Madison on education

August 3, 2006

August 4 is the 184th anniversary of Madison’s letter to William T. Barry, with a discussion of the value of education to a free, democratic republic. Parts of the letter are among the most popular of Madison quotations.

A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

James Madison, letter to William T. Barry, August 4, 1822

Madison Building inscription

Photo of inscription to the left (north) of the main entrance on Independence Ave., of the James Madison Building, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

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1 Comment | Education, Good Quotes, History, James Madison, Public education, Public libraries | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

History is bunk – oops!

August 1, 2006

In a blog post which I assume was designed to provoke comment, “The theory of “Intelligent Design” is neither intelligent nor a design,” The Opinionator at CapeCodToday takes on Florida’s new law dictating that only the “facts” of history be taught — I noted the law earlier, here. It’s an entertaining post.

He closes his post:

Some law makers are saying that their history is the best history. They fail to understand that history, like the law, changes and evolves over the decades. If they loved history more, they would understand this. Perhaps they don’t love or even understand history. Perhaps they agree with the American cultural giant Henry Ford, whose 143rd birthday we celebrate today. He once said, “History is bunk.”

Oops. Ford said something like that, but not quite that. According to Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations Sixteenth Edition, Ford gave an interview to Charles N. Wheeler, published in the Chicago Tribune on May 25, 1916. In that interview, Ford said, “History is more or less bunk.”

Nit-picky, yes. Let’s strive for accuracy.

Leave a Comment » | Bad Quotes, Good Quotes, History | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Applied history

July 31, 2006

Here’s a profession where history reading is a critical skill:

Robert Young writes down the measurements recorded by state-of-the-art digital equipment held by survey party chief Barry Brown.

Photo by J. G. Domke, special to Ft. Worth Star-Telegram.

Caption: Robert Young writes down the measurements recorded by state-of-the-art digital equipment held by survey party chief Barry Brown.

See excerpts of the story, about George Washington’s profession, below the fold.

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6 Comments | Business, Current History, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, George Washington, History, Texas, Texas history | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

James Madison, go-to guy

July 31, 2006

School starts soon. History classes will study the founding of the United States. And especially under the topical restrictions imposed by standardized testing, many kids will get a short-form version of history that leaves out some of the most interesting stuff.

James Madison gets short shrift in the current canon, in my opinion. Madison was the fourth president, sure, and many textbooks note his role in the convention at Philadelphia that wrote the Constitution in 1787. But I think Madison’s larger career, especially his advocacy for freedom from 1776 to his death, is overlooked. Madison was the “essential man” in the founding of the nation, in many ways. He was able to collaborate with people as few others in order to get things done, including his work with George Mason on the Virginia Bill of Rights, with George Washington on the Constitution and national government structure, Thomas Jefferson on the structure and preservation of freedom, Alexander Hamilton on the Constitution and national bank, and James Monroe on continuing the American Revolution.

We need to look harder at the methods and philosophy, and life, of James Madison. This is an opinion I’ve held for a long time. Below the fold I reproduce a “sermon” I delivered to the North Texas Church of Freethought in November 2001. Read the rest of this entry »

2 Comments | 1789, America's founding, Freedom - Political, History, James Madison, Religious Freedom, Thanksgiving, U.S. Constitution | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Textbook plagiarism

July 29, 2006

Ouch! One of the major textbook publishers has a minor embarrassment over a case of self-plagiarism. According to the once-formidable, now reduced United Press International:

Textbook similarities an ‘aberration’

UPPER SADDLE RIVER, N.J., July 13 (UPI) — The makers of two textbooks published by Pearson Prentice Hall of Upper Saddle River, N.J., have said near-identical passages in the books are accidental.

A spokeswoman for the company, Wendy Spiegel, said the similarities between “A History of the United States” and “America: Pathways to the Present” are “absolutely an aberration,” The New York Times reported Thursday.

Spiegel said the relevant passages, dealing with the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the war in Afghanistan, and the Iraq War, were added hurriedly by editors and outside writers after the events occurred.

No serious issue, except that the addition of the passages smokes out another problem with history texts: Sometimes what the book contains is not material the authors listed on the cover wrote, or even approve of.

“They were not my words,” said “Pathways” co-author Allan Winkler, a historian at Miami University of Ohio. “It’s embarrassing. It’s inexcusable.”

Former Librarian of Congress Daniel Boorstin is the chief author listed for A History of the United States.

Worse for the publisher: The problems were caught by a major critic of the teaching of history in public schools.

