I know what you mean. On my first year of senior highschool I met an incredible History teacher whose speciality was the Mayan culture. He is a doctor in History by the National University of Mexico. His text book was incredible and he focused more on political, cultural and even philosophycal aspects of History. He was the first to teach us what liberalism and marxism really are. He didn't get too deep into military History because he hates wars. I actually gave the classes on WWI and WWII. He gave me 4 of his classes to teach WWII. I made only a slight correction to his text book which said that El Alamein was at Libia and that there had been a battle at Suez. He gently told me to correct them. As a pacifist teacher it did not matter at all. He was the best teacher I have ever had. Now he moved from the city and I am going to take his post next year. [img]smile.gif[/img]
But my teacher in the next grade, who was supossed to teach us Mexican History was the worst teacher I have ever had. The lady was old and didn't know how to speak. I speak much better Spanish that her! She told us an amazing number of stupidities and historical inaccuracies impossible to believe. She didn't even know where, how or when did the Mexican 201st squadron fight in WWII... She said that everyone got killed... and she later compared the Mexican pilots to the German ones. I'll quote her literally: "By the end of the war there were only two planes in Germany. But they shot down 50 enemy planes before they returned to base for lack of fuel"...
And the best part. A friend of mine asked her: "Teacher, what do you know about the battle of Stalingrad?" She answered: "It was when Napoléon invaded Stalingrad ( [img]graemlins/no.gif[/img] ) but the Russians burned the city and the food. Then the Germans died of starvation."
On next August I am going to take for my first teacher's post at my former senior highschool. I will be teaching 600 students aged 15-17 Universal contemporary History. I, of course will focus a lot in the military aspect, but it won't be the main aspect. It can't be the main aspect. Politics, culture and philosophy are the things to teach. Wish me luck, but I am going to make an effort and teach them WWI and WWII as they must be taught. Just enough to get them involved in it. I also can't spend too much time on it because there are many other conflicts and things to be taught in one year. I'll post on how everything goes. Also, don't you think it will be a problem to have a teacher just two or three years your senior?