“Presentism”, that we who live at this moment in time know better than our ancestors about almost everything, is ever a popular heresy.
Thought for the Day
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Yes! Unfortunately it’s a feature of much thought in our youth because of the narcissism of social media. It’s good to remind them that ChatGPT does not give you correct factual information about the past and Google does not know everything about everything. Life experience matters.
I have the reputation as a teacher of being the guy who has all the useless information and other trivia stored away. So when some kid says “how do you *know* that!?” My rejoinder is usually along the lines of “history didn’t start the day I was born!”
History and the Eucharist are the reasons I became Catholic. I realized that Martin Luther did not start the Christian Church, so why do I have to follow him to disaster, but I can live free and in the truth of history in the Catholic faith.
Josh- I have often told folks that my likelihood to know a fact is inversely proportional to its usefulness 🤣
TBO,
I inherited the trait from my dad, but I have found the ability to tie some random historical event to what I’m doing in class is at least somewhat useful. Knowing who led the National League in batting average in, say, 1990…not so much 😂
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Josh: My first thought was Tony Gwynn (from San Diego) as the 1990 NL leader, but then I looked it up and had completely forgotten that McGee had a great year in 1990.
Exactly, along with the useless fact that McGee was the only winner of a batting title to be traded between leagues during the season.
Here’s some useless baseball trivia for you!
On August 26, 2024, Danny Jansen became the first player ever to play for both teams (the Red Sox and the Blue Jays) in the same game … He actually caught for his own at-bat!
(Yes, there was a postponement and a trade involved 🙂 )