really miss it but I can do better in a way that teaches more and serves my students better.

So what lesson do you need to say goodbye too? Which one is your mullet legwarmer lesson? Which one is there that should not be?  Which one is not timely? Which content may be good but your vehicle of delivery needs rethinking? Can you let it go?

I'd love to here what you come up with.