The similarities were discovered by James Loewen, author of “Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong,” while researching an update of his book.

Leave a Comment » | History, Plagiarism, Textbooks | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Flag ceremony update

July 29, 2006

Navy caption: SAN DIEGO (April 2, 2007) - Aviation Support Equipment Technician 3rd Class Danny Ly, Storekeeper Seaman Joe Jackson and Electronics Technician Timothy Swartz fold the American flag on the flight deck aboard nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68). Nimitz Carrier Strike Group (CSG), embarked Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 11 and Destroyer Squadron Group (DESRON) 23 are deploying to support operations in U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jeremiah Sholtis (RELEASED) - Wikimedia image

Navy caption: SAN DIEGO (April 2, 2007) – Aviation Support Equipment Technician 3rd Class Danny Ly, Storekeeper Seaman Joe Jackson and Electronics Technician Timothy Swartz fold the American flag on the flight deck aboard nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68). Nimitz Carrier Strike Group (CSG), embarked Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 11 and Destroyer Squadron Group (DESRON) 23 are deploying to support operations in U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jeremiah Sholtis (RELEASED) – Wikimedia image

Earlier I wrote about a flag-folding ceremony that is making the internet rounds. I noted that much of the claimed mythology is, um, ahistoric.

There is no particular meaning attached to folding the flag. Comments noted that the ceremony making the internet rounds is posted at the website of the American Legion. I wrote to the Legion’s public relations department, but have heard nothing back. Generally, the information on flag etiquette at that site is solid. Only the flag-folding ceremony material is not top-notch. I would be happy were the Legion to add a note that the ceremony is a sample ceremony. Several sites mention that the ceremony comes “from the U.S. Air Force Academy.” One site even had a link, but the link was dead. I did find a few sources that explained further. The Air Force Academy web site may have featured a flag-folding ceremony at one point, perhaps even the one being passed around. One of the more popular ceremonies featured had been written by one of the chaplains at USAFA. As happens in the military, someone got concerned about the accuracy of the claims, and the ceremony was pulled. However, Air Force color guards had used the ceremony, and there was demand for something to say during the folding of the U.S. flag, at some ceremonies.

Below the fold, at some length, I reprint the “official” story.

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19 Comments | Accuracy, Bad Quotes, Flag etiquette, History, Patriotism | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Dismal job market for historians

July 28, 2006

Jason Kuznicki writes about the dismal job market for historians at Positive Liberty.

In contrast to the troubles that afflict elementary and secondary education, Kuznicki writes:

I’m conversant in economics, so I even know the method to the madness: State subsidies for higher education tend to produce an oversupply of educated people. A state can hardly fail to misallocate resources, and, in all likelihood, we have too many universities, too many graduates, and too many PhDs in the fields the politicians think are important — like history.

“Oversupply of educated people.” The kids in my history and economics courses, with whom we struggled to keep them in school for one more semester to get a high school diploma, will not read that, I hope. Nor will their successors.

Leave a Comment » | Education, History, Teaching | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Boston 1775

July 27, 2006

I added a link to a lively blog, to the blogroll (Faucets of information) on the side: Boston 1775. The blog’s author, J. L. Bell, tends to provide the interesting details that tip the scale towards understanding, especially on the motivations of the people of Boston at in the key year of 1775.

To the great benefit of his readers he strays a bit outside of 1775 on occasion. Bell is an active, practicing historian, something a lot of high school kids never see.  1775 was a key year, with the British occupying Boston and the American rebel forces laying siege to the city — all before the Declaration of Independence.

Take a look. Especially see his recent post, Marginalizing rhetoric, in which he explores what makes people regard Sam Adams as a “radical” when he was actually a very conservative man; and George Washington’s signing statements, in which he explores the views of our first president on an issue that vexes many today.

Good historians make history come alive in our minds. Bell does that well, and you would do well to check out his site. I plan to check it out frequently.

Leave a Comment » | America's founding, History | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Don’t study war no more

July 20, 2006

Wizbang complains we don’t study wars enough in public schools. That could be correct.

Wizbang links to old posts by education writer Joanne Jacobsen and North Carolina AP history teacher Betsy to support the point. Interesting posts on interesting blogs (this is not an endorsement of the political views, only a judgment that the comments are interesting).

