Summer in Philadelphia and the Steens Mountains

The school year of 2010-2011 has officially wrapped up--so thanks students for an exciting year.

I will be in Philadelphia and New York City in July. In Philadelphia, I'll be learning more about Benjamin Franklin. Each year, Mrs. Olsen manages to travel somewhere historical so I can be a better teacher in the fall.

This year, the National Endowment for the Humanities will be my host. Most of the time, though, I'll be in Oregon, so I hope to see many of you around. One place I'll be camping in August is the Steen's Mountain wilderness area--part of the great Oregon Outback. Besides arrowhead hunting, I hope to have a good time picking up sunstones and spotting the occassional antelope. Of all the places I've been, Oregon is the most beautiful.

In the fall we are going to have a new schedule. I may be having some of you in my classes, so I look forward to seeing you then!

Hitler was not Jewish...

All students in my history classes have been given their final exam study guide...happy studying, kids.

Students in 9th grade history are reading a detailed biography of Adolf Hitler.

My Aunt Marquita, who is mentioned in class from time to time, always said students should learn about Adolf Hitler as he had such a remarkable and terrible influence on the 20th century. I agree.

There are many myths about Adolf Hitler. One of the myths (which was taught by a Sprague teacher years ago) was that Hitler was Jewish. Though members of his family did work for Jewish employers from time to time, that did not mean they were possibly impregnated by them. Hitler was not Jewish!

Hitler hated the Jewish people. This was called anti-Semitism and had its origins in the emergence of science and race during the age of Social Darwinism and eugenics during the 1800's.

Students are learning the the Holocaust was a step by step process of what would be wholesale murders. Various ideas were floated for the Jewish problem: some included the far-fetched idea that Jews should be sent to the island of Madagascar. The more enlightened ideas of the Nazi regime were to include quick transport and quick death, and immediate disposal of the bodies.

The Great Game

Students in 11th grade history are learning about the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. When Russia invaded, they had hopes of propping up the pro-Soviet forces that had allied themselves with the Soviet Union.

Both Russia and Britain vied for control of this region in the 1800's. This interference was called "The Great Game," and Britain avidly fought to exert influence in the region to protect their interests in India.

George MacDonald Fraser set one of his Flashman novels during the Great Game. Flashman was a fictional character who ends up in all sorts of scrapes throughout the colonial British empire.

President Hoover--Oregon's president

President Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) was raised in Oregon after his parents died. He is well-known as the president who presided over the first 3 years of the Great Depression. Hoover flags and Hoovervilles and Hoover blankets were all part of the popular criticisms of President Hoover.

However, Hoover had another reputation--and that was "Master of Emergencies." During the years after World War I, Hoover saved the lives of millions by overseeing the Belgium and Russian food relief program. When asked if he was not thus helping Bolshevism, Hoover retorted, "Twenty million people are starving. Whatever their politics, they shall be fed!" His engineering background helped him oversee an unprecedented movement of food supplies to help people whose lives hung in the balance.

As part of a thank-you, Belgium women took the flour sacks and returned them to the United States, filled with beautiful embroidery, and yes, Belgium lace at the edges.

Years later, after World War II, President Hover was again called out of retirement. Even though President Truman was told to not have anything to do with Hoover, Truman invited Hoover to the White House and asked him to lead the relief effort. Again, President Hoover traveled the world tirelessly helping with food distribution to starving millions.

Helen Keller--one of the great icons.

Imagine if you were a small child who was placed in a room where you could not see or hear--and you were placed there permanently. This happened to Helen Keller when she was just a year and a half old--she caught scarlet fever, an illness that left her deaf and blind. Her story is referred to in our book Witness, a novel about the Ku Klux Klan coming to Vermont. I spoke with the students about dismay when I heard the lyrics from a popular song (even my four year old granddaughter knew the some of the lyrics). Here's what a recent article has to say about this song:

A catchy new pop song that references Helen Keller is being played all over the local airwaves, but it's also creating quite a controversy.

The music video for the song titled "Don't Trust Me" shows band members from "3OH!3" wearing wrestling attire and dancing in their underwear with scantily clad young women.

But for parents, the lyrics are even more disturbing than the outfits. Near the end of the song, the band sings, "Shush girl. Shut your lips. Do the Helen Keller and talk with your hips."

"Helen Keller embodies the achievements of generations of us, whether or not we have a disability. This lyric perpetuates the stigma of disabilility," says Cleveland Sight Center Executive Director Steve Friedman.

Friedman says the song's lyrics aren't just offensive to those with disabilities. "It's perpetuating the sexualization of women, the objectification of women.

Taos Blue Lake

In 11th grade history, students are learning about the American Indian Movement. This last summer I received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to study in Santa Fe, New Mexico. We were taken to the Taos Pueblo, outside of Taos, New Mexico to learn more about their sacred river, and its source, Taos Blue Lake.

Taos Blue Lake is in the mountains above the Pueblo. The setting is beautiful, and it is patrolled by Native Americans who try to keep the site sacred and pristine, for to them, it is the source of the Pueblo peoples.

During the disorganized and predatory time of reservations and land grabs, Taos Blue Lake ended up in the hands of the federal government. After years of advocating for the return of their lands, Richard Nixon signed the return of the lake to the Taos Pueblo. He said,
“this is a bill that represents justice, because in 1906 an injustice was done in which land involved in this bill, 48,000 acres, was taken from the Indians involved, the Taos Pueblo Indians. The Congress of the United States now returns that land to whom it belongs… I can’t think of anything more appropriate or any action that could make me more proud as President of the United States.” For this act, they revere him. If you google Taos Blue Lake, you will only find one picture. For the Taos people, it is so sacred, that they do not want it seen by those who are not of the tribe.

Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge, and Somaly Mam

Students in 11th grade just read an article about Somaly Mam and her valiant efforts to diminish sex trafficking in her native country of Cambodia. Somaly herself was sold into a brothel as a young child, escaped to France, and has since returned to lead the efforts to prevent and educate about the extensive sexual abuse of young girls that exists in Cambodia.

Cambodia has a horrific record on sex trafficking. This is partially due to the vacuum left after the murderous Pol Pot ruled in Cambodia, with his Khmer Rouge regime, from 1975 to 1979. The country was left shattered, while generations of elders were slaughtered by youngsters with machine guns.

Pot turned the Cambodian clock back to year zero, forced the people out of the cities onto collective farms, and then taught the young to murder and commit mayhem. The terror diminished only when the North Vietnamese invaded Cambodia and forced Pol Pot to flee.