TEACHER'S CORNER: CULTURAL EXPOSURE -- NOT DATES, BATTLES -- HELP TEACH HISTORY

Teaching history doesn't mean reciting a list of dates and battles for Daryl Fridley, a seventh-grade social studies teacher at the L.J. Schultz Middle School.

"I think it's important that history be taught as more than just a collection of battles and dates," Fridley said. "I like to expose students to different aspects of culture as part of my class."

Fridley tries to let the students learn about things that interest them. This year, students have discussed the characteristics of art and music, as well as reading from the "Odyssey," "Beowulf," and John Keats. The students learn best when they can choose project topics or books to review, he said.

"Although I think a general knowledge of history is important for everybody, I understand that the life skills we are trying to teach are even more important," Fridley said. "When one of our kids learns one of those skills, I feel like we've accomplished something."

But trying to teach life skills isn't always easy. In fact, more than once it has been a challenge for Fridley to keep his students' attention.

"I have had many distractions in the classroom but none as impossible to overcome as one I encountered in New Mexico," Fridley said. "My wife and I taught on a small Navajo reservation there for four years. One day, during our first year there, all of the kids in my class suddenly got up and went to the window. Evidently my class wasn't as interesting as the small, black bear that was taking its time crossing the campus."

Despite the distractions, Fridley became a teacher because of his interest in history. "I had an interest in history but I had always had poor history teachers," he said. "They didn't seem to care about the subject, and so the classes were often pretty boring. I thought that with some enthusiasm, history could be an exciting topic. I hope that, at least on some days, this is true in my class."

Fridley graduated from Anderson University in Anderson, Ind., in 1989, and has been teaching for six years. He and his wife, Stephanie, has a 10-month-old son, Nathan.