Ragtime and the lost art of piano playing

In 9th grade, students have been learning about advances during the Progressive Movement.  They also listened to the piano music of Scott Joplin that captured the "Ragtime" era.  The music was catchy and interesting, and many students had heard it before.  The music of Scott Joplin is featured in a famous film from the 1970's--THE STING.

Learning to play the piano and piano lessons were considered a mark of class during this era.  To have your student in piano lessons meant that the family had enough money to spare....and a piano in their house.  A piano was considered an equalizer, just as a nice car is considered that today.  For many, piano playing ability meant that they were enjoying the popular music of the day.

There are some wonderful ragtime tunes that one can listen to on youtube.  There are also simple versions and more complicated versions of Scott Joplin's music.  His music represented an emerging middle class that had access to pianos and victrolas (early record playings).

Bone China and the Buffalo

Students in 9th grade history have just finished their essay on Settling the West.  They have learned about the reservation system and the Indian Schools.  They also learned about the role the Federal Government plays in administering the Indian School system, including Chemawa Indian School, here in Salem, Oregon.

They read many primary documents about the extermination and decline of the buffalo.  After the buffalo was hunted and eliminated from the plains...the gathering of the bones began.

Huge cartloads of bones were shipped back east...by pickers who now replaced the buffalo hunters of only a few years earlier.  The bones were then shipped overseas to factories where they were crushed and processed into delicate china, that would be labeled "bone china."  It is particularly disheartening to think of the wild buffalo, the majestic creature of the plains, ending its days this way.

Students will also revisit the end of the West when we learn about Ernest Thompson Seton, and his complicated relationship with the wolves of New Mexico as a Bounty Hunter/Artist.

Elizabeth the Great

Students in European History are learning about the life of Elizabeth I---or the queen who should be termed Elizabeth the Great.

As the daughter of Anne Boleyn, who was executed by her father, she sought to maintain order in a kingdom that was undergoing great tension with the reformation/counter reformation.

When she died in 1603, England was wealthy, prosperous, and powerful....

The figure who surrounded her are themselves legends, and have numerous books written about their lives, too...

Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester,
Sir Francis Walsingham
Sir Walter Raleigh
Sir Francis Drake
Lord Cecil
The Earl of Essex

All are part of the glorious Elizabethan Age.  Elizabeth was crowned in Westminster Abbey, and her coronation portrait is an iconic portrait of the English Renaissance. 

Lord Shaftesbury and the young miners.

Ninth grade students are now learning about the early Industrial Revolution and the effect it had on children.  They have also viewed a film about a young girl, Lyddie, who lived and worked in an Industrial Revolution Cotton Mill town.

Students also learned about the good earl, Lord Shaftesbury, who chose to use his background of wealth and education to make conditions better for children and their families in England during the middle of the 19th century.  Lord Shaftesbury's tireless reforms changed history.

This etching shows Lord Shaftesbury going down into the mines himself.  He saw the young boys and their mistreatment and spoke about it in Parliament.  There, no one could question him about his information--for he had been in the mines and seen the abuse of young people with his own eyes.  His testimony helped to contribute to the passing of important reform legislation, including the Mines Act of 1842.

One of his biographers, Georgina Battiscombe, has claimed that "No man has in fact ever done more to lessen the extent of human misery or to add to the sum total of human happiness"

Welcome back...and a trip to Mann Gulch

Well, the summer break is over, and Mrs. Olsen is eager to begin teaching.  This year she will have four Freshman classes, an American Government class, and AP European History.

Mrs. Olsen spent part of the summer in France...but a real highlight was actually in Montana.  She hiked up Mann Gulch to see where 13 firefighters died in August of 1949.

They were dropped in by parachute, and within a few hours, most of them were dead.  Only three survived.  The most famous part about the fire was that one of the firefighters survived by lighting a backfire.  He quickly laid down in the ashes while the fire swept over him.  The others weren't so lucky.   The remainder died of smoke inhalation and burns.  Two survived for just a few hours.

The Mann Gulch story has been depicted in the story Young Men and Fire written by the late Norman MacClean. 

D-Day Graves....and Mrs. Olsen

We are now approaching the end of the year...all students in 9th grade have been given a detailed test guide.  AP European History Students are getting ready for their senior presentations, and we are still finishing up some great books in READING your WAY through HISTORY.

Mrs. Olsen has exciting plans for the summer.  She'll be visiting France with student Brandon Gunn as part of the D-Day Fallen Heroes project---the Albert Small Memorial Scholarship.  She and Brandon are representing the state of Oregon as the commemorate a fallen paratrooper who died on June 6, 1944, and is buried in the Normandy Cemetery.

Our fallen hero, Gene Morrison, didn't make it out of his plane when German anti-aircraft fire destroyed the cockpit.  He was only 22 years old and had been married only a few months before he was deployed to Britain to prepare for the invasion. We'll also be visiting the graves of some other fallen heroes from Oregon.  Thanks to Albert Small's generosity, we're prepared to honor Oregon's sons who are buried in France.

Pot menders and saving money

Ninth grade students are now learning about the Great Depression....and we are making a lot of links to today.  Many of our students are living in families with financial distress...and they are not alone!  We are making many links to "buying on margin" and "predatory lenders."   They know that the great installment buying scheme of the 1920's was similar to today's credit card debt.

In the 1930's money was scarce.  Everyone was encouraged to make due and mend.  Even special pot menders were created to mend the holes in pots.  I have a collection of pot menders (exactly pictured below) that students will hold in their hands.  There was a small slice of cork attached to the metal potmender.  It formed a "suction" that sealed the pot.

Pot menders are one of the collectables of the great depression.  They encouraged thrift and "make do."  During this unit, students will also examine a quilt from the Great Depression.