Did I ever tell you guys what I'm teaching this year?

Voc school?

Or, you can tell them that the reason the British (to quote Bill Cosby) "had to wear red and march in a straight line" was that they only had inaccurate muskets, because there was no manufacturing method to produce rifling for the gun barrels in large quantities. More of the colonists had their own rifles because they needed them for hunting, so that's why they were able to hide behind the hedges, etc., and take potshots on the road from Concord back to Boston in April 1775.

We've been to the moon and invented the internet, but as a species, we have not yet mastered the revolving door.

It's sad.

Revolving doors scare me.

Emily, I'm guessing you're not teaching math.

See, I would find all that stuff interesting. Even as a kid....

They might find it more interesting if I could show them. Or, hell, if I even knew what it meant.

Voc school?

Yes! I'm in a whole different wing! Well, sort of. I mean, I am in a different wing, but I teach probably the least "voc-school" classes of all the tech teachers.

as a species, we have not yet mastered the revolving door.

True, but most of my class now knows how to animate one in Autodesk Viz!

See, it's sorta related, but not really.

Emily, I'm guessing you're not teaching math.

You guess correctly. That particular class was Engineering Drafting. So the question is not so much "How can I make it relevant?" but "Er... isn't that sort of why we're here?"

That's kind of hilarious. I mean, I guess it's nice to learn the history of the other stuff you're studying, as opposed to or in addition to general misc history, but I'm sure it all falls under "when am I ever going to need this?!" for a lot of kids.

Revolving doors scare me.

Do you freeze up in front of them and NOT LET ME OUT? Because if you do, I'm afraid that you won't be able to get revenge for that earworm because I'll have to kill you.

Do not trap me in a tiny plastic coffin, people!

What a catloaf looks like from underneath.

Or, you can tell them that the reason the British (to quote Bill Cosby) "had to wear red and march in a straight line" was that they only had inaccurate muskets, because there was no manufacturing method to produce rifling for the gun barrels in large quantities. More of the colonists had their own rifles because they needed them for hunting, so that's why they were able to hide behind the hedges, etc., and take potshots on the road from Concord back to Boston in April 1775.

Well...except that there was also the issue that at the time it took three times as long to reload a muzzle-loading rifle because of rifled barrel than a smooth-bore musket, and while breech-loading rifles existed, the mechanisms available at the time weren't robust enough to withstand the frequent, rapid fire of battle (as opposed to hunting). So while accuracy is all very well, if your opponent can shoot at you three times as often, it loses some of its effectiveness. At most, you want a small group of rifle-armed skirmishers to provide accurate fire as a supplement to the massed fire of your musket-armed regular infantry. Also, the hunting rifles used by American Revolutionary militias had drawbacks as a combat weapon because they weren't equipped with bayonets and were too long to be readily retrofitted with them, so the soldiers had no defense against an enemy bayonet charge while they were reloading. Which is why most of Washington's army fought with either French-supplied or captured British muskets.

t /military history geek who has to do SOMETHING with all this useless knowledge