Category: America

American Heritage Field Trip

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dsc_1061On November 18th the US History class went on a field trip to Queen Creek, AZ, to gain a deeper understanding of America’s Revolutionary and Civil Wars. Each year the American Heritage Festival hosts a grand scale, highly interactive educational presentation of diverse civilian and military aspects of historic American life as portrayed by a large and experienced cast of historical interpreters in Queen Creek, just two hours north of our high school campus.

Included in this educational field trip were reenactments, dramatic portrayals ofdsc_1039 both famous and everyday men, women, children, musicians, artisans, craftsmen, singers, colonists, pioneers, mountain men, soldiers and more.  We listened to speeches by famous Americans of the past, heard live historic music, saw historic fashion worn by ladies and gentlemen around “camp,” and watched battle reenactments from the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.

dsc_1167After leaving the festival we happened across a cotton field. We stopped to look at the cotton, as this was a very important crop grown in the south and harvested by slaves. “King Cotton” became a source of contention during the Civil War as it was the foundation of southern economy, southern culture, and southern pride.

A Translation of Common Sense: Reasons for Independence from Great Britain

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This past week our US History students were deep in thought discussing the events that lead to the Revolutionary War. For homework, they were asked to translate Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, which was an article written to the early colonists in support of independence from Great Britain. Paine’s words were perhaps the most influential of the time in convincing the 13 Colonies to separate from the English Crown.

By translating the formal and forgone language of the 1700’s students are better able to understand the common sense points that Paine asserts to his countrymen. Throughout the translation students were also asked to bold Paine’s specific points of contention so that their reader can clearly identify the reasons for a call to independence. Below is a copy/paste of one such translation from a student.

A Translation of Common Sense: Reasons for Independence from Great Britain

October 14, 2016

For a while now, everyone in all social classes and occupations have argued about America and England. It is high time to stop the debate and take action.

Some argue that America’s success is based upon its relationship to England, and that future success also depends upon that same relationship. This is a false conclusion. Someone could just as easily say that because a baby must drink milk to thrive, they will always only need milk. One could say that the first 2 years of a person’s life determines how they will live for the next twenty. But even the initial argument is giving too much credit to England. America would have done much better without Europe’s notice or influence to begin with! America specializes in growing necessities of life, therefore as long as Europeans need to eat, which they always will, America will have a good economy.

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September 11, 2001

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Fifteen years ago today, in the early working hours of the morning, I was working for a non-profit organization, busying myself with paperwork and probably sipping coffee. Word spread fast through the three floors of offices that something dreadful had just happened in New York. I and others on my floor rushed up the stairs to the third floor where the AV department and television was. Half the building crowded around that one television; we watched as the second hijacked plane hit the second tower. We watched as it crumbled to the ground, live there before our eyes. We watched as the events were told and retold, discovering then that we as a nation had been attacked by a foreign people on our own soil: the first time since the Revolutionary War.

I went to Ground Zero less than a week after the attack to assist in rescue work. The buildings were still smoldering then, smoke pluming into the air. Chaos reigned in the streets but the people who ran among them carried an air of nationalism about them: we were united. Probably not since the late 1700s had Americans banded together so collectively on one front; the age of the War on Terrorism had begun.

Never before had I seen so many flags flown from so many different perches: the back of pick up trucks, businesses, along an entire neighborhood row of homes. The flag had once again become a symbol of pride and patriotism, of justice and the power of a united people.

Last week my US History classes watched videos from that fateful day and discussed the details known all too well by those affected so intimately. This week those students participated in a photo shoot to remember those we lost on 9/11. Teaching history is like telling ancestral stories passed from one generation to the next. It is an honor to be called teacher, educator, storyteller.

‘Lest we forget.