Teaching outside the Box.

[Ben Evans]

I have been asked all sorts of questions, why, cost, fakes etc. My mum does not approve of it and calls me a Nazi!! What she cannot see or understand is that I am an ex Infantryman of 23 years and this sort of stuff interests me, all she knows and still thinks about is Heinkel bombers flying over her house when she was young. I suppose the type of questions I have been asked depends on the intelligence of the individual asking the question!

[Woolgar]

You and the WAF guys are the only ones I talk to about my hobby! My lovely family have no interest and only a couple of mates have a passion for WW2.
I have in the past delivered talks to the local Air Cadets on Bomber Command . I have also delivered a talk on the life and death of the battleship Bismark at the local primary school.
I would really like one day to present my collection at a local historical society for discussion or even display a nearby military museum for a short while

Nick

[Panzersaurus]

Perhaps one of the most annoying questions that I am asked is the "how much dis you pay for it?" followed by a quick "it's probably a fake" or "could get that at a surplus store for 10$". That's literally what someone said to me once about my Canadian Mk II with net and bandage. I think some people just need to listen and learn more before jumping to conclusions.

[Danmark]

Being an engineer / toolmaker I also have an appreciation for the construction of military items and indeed anything older than 50 years. Strip away the benefits of computers and modern technology and you realize the absolute skill and craftsmanship previous generations had - & under harsh privations of a world war.

Sadly the abilty to craft with ones own brain and brawn is something that future generations will not experience. In embracing computer aided design, composite technologies and carbon fiber we have forgotten how to manipulate metal - and that for me is a crying shame.

Dan

[drmessimer]

Teaching, a wonderful experience but one that is often conditioned on circumstances. I was a university professor of history in the California State University system, where discussions of military history of any type are not appreciated, and in practical terms not allowed. It was a University that banned the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) from the campus, and one where the prevailing opinion is anything remotely related to the military is per se evil. I live in an area where the City of San Francisco refused to have the USS Missouri permanently berthed there as a WWII memorial. You get the picture.
I take refuge in the Forum because there is a real interest in the general subject of military history and I can share with, and learn from, the members the wide range of aspects the field offers. I have said it more than once and I will say it again many times, I am repeatedly amazed at the breadth and scope of knowledge exhibited on this Forum. If I could have filled my classroom with Forum members we would have had an ongoing symposium of vastly greater historical importance than discussing the imagined advantages inherent to social "diversity," and the need for political correctness, the latter being in some minds something that any discussion of military history lacks.
I will close with something that recently happened to my wife--a German. Our dentist asked her what her Dad had done during WWII. Renate told him that her father was in addition to being the executive chef at the Adlon Hotel, oversaw the preparations of all the state dinners under Hitler held at the Schloss Belvue. The good doctor was taken aback and asked, "Aren't you embarrassed to admit that?" She said, "No." We don't get those questions here. Dwight

[Thanatos]

Teaching, a wonderful experience but one that is often conditioned on circumstances. I was a university professor of history in the California State University system, where discussions of military history of any type are not appreciated, and in practical terms not allowed. It was a University that banned the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) from the campus, and one where the prevailing opinion is anything remotely related to the military is per se evil. I live in an area where the City of San Francisco refused to have the USS Missouri permanently berthed there as a WWII memorial. You get the picture.
I take refuge in the Forum because there is a real interest in the general subject of military history and I can share with, and learn from, the members the wide range of aspects the field offers. I have said it more than once and I will say it again many times, I am repeatedly amazed at the breadth and scope of knowledge exhibited on this Forum. If I could have filled my classroom with Forum members we would have had an ongoing symposium of vastly greater historical importance than discussing the imagined advantages inherent to social "diversity," and the need for political correctness, the latter being in some minds something that any discussion of military history lacks.
I will close with something that recently happened to my wife--a German. Our dentist asked her what her Dad had done during WWII. Renate told him that her father was in addition to being the executive chef at the Adlon Hotel, oversaw the preparations of all the state dinners under Hitler held at the Schloss Belvue. The good doctor was taken aback and asked, "Aren't you embarrassed to admit that?" She said, "No." We don't get those questions here. Dwight

And would not an educated resident of the USA be embarrassed to admit to the treatment of indigenous North American cultures since European settlement.
Closed minded statement by the good Doctor I feel.
Sorry to hear that happened Dwight.

All the best
Dave