Getting to the Tooth of the Matter

 

Do you know what these are?

If you guessed dental tools you would be correct?

Now, who owned them?

None other than America’s silversmith and favorite son of Liberty who rode the countryside warning the folks that the British were coming. 

No…not William Dawes, but that other one.  Yes, old what’s his name?

Yes!  Paul Revere!

Following the French and Indian War the economy in the colonies had been what is described by some today as an economic downturn.

Actually, folks were really hurting financially. Not only did the colonies take a hit with the French and Indian War there was something called the Stamp Act that severely impacted Paul Revere’s business.

With creditors after his property and no orders coming in for his metal working Revere turned towards dentistry.

Seems logical. Right?

A surgeon staying with a mutual friend taught Revere some of the tricks of the trade.

Yes, five years before his midnight ride the following ad appeared in the Boston Gazette and Country Journal dated August 20, 1770 titled “Artificial Teeth” that stated:

“Paul Revere, Takes this Method ‘of returning his most sincere Thanks to the Gentlemen and Ladies who have employed him in the care of their Teeth, he would now inform them and all others, who are so unfortunate as to lose their Teeth by accident or otherways, that he still continues the Business of a Dentist, and flatters himself that from the Experience he has had these Two Years (in which Time he has fixt some Hundreds of Teeth) that he can fix them as well as any Surgeon-Dentist who ever came from London, he fixes them in such a Manner that they are not only an Ornament, but of real Use in Speaking and Eating:  He cleanses the Teeth and will wait on any Gentleman or Lady at their Lodgings, he may be spoke with at his Shop opposite Dr. Clark’s at the North End, where the Gold and Silversmith’s business is carried on in all its Branches.”

Revere made his dentures from walrus ivory.

Now, I know what you are thinking…

No, as far as I know Revere never crafted a set of dentures for George Washington.

I’ve written here about the tragic death of Dr. Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill (Breed’s) using Trumbull’s iconic painting with students.

Amazingly, Paul Revere was the one who was able to identify Warren's body nine months after the battle because he recognized a tooth he had replaced in Dr. Warren's dental work.

Paul Revere...forensic dentistry.

Don't you love the twists and turns of history? 

Fruithurst, Alabama....an Example for Boom and Bust

Boom and bust – basic social studies vocabulary words, right? 

Think about how you learned these words.   I would imagine you were taught about boom and bust during an exploration of the Gold Rush, right?

Most everyone is….and that’s my point. 

Are there other situations where the terms boom and bust could be used? 

Of course there are, and recently I stumbled across one that I found really interesting via a friend.  

Let’s examine Fruithurst, Alabama – a rural little hamlet near the Georgia border in Cleburne County.   As far as population goes most elementary schools have a larger student body than Fruithurst’s total population.  The 2000 census indicates the population tops out at a whopping 200 people. 

If we transported ourselves back to 1890 and the area where Fruithurst is located we might be lucky if we found 200 people. In fact, the area wasn’t even known as Fruithurst in 1890.   The area was first known as Summit Cut and later Zidonia (pronounced “Zildonee”) by Scotch-Irish farm families.

Things began to change, however, in 1894 when a company known as the Fruithurst Company bought up large holdings of land and many of Scotch-Irish moved on to other areas.    The company was formed by a group of Northern entrepreneurs who envisioned transforming a portion of Alabama’s piney woods into a winemaking region.

Yes!   A winemaking region.

Per Wayne Ruple who wrote the book Cleburne County the Northern businessmen had several goals, but the main one had to do with creating the second best vineyards in the world
.

Most of the investors were from the Chautauqua grape belt in New York state like Garrett Ryckman of Brocton Wine Cellars.   E.B. Hammitt & Co. promoted the land.   Per Thomas Pinney in A History of Wine in America:  From the Beginnings to Prohibition, the New Yorkers wanted to promote immigration to the area and to develop fruit growing through a cooperative scheme.

The town name – Fruithurst – came about through a contest the organizers held.   One woman was the lucky winner of $25 for coming up with the name.

Part of the scheme involved encouraging immigrants from Germany, Sweden and even Hungary.  Every man who bought ten acres of vineyard land was given a lot in the town, its location determined by the type of house he planned to build.

The developers laid out an ambitious “model city” with intricate diagonal streets instead of the usual checkerboard pattern.   Promoters planned everything….even where the flagpole would go…..and right behind the flagpole was the Fruithurst Inn, a large hotel built for $40,000.   The building had 3-stories, 80 rooms, a billiard room, bowling alley, and barber shop as well as central steam heat.

Virginia Voss Pope advises in Fruithurst, Alabama’s Vineyard Village…..Promoters and investors began to arrive so fast during this time that homes could not be constructed rapidly enough to meet the demand and many of these new arrivals had to be put up as borders.

It only took four years for Fruithurst to become a real boomtown with 800 residents from around the nation….many from Minnesota… and Europe per Ruple.  

Over 3,000 acres were planted with over 100 varieties of grapes. Various fruit trees were also planted including plum trees.   Several packinghouses were built and dozens of pickers were hired making thirty cents a day.

Ruple advises the yields were staggering.  One vineyard produced 8,324 pounds of grapes in a single year…..23,000 gallons of wine were produced in 1898.

It really looked like the Northern entrepreneurs had achieved their goal….making Fruithurst the location for the second best vineyards in the world ……..especially when a French winemaker called the Fruithurst product “the best wine [I have] seen in the South.”

However, the boom was not to last.

The vine market slumped, native vine diseases attacked the more familiar northern varieties, and a severe winter and national Prohibition helped close the wineries in 1919 per Ruple. 

The colonists found out they were selling their grapes to Northern markets at a loss, a lumber mill showed no profit, an excelsior mill and two wineries burned and most importantly state prohibition spelled the doom of the wine-making industry.  

