The History Teacher Billy Collins 
NOTE: Go to assignment directions on page 2: “Prove This Claim.” You do NOT have to answer the questions because we’ve already done them in class. The History Teacher
(Billy Collins)
Trying to protect his students’ innocence he told them the Ice Age was really just the chilly Age, a period of a million years when everyone had to wear sweaters.
And the Stone Age became the Gravel Age, named after the long driveways of the time.
The Spanish Inquisition was nothing more than an outbreak of questions such as
“How far is it from here to Madrid?”
“What do you call the matador’s hat?”
The War of the Roses took place in a garden and the Enola Gay dropped one tiny atom on Japan The children would leave his classroom for the playground to torment the weak and the smart mussing up their hair and breaking their glasses, while he gathered up his notes and walked home past flower beds and white picket fences, wondering if they would believe that soldiers in the Boer War told long, rambling stories designed to make the enemy nod off.
The History Teacher Questions
1. The title is The History Teacher. What do you think it’s about?
2. What does the poet want us to change?
3. What don’t you understand?
a. vocabulary
b. allusions
c. structure
d. anything else?
4. What images are in the poem?
5.What examples of diction choices do you see? What words could have been used instead?
6. What “unlocking” questions can you ask yourself about the text?
(Unlocking questions are prompted by the text and can be answered by the text. When answered, they will help you understand the poem.)
(e.g., Why does Collins point out that the teacher walks past “white picket fences”? or “Why is the teacher trying to protect his student’s innocence?”)
7. Where’s the poem’s shift? Describe the shift.
Prove this Claim Claim: The author believes that education must make us aware of humanity’s capability for evil and destruction. To
(Billy Collins)
Trying to protect his students’ innocence he told them the Ice Age was really just the chilly Age, a period of a million years when everyone had to wear sweaters.
And the Stone Age became the Gravel Age, named after the long driveways of the time.
The Spanish Inquisition was nothing more than an outbreak of questions such as
“How far is it from here to Madrid?”
“What do you call the matador’s hat?”
The War of the Roses took place in a garden and the Enola Gay dropped one tiny atom on Japan The children would leave his classroom for the playground to torment the weak and the smart mussing up their hair and breaking their glasses, while he gathered up his notes and walked home past flower beds and white picket fences, wondering if they would believe that soldiers in the Boer War told long, rambling stories designed to make the enemy nod off.
The History Teacher Questions
1. The title is The History Teacher. What do you think it’s about?
2. What does the poet want us to change?
3. What don’t you understand?
a. vocabulary
b. allusions
c. structure
d. anything else?
4. What images are in the poem?
5.What examples of diction choices do you see? What words could have been used instead?
6. What “unlocking” questions can you ask yourself about the text?
(Unlocking questions are prompted by the text and can be answered by the text. When answered, they will help you understand the poem.)
(e.g., Why does Collins point out that the teacher walks past “white picket fences”? or “Why is the teacher trying to protect his student’s innocence?”)
7. Where’s the poem’s shift? Describe the shift.
Prove this Claim Claim: The author believes that education must make us aware of humanity’s capability for evil and destruction. To