The Sixth Blog of Trig - The Truth Teacher

I spent some time talking to my grandmother last night and I spoke of some of my school memories, specifically of my history lessons. When I was at school I had a history teacher by the name of Mr Oulton, who was also my head of year. He was quite a dominating powerful figure, tall and stern, but a very fair and decent man. I wasn't the most well behaved student, and I remember spending much time standing outside of his office. I wasn't a bad kid, but I was cheeky and mischievous and not particularly hard working, at all, so I spent my fair share of time in detentions, including the infamous 'Saturday Detentions'. I told my grandmother how, no matter how many times he found me outside his office for some misdemeanor, I never remember him speaking down to me, or treating me unfairly or contemptuously in any way. He treated me with unearned respect, and I hope that I returned that respect to some degree. I fear that in my immaturity I may not have.

Much of schooling these days is based around the learning of what we refer to as 'facts'. This is especially apparent in so-called 'history' lessons, where school children are often presented with a timeline of what are locally considered to be the 'important'/'relevant' events to be remembered. A good history teacher, such as was Mr Oulton, does not simply demand recall of these details from memory. Any good teacher should encourage and assist students in the practise of exercising a logical process to determine what is fact and what is not. A good teacher, a TRUE teacher, should teach and encourage the pursuit of TRUTH.

I remember Mr Oulton, possibly upon commencing his teaching of us, stressing to us the importance of questioning what is presented to us as 'fact'. We were taught to assess any given source of information logically, to ask ourselves to question who wrote it, what their background was, their political views, their personality, locality, and subsequently, what possible motive they could have had for producing that source of information. Then of course, you must then assess this background information for its own reliability and accuracy. If you can find discrepancies then you must question the information further until you have satisfied your uncertainty to the best of your ability. This is not just the study of history. It is THE PURSUIT OF TRUTH.

We are born with a powerful, inherent ability to assess and identify truth, and the ability to retain our findings as memory. Children naturally investigate their environment to the greatest degree possible, as this is the only way to properly understand the world we are born into. We grab at things in an attempt to understand the limbs we have been born with, and once we have established the truths of our physical abilities we can further analyse the association between ourselves and the world. The natural curiosity and inquisitiveness of children, this pursuit of truth, is what facilitates our growth and development. This is why we learn faster as children than at any other time in our lives.

Schools today all-to-often stifle our childrens' curiosity, for the sake of learning half-truths and sometimes blatant lies by rote, usually for the motives of the people bearing the physical power in the world. This is indoctrination; the bane of curiosity, enquiry, understanding and development. Indoctrination can be very obvious in some cases, and in others it can be very subtle. It is often very difficult to identify, as its very purpose is to restrict wider understanding and conceal truth. Indoctrination is to human beings what stagnation is to water.

There has always been division and conflict between human beings in the world. These divisions often arise from intolerance, which can be attributed to a lack of understanding, which itself is brought about by an indoctrinated unwillingness to understand and Empathise with anything outside of the doctrine. It has nothing to do with ability. As I have mentioned, everyone is born with a natural instinct to investigate and attempt to understand the world around them, but the enforcement of false truths upon enquiring minds forcefully occupies time and creates a distraction from our natural inquisitive instinct to search for truth.

Looking back, Mr Oulton was more than just a history teacher to me. I did not understand at the time, but he was teaching us to think for ourselves. He was teaching us to take in information, without being taken in by it.

Since leaving school I have discovered that many of the 'facts' presented to us in our history books were either half-truths or purely false 'truths'. Mr Oulton reminded us of our natural instinctive ability to question the 'history' he was forced to have us learn. He showed us the logical process by which we could assess the world as individuals, in order to form our own opinions and improve our understanding, based upon an instinctive logical process.

Mr Oulton was not just a history teacher. He was a teacher of truth.

This is "The Sixth Blog Of Trig", signing off.