At Betsy’s old post (2004), I put up some comments anyway:

Gravatar The story of Henry Knox carrying the cannons of Fort Ticonderoga overland — 120,000 pounds worth! — in the middle of winter, to give Washington the bluff to win the siege of Boston, is the sort of story that sticks to the intellectual ribs of kids. The story of the “midnight crossing” at Trenton, after Washington got his tail whipped in New York and things looked more dire than they did at Boston, is another turning point battle. The war doesn’t make much sense, otherwise. They can be told in ten minutes, each. If a teacher wants to expand each into an hour-long exercise, with group activities including charts and graphs, it’s difficult — but what is wrong with good old lecture from time to time — especially riveting lecture?

The social effects are parts of longer threads — the continuous and continuing increase in rights, the rise of free and important women, increasing morality, increasing technology, American communities, and the birth and growth of American-style free enterprise.

All of those threads make the whole of history more comprehensible — but they are all interwoven. The Japanese Internments are part of a larger story on xenophobia and immigration, and the growth of civil rights. To treat it as a stand-alone feature of World War II is to slight the Chinese and Irish workers who built the transcontinental railroad, Sacco and Vanzetti, the Amish, the Mormons, all Hispanics and Vietnamese.

The difficulty I find is that the kids don’t come into 11th grade with anything they should have gotten from 8th grade. But I’ve been teaching at the alternative school. Certainly in AP, you can fly, can’t you?

Why not a unit on the top ten major battles in U.S. history? It would take a day. I have a 50-minute PowerPoint on Brown v. Topeka Board of Education that spans civil rights from 1776 to 2007, and links it all.

1 Comment | 1776, America's founding, History, World War II | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Fisking a Flag-Fold Flogging

July 19, 2006

Update, March 24, 2007: Be sure to see the updated flag ceremony, which you can find through this post on the news of the its release.

Yes, the flag amendment is dead, again. Yes, the Fourth of July is past. False history continues to plague the U.S. flag, however. When my wife forwarded to me the post below, it was the fourth time I had gotten it, recently. Bad history travels fast and far. Let’s see if we can steer people in a better direction with real facts.

A flag folding at a funeral for a military person carries great weight, without any script at all. Wikimedia image from DOD release: Members of the U.S. Navy Ceremonial Guard fold the American flag over the casket bearing the remains of sailors killed in the Vietnam War during a graveside interment ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on May 2, 2013. Lt. Dennis Peterson, from Huntington Park, Calif.; Ensign Donald Frye, from Los Angeles; and Petty Officers 2nd Class William Jackson, from Stockdale, Texas, and Donald McGrane, from Waverly, Iowa, were killed when their SH-3A Sea King helicopter was shot down on July 19, 1967, over Ha Nam Province, North Vietnam. All four crewmembers were assigned to Helicopter Squadron 2.

A flag folding at a funeral for a military person carries great weight, without any script at all. Wikimedia image from DOD release: Members of the U.S. Navy Ceremonial Guard fold the American flag over the casket bearing the remains of sailors killed in the Vietnam War during a graveside interment ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on May 2, 2013. Lt. Dennis Peterson, from Huntington Park, Calif.; Ensign Donald Frye, from Los Angeles; and Petty Officers 2nd Class William Jackson, from Stockdale, Texas, and Donald McGrane, from Waverly, Iowa, were killed when their SH-3A Sea King helicopter was shot down on July 19, 1967, over Ha Nam Province, North Vietnam. All four crewmembers were assigned to Helicopter Squadron 2.

Here is the post as it came to me each time — I’ve stripped it of the sappy photos that are occasionally added; note that this is mostly whole cloth invention:

Did You Know This About Our Flag

Meaning of Flag Draped Coffin.

All Americans should be given this lesson. Those who think that America is an arrogant nation should really reconsider that thought. Our founding fathers used God’s word and teachings to establish our Great Nation and I think it’s high time Americans get re-educated about this Nation’s history. Pass it along and be proud of the country we live in and even more proud of those who serve to protect our “GOD GIVEN” rights and freedoms.

To understand what the flag draped coffin really means……

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28 Comments | 1776, 4th of July, Accuracy, Bogus history, Boy Scouts of America, Flag ceremony, Flag etiquette, Freedom - Political, History, Patriotism | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Rote History in Australia?

July 19, 2006

Controversy over what is taught as history is a worldwide issue.  A couple of days ago I noted the controversy over a new law in Florida.  Now we have news of a similar controversy nationwide in Australia, from the Adelaide Advertiser.

When history is reduced to “dates and facts,” kids tune out.  Worse, they tend to miss any the meaning of any narrative they may get, especially the emotional impact of the narrative.  But that’s exactly why some policy makers urge rote learning of the dates and facts:  Policy makers do not like the narrative.

