Passion

          In 10^th grade, I was totally uninterested in U.S. history. I was taking this AP history course because I thought colleges would like the fact that I challenged myself. I never really liked history, but I had always been “good” at it – only because I could easily memorize facts. I had only known history through rote memorization of information – numbers, dates, places of important events. However, it was thanks to Ms. Askew that my perspective on history changed.         

            I still remember how much fun every class was, and how much I learned. Ms. Askew really challenged us as her students to make connections, hypothesize, and draw conclusions about what we were reading. She showed us how to analyze sources. I remember thinking she was crazy when she first told us that textbooks have bias. We delved into the reading and were able to find biases in our textbook, as well as others. We also analyzed primary sources and other literary works that had U.S. history in them. It was the first time in school that I remembered thinking that what I was reading might not necessarily be true. Ms. Askew would also ask us lots of questions and help us arrive at the answers, instead of just telling us the answer. If we couldn’t figure something out, someone would ask and she always had a long and elaborate answer. She knew so much history, it was unbelievable. She really sparked my interest in history and have enjoyed history ever since.