Now I'm an Arms Dealer from Eastern Europe

I REPEATED THE lesson I wrote about last week on the values and limitations of sources with another class this week. But this time, since it with a younger group of students, I wanted to focus on the limitations of historical sources. We talked about questions like: can we trust photographs in the age of Photoshop? Can we trust Wikipedia in the age of...well...wikipedia? etc).

To make my point I asked (again) the students to interview me in order to find out information about me. The twist I added this time was that when they asked me their questions I wrote out the question and answer on the board -- except that from time to time I lied about the answer. I just made things up. [Note: do you see where I'm going with the lesson? I know 'the value and limitations of historical sources' doesn't exactly sound interesting, but it such a critical part of the French Bac that we go over it a lot -- and try to make it interesting and relevant. The point is to get students to think critically about where they are getting their information and not to just trust that information is always correct]. Anyway, we were plowing along -- 'where were you born?'; 'how old are you?'; 'are you married'? -- and sometimes I was giving a truthful answer and sometimes I was making it up. Then one young boy asked 'have you ever been in prison?'

Now I know an opportunity when I see one, and this one was staring me right in the face. Time to have a little fun. 'Actually, yes,' I said. 'When I was in my early 20s I was held in a Turkish prison for two months.' The look on the faces of these 13 year-olds was priceless (remember, they don't yet know that I'm making some of the information up). And as if I had planned it, the bell rang at that moment signaling a 5 minute break in the lesson.

It was a lively break as the corridors began to fill with rumors of my time spent in prison. I couldn't hear the details, but the chatter (mostly in French) centered on what I could have possibly done to warrent 2 months in a Turkish prison. When the students returned they had all sorts of theories -- my favorite being that I was an Eastern European arms dealer in the mid-1990s. I have to admit I didn't tell them about my sqeaky-clean police record until the end of the lesson. I kind of enjoyed this Lord of War moment.

I guess, if nothing else, I showed that even a history teacher can be a very unrealiable sources.
CJS