The Titanic and its role in history

Everyone is riveted by the story of the Titanic, which sank in the North Atlantic on April 15th, 1912.
Over 1500 passengers died.  The story has many gripping elements:  women and children were loaded into the life boats first, it was going too fast, and great changes in maritime law were a result of the tragedy.

When I was young, my grandfather, who was born in 1900, told me how he went to hear a fireman speak about the ordeal in Albany, Oregon.  The fireman had survived the ordeal by swimming in the ocean and wearing a fur coat.  My grandfather paid 25 cents to hear the man speak.  I was always intrigued by the picture of this man swimming around in a fur coat and wondering why he didn't sink!

The story is also much more:  there was a rivalry between Germany and England in the luxury ship lines.  Germany had the four fastest ships at the time, with the Deutschland ocean liner being the leader.  Countries supported the building of these ships, because, in case of war, they could always use them for troop transports.  A few of my students have been down to see the Queen Mary ocean liner, which is moored in Long Beach, California.  It was repainted and renamed the Grey Ghost, and took thousands of troops across the Atlantic to Europe in World War II.  Even during the Falklands war, the British government took the Queen Elizabeth II ocean liner out of private service and had it re outfitted as a troop transport, then, after the war ended, it returned to service.

Historians also point out that the Titanic foreshadowed many events---the clash of Mother nature with technology, and the blind faith in man's hubris or pride in his achievements.  Of course, in a few years, Europe and many other parts of the world will face the upheaval of World War I, with millions dead and catastrophic destruction.

Imperialism: Economics, Strategic, and Humanitarian....

Ninth grade students are learning about Imperialism during the last few weeks of the semester.   They will be learning about old imperialism vs. new imperialism:

Old Imperialism:  God (religion), glory, and greed....

New Imperialism:  Humanitarian reasons, Strategic areas, New Markets

There were differences between the New Imperialism and Old Imperialism.
 New Imperialism was in many ways more intrusive and harmful to native cultures.  However, not all of Imperialism was bad....for many who lived in less developed countries, medicine was available that was life saving. 
Here is a picture that shows both a religious and medical influence.  It depicts an idealized picture of how Western societies view medical help to the "primitives" in the societies they sought to dominate.  Though the main motives for imperialism were economic and strategic, many good people wanted to help less advanced countries adopt modern methods of sanitation and better medical care.

Ernest Thompson Seton and the lessons he learned from Lobo the wolf.

Freshman students have learned about OR7, our own wandering wolf.  They have also learned about the story of Ernest Thompson Seton and his trapping of Lobo and Blanca.

Seton was sent to New Mexico as a Wolf Bounty Hunter.  The wolves were eating cattle in large numbers, because their prior food source, the buffalo, had disappeared.

Seaton carefully laid out poisoned meat and concealed traps.  None of them worked, and Lobo refused the meat and snapped the traps.  It was only when Seton trapped Blanca, Lobo's mate, that he was finally successful.

However, he did not shoot Lobo, but brought him back to a cabin, where, a few hours later, Lobo died.  Seton used Lobo's story in a best seller, entitled "Wild Animals I have Known."  Seton was later accused of "faking nature" by giving human attributes to wild animals.

Since that time, however, the humanization of animals has actually been an effective tool in helping to promote conservation efforts.  With the wide availability of articles and movies about animal behavior, everyone can gain access to studies on animal behavior.

The story of Blanca and Lobo takes place during the great decline of animal populations in the American West.   Now, as the wolf population gains a toehold in the Southen Cascades, the ideas of wilderness, wild animals, and how they impact humans and the environment are discussed.  Most are "thrilled" with the idea that the wolves have
returned to an area where they had been exterminated

FINAL EXAM REVIEW

FRESHMAN STUDENTS:  Click on 9th grade history and write down the answers for your final exam study sheet.

The Great Wave of Immigration 1880-1920

Shaun Tan and The Arrival

Students in 9th grade history are reading a very special book...but it is a book without words,only illustrations.  The book was written by Shaun Tan, and it is called The Arrival.
In the book, he sought to illustrate an immigrant's life in a way that is both fantastic and strange, so that it closely replicates what life must have been like for someone coming to a new country.

Monsters with tentacles, and giants who vacuum up men are all symbolic of the many reasons why immigrants came to this new country.   Censorship and the wars of despotism are also included....all in a fanciful books filled with different images based somewhat on the iconic immigration photos of the late 1800's.

Florence Kelley and the Progressive Era

Florence Kelley (1859-1932) was one of the great woman reformers of the Progressive Era. She campaigned tirelessly for labor rights, including limits on child labor and women's working hours.

Even though she was born into a wealthy family, she learned from example. Her own father removed himself from his business so that he could become an abolitionist preacher.

Florence also had four other sisters--but none of her sisters survived childhood. She grew up the only surviving daughter and only had a distant memory of her small sisters who died young. Really, however, we should all claim "sisterhood" with Florence Kelley. Her whole life was devoted to helping others. She was a socialist who even corresponded with Engels. At this time, however, socialism did not have the negative conotations that it has today. Socialists were responsible for supporting political and judicial reforms that we would take for granted today. One of the cases she supported was Muller vs. Oregon. When Mr. Muller overworked his female employee, the State of Oregon fined him $10.00. He took his appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, where Justice Brandeis prepapared a long brief, based on studies that showed the harmful effects of long working hours on the female body. Mr. Muller lost....and soon other laws would support greater protections for women.

Welcome to Sprague, Freshman Students

Mrs. Olsen is back at Sprague, ready and willing to teach 176 Freshman students history.

This is the first time in her career she has taught the same class.  That means she will be able to be even more creative and use the new teaching methods she learned in Boston this summer.

Mrs. Olsen is a graduate of Sprague High School, and though she looks about 29, she can remember the assassination of John F. Kennedy.  That's a lot of history since then.

She spent her summer building her front deck and painting her house.  She has two rabbits, two dogs, and two cats that think they own her.  It has been a long hot summer, and she is happy to be back and the air conditioned school.   This summer she spent some time with the National Endowment for the Humanities in the Boston Area learning about the first major Indian War with the Colonists.  She also spent some time in Plymouth and saw where the pilgrims lived.  She even ate a pilgrim meal that was authentic for the time.  It wasn't quite Burger King.   She asked if they had catsup, and the leaders gave her a dirty look.  Mrs. Olsen puts catsup on the catsup.

We will start this year reading a great book about a boy growing up in a New York tenement called Finn Reardon.  This will be one of many books we will read this year.  I'm looking forward having a great year in my new room, Room 161.