Gladly Learn and Gladly Teach

Welcome to My Blog

In case you don’t know me and stumbled into this site by accident, or if, perhaps, the name of the site attracted you, you need to know a bit about me.  I am a university professor and teach world history.  My “specializations” are mostly early history, from about 3 million years ago until the eighteenth century.  I am also interested in the Muslim World and the civilizations of Asia. Lately, I have been teaching courses in American History.  Finally, I love the history of science. I wrote my master’s thesis in that area and have never ceased to find it interesting.

Politically, I fall to the left of center and have always supported the Democratic Party, though this time around I am voting in the Republican Primary.  I will explain why in a blog I will write soon. My political heroes, in so far as I have them, are FDR and Truman, along with Kennedy and Johnson. I also admire Obama. That should alert you, if you need alerting.

I decided to write this blog for several reasons. The main one was a response to the death of my son, John.  In the months after he died, his husband and I often found ourselves thinking, “I can’t wait to discuss this with John.” By writing this blog, I am, in a way, carrying on a conversation with him.

He began debating political issues when he was quite small, and he and I discussed things, sometimes quite loudly, to my wife’s chagrin. We usually agreed, but when we disagreed, we would argue it out. In the end, we always respected each other, no matter what our differences.  That is the way I want this blog to work.  Please feel free to argue with me. I will be respectful of you, and I hope you will treat me the same way.

My son was also a life-long champion of those who are marginalized, discriminated against, and in any way treated unjustly.  He was a victim of many such injustices himself. That had a lot to do with his life’s being tragically cut short. I, too, want to work of behalf of such groups.  By doing so, I think I am keeping his spirit alive in some way.  

I named it “Gladly Learn and Teach.”  You probably recognized that I borrowed it from Chaucer. It is the way he characterized the Clerk in the Canterbury Tales. It has been my motto throughout my teaching career, which now spans fifty-six years. I expect to learn from my students, and often do. I also expect to learn from any exchange of views that arise out of what I write.

It also gives me a chance to write, editorialize without an editor, to my heart’s content. I often think when something happens, that I would like to write about it, like an editorial writer for a newspaper.  My wife has volunteered to read over the posts before I publish them, an offer I could not turn down as she has always been my editor, and she is a pro. I think she also wants to be sure I don’t write anything that might present problems for us. So, I am not totally without an editor.  To be sure, the opinions in the pieces will be my own, and she will not be responsible for any errors.

I am excited about this venture, and I hope you will be a part of it, along with me.