Why are we here?

Hi,
I'm Ron Lynam. I thought I would just share some of my answers from the questionnaire we received in class as a way of introducing myself to people who mostly already know me.
I am 54 years old (54, born in ‘54!). As someone who grew up in the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s I probably acquire knowledge in a more archaic way than many of my colleagues. I am definitely not very tuned into getting knowledge digitally - I much prefer reading "hardcopy" and have an innate suspicion of anything generated on the internet, although I do use it more all the time. This is probably fairly limiting to my acquisition of new information since much of that is generated digitally and takes a while to reach the print media. I’m probably behind the curve a lot of the time! I have been teaching for 22 years now. I have taught most of the Social Studies, primarily U.S. History, American Government and Economics. Knowledge in history has changed greatly over time as most historians have come to the perspective that history is far from an exact science and can be interpreted many different ways. The focus of history has change a lot, too, as social history has and continues to emerge as an important historical study, although political, economic and intellectual history continues to be important. As I teach it I learn every day and most of the time I learn that what I thought I knew is wrong. I try to pass that perspective on to my students, many of whom are certainly smarter than I am but think they know more than they do. The humility of history is what I really try to teach.
I am a very casual student of science and nature and, since I have a couple of college degrees in it, anthropology. As these are environmental studies in many ways I guess you could say I’m interested in the world around me, although I don’t have the discipline to be a scientist. I do think my interests affect my teaching of history in my attempt to communicate the importance of environmental considerations in historical events.
Another major influence on me is music. I have been a professional musician a lot longer than I have been a teacher and that is really at the core of who I am. It is a very non-empirical "way of knowing" (I’m probably misusing that term) and, though I probably don’t seem very emotional, is a lot of the emotional side of who I am.