[DADoser]

Originally Posted by STARMAN 352ND

Funny you posted that a few days ago.
Just a little while i go i had to go to my son's school and talk to his History teacher about how well he's doing in class and i said something about the Doollittle Raiders and you know what.....That teacher never heard of them...
I had to tell her who they were..I also let her borrow a book on the subject so she knows.
Oh yea my kid got a A+.
JP

I'll be first in line to criticize the American/U.S. education system. (And I am part of it.)

But I will defend this teacher - to an extent. Depending on your state certification rules, it may be possible for a teacher to teach history, having NEVER taken a college History course. For certifation purposes, Social Sciences are usually lumped together and (I believe) in my state (AZ - which by one recent report ranks as #50 in intelligence) one only needs 12 hours of college social science courses to teach social studies in high school. So theoretically a Psychology major could be teaching history classes.

In middle and elementary schools, certification requirements may even be less. Throw in charter schools - which in my state require no teacher certification - AND "emergency certification" (usually used by schools if they need a football coach first - who may be certified in P.E., but they are using him to teach History because that's where they have an open position.)

I don't know this teacher - she may just be an idiot, but...there are definitely larger issues in the system that allow teachers to teach in areas where they may have little knowledge or understanding (beyond the actual text book of their current class). I do find it encouraging that she was open to borrowing a book of yours in order to educate herself.

I'd just say - get involved in your local schools. Community/parent oversight is the best thing to insure qualified teachers and a better education system.

(Wow - that was long - sorry, rant over.)

And to be honest - I majored in HST, was a certified teacher, and taught at the H.S. and Middle school levels - There are parts of history I know very well, but if someone came up to me and and asked me about Shay's Rebellion, I could only reply that I've heard the name, but would not be able to tell you the significance and/or cause and effect. And I actually had a class on Colonial America in college - spr. '87. In the scope of U.S. history I'll bet it could be argued that Shay's rebellion was more significant to U.S. History than the Doolittle Raid That's probably heretical on this board. Who do I give my confession to?

[DADoser]

Back to the original question....

WWII Aviation overwhelmingly dominates my diecast collection and regarding Air Warfare is my main interest. (I'm not much into the ground war of WWII.)

In the ground area, I'm just facinated by the Vietnam War - ground, riverine, "why."

I was also recently immersed in WWI - Trench and Air warfare. I still just don't get the whole "trench thing" the futility of it all and the last day of the war??? Also "WHY?" An assination by a Serb national throws the world into war?? (I have some similiar facsinations with the "Whys" of Vietnam - but that would probably cause some political "controversy" )

Also my library has a good bit of books on Ancient and Middle Ages warfare and U.S. frontier conflicts.

[JC Woodman]

Napoleonic era actually... But not so good for aviation models, WW2, then WW I with the jet age next for the airplane collecting though.

[mustangdriver]

I think I was born in the wrong era everytime I see the nose art on Shoo Shoo BAby.

[STARMAN 352ND]

I think they had two aircrafts named that...the other one was the P-61 Black Widow.
JP

[SKUNKY]

Originally Posted by mustangdriver

I think I was born in the wrong era everytime I see the nose art on Shoo Shoo BAby.

Hey, 'stang.....isn't the name of the B-17 at the USAF museum actually Shoo Shoo Shoo Baby?...I believe they added an additional "Shoo" to it to differentiate it from the other Shoo Shoo Babys that were out there...My very first aircraft diecast was the Franklin Mint 1/96th model of it.. I paid like $195.00 for it around 15 years ago!