People of 1950: The Greatest Generation

Wow, I learned a lot about the year 1950 today at school. Unfortunately, all of it was incorrect. And even more unfortunate was the fact that I was interpreting and could therefore do NOTHING to stop the train wreck which I was witnessing.

Mom and Dad, did you know that you were alive during both World War I AND II? And that you were witness to the invention of both television AND BOMBS?! According to the deaf ed. teacher, all of the preceding occurred in the year 1950!!

True Story: I was in third period study skills today, where the deaf ed. teacher has currently undertaken the task of helping the students prepare for the O.A.T. While this is a worthy and completely acceptable practice, let's keep in mind that there is a mixture of sixth and eighth grade students in that class. And for those of you uninitiated with the intricacies of middle school: there is a HUGE difference between sixth and eighth grade students. Not the least of which is their size; only at a middle school could I feel like a giant AND a midget in the same day. Currently, the sixth graders are studying Mesopotamia and the eighth graders are starting to learn about the Industrial Revolution. Two completely related subjects. (That was sarcasm.) Finally, not only are there two grade levels in the same study skills class, but one of the boys in the class is exempt from taking state standardized tests because he is alternately assessed per his IEP.

So, moving on to preparing for the eighth grade social studies portion of the OAT...the teacher decides to review multi-tiered timelines today. *Sigh* Please tell me that all of you reading this post know what a multi-tiered timeline is. It's when one has one timeline that highlights two sets of events. For example, one could have a single timeline that starts at the year 0 that shows the events of Christ's life on top of the timeline and at the same time shows events that occurred in the Roman Empire at large along the bottom of the timeline. Or, as the deaf ed. teacher today put on the board, one could draw a timeline starting with the year 1800 and progressing in 50 year increments up to 2000. She labeled the top section "Inventions" and the bottom "Major World Wars."

This is where it got a little beyond my belief. The teacher asked the students what had been invented around 1950, and one student replied, "Television." She accepted that answer and added it to the timeline. Then she asked what wars occurred around that time. Not surprisingly, given the label "Major World Wars," one student said, "World War I." Surprisingly, the teacher drew a line from the year 1950 and labeled it WORLD WAR I. She then added WORLD WAR II to that same year. And then she asked what had been invented during World War II. One student replied, "Guns," and she said, "No," so he came back with, "Bombs." Which she promptly added to the year 1950.

By this time, I was in a state I like to call "Robotic Interpreter Mode." When I'm in this state, interpreting my little heart out, I'm just like a computer. I take the information in and put it back out in another language. Computers don't have opinions or feelings, and when I'm in Robotic Interpreter Mode, I don't have opinions or feelings, because if I did, things would get ugly. I was so stunned by this teacher's lack of knowledge that I didn't know what else to do. So, when this teacher said, and this is a verbatim quote, "Yes, the invention of bombs is what made World War II so much shorter than World War I," I just kept my mouth shut, and went right on interpreting like the good little robotic interpreter I can be.

Had I not been in Robotic Interpreter Mode, this is probably what I would have said: "Actually, television was invented in the 1930's. World War I started in 1914 and ended on November 11, 1918. World War II started with Germany's invasion of Poland in August or September of 1939 and ended with the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Therefore, World War II was not, in actuality, shorter than World War I. It, in fact, was two years LONGER. Bombs have been around for centuries. Not decades, centuries." Now, if one were to actually research these events, one would find I'm probably not 100% accurate on when they really occurred. But, I do know that they did NOT happen in 1950.

Tom Brokaw was right...to live through World War I, World War II, the invention of television and the invention of bombs, all in the same year, the people of 1950 really were The Greatest Generation.