History Teacher Brings Civil War to Life

History Teacher Brings Civil War to Life

Brianna White, Marketing Manager

Philip Sozansky, junior history teacher shares his views about being a teacher as well as some of his background.

Q: What subject do you teach?
A: AP & On-level U.S. History

Q: How long have you been teaching?
A: 21 years, if you include the present year

Q: What made you want to be a teacher?
A: I have an intense passion for the study of history and a strong belief that it matters — that it can be meaningful and relevant to people of all ages if only they open their minds and hearts to the lessons of the past.

Q: What is your favorite part about history?
A: Honestly, there is more that I find fascinating about history than I could express in a single answer. There is so much drama, and so much grit. It is the story of humanity. It is the ultimate soap opera. There are so many reasons to be absorbed and attracted to history. I literally cannot boil it down to one answer.

Q: What “lesson of the past” has impacted you the most?
A: It’s not so much as a single event. It’s more of the experiences and the struggles that people have overcome. It helps me put my own problems into perspective and to think what they could accomplish with the technology we have today. And with students, they look in the mirror of history and can see bits and pieces of themselves.

Q: What is your favorite part about teaching?
A: The actual “teaching” itself. Having the enormous privilege of helping to guide students toward achieving their potential while sharing my deep love of historical study seems to me the perfect profession.

Q:What is your least favorite part about teaching?
A: The state mandated assessments. I feel they are overemphasized.They don’t truly show the complexity of student growth, student achievement and everything that makes students special and unique. I feel that there’s been a state level mistaken belief that standardized testing is the end-all-be-all of education, instead of learning really being the true emphasis and encouraging joy in that learning.

Q: During your time teaching, what is one of the most surprising things you’ve come across?
A: I think just in general how students rise to challenges. That if you keep setting the bar higher, and more often than not, students will meet those new standards, those new goals. And it just never ceases to amaze me — the creativity and the ways in which students do that. And for me, that’s one of the great things about being in the classroom, is seeing that happening.

Q: How does it make you feel to see that happening?
A: Excited. And just content to be in the profession that I’m in. It’s validating, and it encourages me in terms of the future of this country. We are going to need people of creativity and vision, that depth, that intelligence, and that strong work ethic to carry the nation further in a way that would do the founding generation proud.

history-teacherincivilwarclothesQ: What do you do outside of school?
A: I try to spend as much time with my family as I possible can. In fact my wife and I are in a band called Reflections Meet and we do 1980’s – 1990’s alternative covers, and also some of our own original music. I’ve also, for the past couple of years been working on my first full-length book which will be published by Texas A&M University Press hopefully some time in 2018. It’s about the American Civil War.  It was a transformative event. That’s what kind of put me on the path to becoming a historian. I also do Civil War reenacting. It’s where you actually recreate Civil War battles, live the life of Civil War soldiers and civilians. I’ve actually been in a few movies because of Civil War reenacting — “Gods and Generals,” and “Wicked Spring.”

Q: Why is the Civil War your favorite time in history?
A: There’s literally no other period in history of our country when the United States was so on the brink of utter destruction. And yet in the midst of all the violence, all of the bloodshed, and all of the upheaval, both sides displayed such a remarkable resilience, and dedication to their causes. It’s just absolutely remarkable and fascinating to me. The Civil War literally made us who we are today, for good and bad because we are still dealing with the legacy of that war. And in some respects that are some very positive outcomes, but in other respects we are still having to contend with some of the things left undone, that weren’t actually reconciled. If American’s come to grips with the American Civil War then they will better understand why things are happening that way they are today.

Q: So is that what you’re book is about, analyzing the Civil War?
A: In a way yes. It’s actually biographical in one sense because it’s a study of two brothers and their family in Seguin, Texas. I use their wartime experiences, their writings, their lives as a lens to better understand the larger war. The larger experience of Americans in the midst of this incredible upheaval and just destructive conflict.

Q: Are you putting yourself in the position of those brothers, or are you actually getting this information from documents?
A: It’s actually their writings, their diary, their letters. I started researching for this book really hard-core in about 2006, and it took me the better part of five to six years to finish the research. And most of the letters and the diaries, and the various papers and documents that I have, I’ve gotten from archives all over the state as well as out of state. I’ve also been able to contact direct descendants of these two brothers and get access to letters, and other family papers that have literally never been seen by historians before. So I have, in my possession, all surviving letters for these two brothers and their families during the war. They are very observant, and their personalities come through in their work, in what they wrote. It’s a tragic story, not to give anything away, but both brothers do not survive the war. It’s a terrible experience, and their descriptions of the battles were are very graphic, intense, and the grief that they experience as they lose friends and relatives in combat. My hope is that the readers feel as though they are there and can connect to the war in a way that they never did previously.

Q: What life lesson or advice would you give any student?
A: I would say to pursue your passion. I think that ultimately we need more people who are truly passionate and excited about what they do because that has a ripple effect, there are waves and repercussions that ripple out into society when you show that you care about what you do.

Q: What is the best advice you have ever received and what impact did it have on you?
A: Actually that very thing. So, I really appreciated that advice, to seek what I enjoyed.

Q: Being a new teacher, how are you adapting to the school?
A:I have been very impressed by how well organized and ran everything is. Any discomfort I have is just my own, and it’s simply because I’m still adapting. I’m still “learning the ropes.” I’ve kind of accepted that coming into this year, that there are going to be some growing pains and some things that I needed to just get familiar with and adapt to. But I know that after this year, things are going to be a lot smoother so I have had a very positive experience up to this point. So I’m excited to be here.

 

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