INDIANA – Eugene O’Reilly teaches a different kind of Fifth Grade history class. “Sure, it is a History class, but these kids should learn history the way I learned it–a little bit embellished”, says O’Reilly, 54, who has been teaching history at Indiana’s Rayland High School for 30 years.
According to O’Reilly, “Public schools just aren’t that public anymore. What happened to hickory sticks and paddles? Insulting the students? What happened to learning that George Washington chopped down a cherry tree?” One class involved O’Reilly informing the class that Abraham Lincoln “could lift 5 logs in both arms from the East Coast to Nebraska”, and in another class, O’Neill says that “the Whigs were called Whigs because a lot of them wore wigs.”
“Sure, the class might not know that they are learning tall tales, postulates, and mere assumptions, but at least they are getting a traditional public school education”, says O’Reilly. “Does it really hurt the students to learn that William Shakespeare was a senator from New England?”
Sometimes O’Reilly goes “outside the box” when teaching History. “I guess I’m just a crazy guy”, explains O’Reilly. “But the kids just really get into it when they learn about the famous duel between Brer Rabbit and Alexander Hamilton… which never happened, but it’s definitely an invigorating way to look at American history”.
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