History teaches us others’ mistakes, or our own, if we live long enough.  That’s where the value comes, in figuring out how to avoid those mistakes when they present themselves to us as choices, tomorrow, or today.  I do not have the facts to tell which side is right in the Australia history issue, but we can learn from the debate, and from what they do.  This also a reminder that educating our kids into our culture is an issue everywhere.

The entire article from the Adelaide paper is produced below the fold.

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Posted by Ed Darrell

More Buck Snort

July 18, 2006

In tracking down the origins of the name of Buck Snort, Tennessee, I have learned two things.

First, there is a Bucksnort, Arkansas. I have no details on that locality.

Second, there is a family named Pamplin who claims to have the skinny on the name. Their story is it was named after their Uncle Buck, sorta:

Bucksnort, Tennessee, got its name from William (“Buck”) Pamplin, a brother of McCager Armpstead Pamplin, my father’s father. Before the Civil War, William owned and lived on the site that later became Bucksnort.

It was like this: William loved whiskey. He would get soused to the ears with the sweet, smelly stuff, and when he did, he would roar and snort till everyone around heard him. They would say: “Just listen to Buck snort.” His snorting became so frequent and the comment was made so often, that the neighbors soon found themselves running the last two words together, thus the place was called Bucksnort.

In the course of time, a post office was needed. The Government wanted to know what name the community wished to be known by. Since William still owned and lived on the site, and since he still kept up his snorting, the neighbors and near-by farmers decided on Bucksnort. It was approved by the Government and the first post office and surrounding community became Bucksnort.

I note they spell the town as one word, while it was two words on the I-40 Exit 152 sign.

The town also appears to be a favorite of Russ Ringsak, one of the writers for Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion. See here, and here.

5 Comments | History | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Florida hiding its history?

July 17, 2006

Earthaid3 sends a link to a column by University of Texas journalism professor Robert Jensen, in which he reports on efforts by the Florida legislature to snuff out the teaching of history in a fashion that recalls nothing so much as Stalin’s Soviet Union:

“Florida’s lawmakers are not only prescribing a specific view of US history that must be taught (my favorite among the specific commands in the law is the one about instructing students on “the nature and importance of free enterprise to the United States economy”), but are trying to legislate out of existence any ideas to the contrary. They are not just saying that their history is the best history, but that it is beyond interpretation. In fact, the law attempts to suppress discussion of the very idea that history is interpretation.”

Go see the column, here: http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0717-22.htm

From this column, it appears to me that Florida, under Gov. Jeb Bush, is headed exactly the opposite direction of Texas, using the laws passed under his brother, Gov. George Bush, and contrary to the federal law, the No Child Left Behind Act.

Most troubling is what appears to be an effort to stamp out teaching about discrimination against African Americans and Native Americans.

Jensen said:

“Is history “knowable, teachable, and testable?” Certainly people can work hard to know — to develop interpretations of processes and events in history and to understand competing interpretations. We can teach about those views. And students can be tested on their understanding of conflicting constructions of history.
“But the real test is whether Americans can come to terms with not only the grand triumphs but also the profound failures of our history. At stake in that test is not just a grade in a class, but our collective future.”

See this account from “Sean’s Russia Blog”: http://seansrusskiiblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/revisiting-floridas-ban-on-revisionism.html

Readers from Florida: Can you lend details? Is this as bad as it seems?

Generally, if teachers are trained well in history, their students will get the sort of education that leads them to be better citizens, able to pull from history what they need to function in their lives as citizens of their cities, states and nation. Propaganda will be, in the end, self-defeating. The best way to teach history is straight up, warts and all, and invite criticism.

Georges Santayana had it right: Those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it. We teach history to avoid exactly that condemnation. Does Florida’s law help toward that goal, or hinder our efforts to educate our children?

Update: J. L. Bell at Boston 1775 looks at the Florida standards specifically with regard to the Declaration of Independence. It’s not pretty.

1 Comment | History | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Bubbles bursting in air: Dotcom and Housing Departments

July 17, 2006

Perhaps you, as a social studies teacher, also teach economics.  Or perhaps you’re trying to help your students understand the dotcom bubble burst, or just venture capitalism in general. 

Then go read Paul Graham’s essay on venture capitalists:  http://paulgraham.com/venturecapital.html

Tip o’ the Cyberhat to Rick Segal.

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Posted by Ed Darrell

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