Yes, it’s one week away, folks!
Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa
Today in Humanities class, the students watched part of an episode (the first 53 minutes and 46 seconds, to be exact) of We Shall Remain, a five-part television documentary history of Native America. Produced by American Experience, it is a project which, according to the website, “shows how Native peoples valiantly resisted expulsion from their lands and fought the extinction of their culture — from the Wampanoags of New England in the 1600s who used their alliance with the English to weaken rival tribes, to the bold new leaders of the 1970s who harnessed the momentum of the civil rights movement to forge a pan-Indian identity.”
The portion – Tecumseh’s Vision – which the students watched told the stories of two Shawnee brothers, Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa and their early 19th century dream of and fight for an independent Indian state.
If you were absent today, please click on the first link in this post and watch the video.
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To Kill A Mockingbird
The 8th grade has just begun reading To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper’s Lee’s classic 1960 novel. Read along.
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Technological Change Projects: Research Paper and Interview
The 8th graders have just begun to work on two projects in Humanities: a research project on technological change in the first half of the 19th century and an interview and survey project.
The cotton gin, a technology with wide-ranging impact on the United States in the early 19th century
I highly suggest looking at these two websites: one on technology in 1900, one on predictions made in 1900 about technology in the the next century*, and one on predictions made in the 1950s about life in the future.**
While this information doesn’t deal with the 19th century, it does deal with the interesting topic of technology. This information asks us to think about the following questions. What kinds of technology existed in different time periods? How did those technologies impact how people communicated, traveled, and worked? What did people in the past believe would exist, technologically, in the future?
* Some of those predictions – “Wireless telephone and telegraph circuits will span the world” – have certainly rung true, while others – “Pneumatic tubes, instead of store wagons, will deliver packages and bundles” haven’t.
** Some of those that haven’t come true – “There will be no more wars because we will be able to produce so much that everyone will have what they need” and “A Personal Fatigue Meter will sound when it is time for you to go on vacation” – we might long for eagerly.
The internet: the plugged-in world
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Technological Change and Transformation: Inventions of the 1800s
Introduction
The overarching themes that the students are going to address in the coming weeks in their study of American history are westward expansion and technological change.
Beginning with the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the momentum of the United States was directed to the west. European settlers set out for the Ohio River Valley, the Great Plains and beyond. Native Americans, already pushed out of the way on the Atlantic seaboard, were being swarmed all over once again. Black slaves continued to clear land and work on, among other places, tobacco and cotton farms. In some eastern cities, some children began to regularly attend school. Women, men and children struggled to survive; some women struggled for more rights. Some workers in eastern cities began to stage strikes in efforts to obtain better working conditions. Technological and scientific innovations led to new industries and new medical practices. The country, during the course of the first half of the 19th century, exploded from a backwater into a global power.
In large part, this expansion of the boundaries and possibilities of the country was made possible by new technologies.
During the first half of the 19th century, this country developed rapidly and industrially, going through what many historians call an industrial revolution. This revolution refers to a change from people making the things they needed primarily at home to goods being made by more complicated machines and in factories. Communication changed. Transportation changed. The production of various materials and goods changed. As a result, society also changed in many ways.
Assignment
Each student will be researching an important technology used in the United States from the first half of the 19th century. (We’ll stick to the years between 1800-1850, give or take a few.)
Look here for more details.
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Lord of the Flies
Today in humanities class, the students watched the 1963 film version of William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies, which they have just finished reading.
The Peter Brook film is a classic in that black-and-white, early-sixties, art-house, directed-by-a-Shakespearean-stage-director sort of way. While Bosley Crowther, reviewing it for the New York Times on August 20, 1963, wrote that the film is “a curiously flat and fragmentary visualization of the original,” a book which he regarded as “extraordinarily agitating” and “as stirring and shocking a story as has been published in a long time,” I consider the film a really illustrative adaptation of the novel, one which clearly illustrates Golding’s messages about the savagery that lurks under the veneer of civilization and about the dark corners of human nature that inhabit us all.
He was, recall, writing this novel in the wake of the Second World War, an era gasping in the aftermath of atrocity, an era defined by the fear and horror of nuclear devastation (and a frighteningly clear awareness of what had just taken place).
To conclude his review, Crowther wrote, “For a few agonizing minutes, the feel of barbarity is there. Then salvation is presented, and the picture mercifully ends.” Come on, Crowther. It’s not that bad. Sure, it’s certainly not the best piece of filmmaking: the scenes are a bit jagged, and the acting is at times rather stiff, but it is worth a look. And the ending, where society’s descent into chaos is – at least momentarily – halted, is in fact merciful, though not in the way Crowther means.
One of the key allegories of the twentieth century, for sure. An allegory for all time, indeed.
Parents, if you want to know what your kids have been reading, watching and discussing here at school, read the book and watch the film. I had a great conversation about the film with some of your kids while we ate lunch today. It’d be great to continue that conversation at home.
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Winter Vacation Is Here!
First of all, many thanks and much gratitude from the entire 8th grade team for the holiday cards and gifts. The thoughtfulness means a lot.
I hope that everyone, over the vacation, has time to relax and enjoy time with friends and family.
In addition, I enthusiastically encourage everyone to read a little bit: a newspaper article, a novel, a short story, a magazine article. Go to the library, the bookstore, the internet.
Play some Scrabble, some Jotto, or some other word game to keep your brain on its toes!
Read up on post-revolutionary American history. Read over the Constitution. Look at, think about, ponder the Bill of Rights. Research the period from 1789 to the end of the first decade of the 19th century. This website on 19th century American cultural history is full of rich information on – among other things – art and business, politics and science, music and fashion.
Lastly, take a look at the Homework page to review what Mr. Sigler has asked you to do over the vacation.
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Lord of the Flies
Just this week, the 8th grade students began to read the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding. It’s a fascinating, thought-provoking novel that deals with society, government, human nature, and our tendency towards chaos and savagery, among other themes, and one that fits very nicely into our history study at the moment: the post-Revolutionary War period. This week, the students learned about the Articles of Confederation, the country’s first stab at a national constitution. They also learned about one of the most heated, active debates at the time: What should our government look like? How much power should be given to the federal government? How much should be give to the states? The students learned that some Americans feared a strong central government, because – as Jamie put it in class – “they were afraid that it would become just as powerful as King George.” On the other hand, as Solina stated, some “wanted to create a new constitution focused on a strong central government…”
As always, I recommend and encourage parents and friends to read along. Get yourself a copy and crack it open!
The cover of the original British publication
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Exhibition
Tomorrow. Here it comes.