Recently, my wife and I did a whirl-wind tour of historical European river sites. Lots of castles. Lots of palaces. Lots of cathedrals. And yes, by default, lots of history. We traveled fast and far and now I’m home taking a few weeks to process all that I learned. I am putting the history in my long-term memory by looking at pictures, maps, tickets, and talking about the sights, sounds, and foods with my spouse. Additionally, I am taking this breadth of historical knowledge – and all of the fun I had – and I am applying it to how I teach in my concealed carry and firearm courses. Being a firearm historian has always been fun to interject into my classes when appropriate, and now after my trip to Europe, I believe even more that it is a valuable element of teaching anything; even firearms.
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Most days we had a guided walking tour (or two). Most of the guides were outstanding. Some were in costume. Some guides had advanced degrees or had a special knowledge of some local event (one of my favorites was a tour of the beer making tunnels used to store art works to protect them from bombing and looting). Each guide had his/her own slant on what was most important, but all had a knowledge about something they felt was particularly important for us to learn.
As I was walking and talking with these guides it struck me that my best carry classes happen when I (briefly) get to go deep into some aspect of history. By diving deep I can provide context for some aspect of personal protection. Sometimes I talk about my personal journey of sidearm selection. Sometimes I talk about the history of law making regarding personal carry in my home state. Sometimes my history lesson is predicated on a feature of a gun that has progressed over the years. Sometimes the history lesson is how ammunition has progressed.
Each time there is a history lesson there is a sticky bit of knowledge that keeps the context of everything else we learn in place. We all have to teach certain facts and procedures, but how do we keep them “sticky” is by putting them in some sort of context that is interesting. As I mentioned above, sometimes I teach the history by bringing an old revolver, an old military pistol, and a modern polymer-based gun to show the progression of some feature or another. Sometimes I can only do this with pictures. From time-to-time, my demonstration fails miserably (like the time when I tried to super glue some shell casings on a stick to show the progression of some feature or another – what was most noticeable was my inability to glue neatly). A good example would be to move through action types. An alternative method is to ask about family guns (they don’t have to be heirloom quality) the students remember or cherish. Personal history can make things wonderfully sticky.
Word of Caution – Possible Foibles
- You may have someone who knows more than you and they will argue with you about some minutia.
- Just say “thanks for telling us that” and move on.
- You might choose to “go deep” on a topic that absolutely bores your class.
- Keep a wary eye for yawning and involuntary eye rolls as slumber sets in. Call a break, get everyone moving and come back in a few minutes. Remember, the goal of the history lesson is to make the class content sticky – not yucky.
By the way, I learned the history part of the equation by analyzing my favorite articles from favorite gun writers. There was a common theme – a little history (sometimes personal) to make things sticky and then what they wanted to write about. Go back and read your favorite gun writers and you will see what I mean. Then, use a little history to make your presentation sticky.
If you’re an instructor like myself, we want to make our lessons fresh, interesting, engaging, and fun – as well as educational – even if a student is attending one of our courses for the 4th or 5th time. In order to do that from the instructor’s perspective, we need to inject some history, a couple laughs, and be candid once in awhile. So, again, occasionally watch in your classes that no one has hit the Snooze button on you and give my firearm historian a try. You might enjoy it, and your students may as well. As always, let us know all of your thoughts in the Comments below! We always appreciate your feedback.
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