Discouraged by these failures and unable to adapt themselves to changed economic conditions a general exodus began and eventually the property was liquidated at a sheriff’s sale.

This link takes you to page 41 of Wayne Ruple’s book….Cleburne County……where there are several pictures of the town during its heyday including homes, vineyards, and the Fruithurst Inn.   The pictures are very interesting to look at.

Over the last few years the vineyards are beginning to return to the South including the land around Fruithurst.......

I think it would be very interesting to focus on the Fruithurst story in the classroom due to the Prohibition angle as well.  Most students are taught about Prohibition as it related to the 1930s, but here in the South the years before and after the turn-of-the-century involved the Temperance Movement and Prohibition locally long before the national movement took hold.

When Cross Curriculum Intentions Go Wrong

So....little Johnny or Susie brings home a teacher prepared worksheet filled with several math problems for homework.  At some point a parent decides to check the answers or at least review  the sheet to see what type of assignment had been given.

Some of the problems are troubling:

1. "Each tree had 56 oranges.  If eight slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?"

2. "If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week?"

Yes, I'm serious.   This actually happened recently in a Georgia classroom per  this link.

I hope you have a problem with these questions.  I certainly do, and I applaud the parents in this situation for complaining.

Why would teachers include such insensitive questions within a math assignment?

The spokesperson for Gwinnett County Schools advised the teachers were trying to provide students with a cross-curricular activity by incorporating social studies lessons into the math problems.

The school system agreed the questions were inappropriate.  The assignments were gathered and shredded so they wouldn't resurface.  The spokesperson was quoted as saying, "The problem with the question is there is no historical context."

True...there is NO context.

An article from the Atlanta Journal provides another quote from the system spokesperson..."It was just a poorly written question."

Poorly written?   Seriously?

Teaching across the curriculum is a little more involved than taking one aspect of a historical event and throwing a question into a worksheet.These questions are more serious in my view than having no historical context and being poorly written.   

They are without question insensitive and indicate the teachers involved have no clue regarding what “teaching across the curriculum” means.

Instead of focusing on the slavery issue the math questions could have taken a look at the large numbers of soldiers killed on both sides of the war where students could work on determining the differences between battles or averaging the numbers across a few battles similar to this lesson plan.   This would open up discussion regarding the cost and benefits of war.

Here's a lesson plan involving symmetry and the Civil War.  

Another idea that would bring in the slavery issue but would be more sensitive than the worksheet questions I mentioned above involves freedom quilts to teach geometry.   A great book to introduce freedom quilts to students is….Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt (Reading Rainbow Books (Pb))

There are lots of great resources out there to help teachers get on track with cross curriculum  thinking....which is one of the reasons why I’m going to be shaking my head over this situation for a long time.

Seriously? Seriously.....

The television show Grey’s Anatomy has made the word seriously a go to word when shocked, surprised, angry, etc. as seen in this video:




I’ve even been known to use it myself, so when a friend sent me the following pictures I started thinking about the concept of the word serious and its connotations regarding the field of education.





These pictures show a different kind of airline, don’t they? The labeling on the plane reminds me of primary elementary classrooms where the teacher labels everything,and the classroom itself becomes a functional word wall…..desk, chair, television, computer, etc.

These are photos of a South African plane belonging to Kulula Airlines….

To say they do things different at Kulula is an understatement. Here are a few statements you might hear if you are a Kulula passenger:

On a Kulula flight, (there is no assigned seating, you just sit where you want) passengers were apparently having a hard time choosing, when a flight attendant announced, "People, people we're not picking out furniture here, find a seat and get in it!"

From a Kulula employee: " Welcome aboard Kulula 271 to Port Elizabeth. To operate your seat belt, insert the metal tab into the buckle, and pull tight. It works just like every other seat belt; and, if you don't know how to operate one, you probably shouldn't be out in public unsupervised."

"As you exit the plane, make sure to gather all of your belongings. Anything left behind will be distributed evenly among the flight attendants. Please do not leave children or spouses."

So….where am I going with this?

Flying planes……delivering people where they need to on time and safely is very serious business. Yet, Kulula has decided to go about their serious business in a non-serious way.

It seems to me that you can be involved in a serious field of work such as education, but you should never lose your joy…..your passion……because understanding the humorous side of your profession is what helps you to communicate, and communication is key when attempting to deliver content.

Teaching should be fun, and if it is……then learning will be as well.
Looking at things in an entertaining and fun way motivates and builds a love for learning and teaching.

It just seems that THAT should be the primary strategy used by educators.

Oh, I Love to Tell the Story...

I love to tell the story...'twill be my theme in glory...

Yes, I agree today’s title is a very great hymn, and I do love to tell “that” story best of all, but there are many other stories I can’t keep from telling in my professional life even if it means using precious minutes that should be used for unpacking those standards, assigning performance assessments, and attending the latest attempt at an educational assembly.

For example, I love to share with students the story of Washington crossing the Delaware and the events of the Battle of Trenton when the General urged his men on in crossing the icy Delaware followed by a march in the bitter cold only to discover that much of their gun powder was wet. Washington was hoping for a surprise attack on the Hessian forces led by Johann Rall. The irony in the story is not lost on my young students as they realize the stupidity of Rall. A note was found in his pocket following the battle that told advised Washington was on the move. Rall had not paid much attention to the note because he was too busy playing cards. The story of the battle gets even more interesting when students take a look at the famous painting Washington Crossing the Delaware.

I love to compare today’s media hype with those people long ago who joined the bandwagon to shout, “Remember the Maine!” In 1898, the battleship U.S.S. Maine was sent to Cuba to protect U.S. interests in the area. While at anchor in the Havanna harbor the ship blew up. While it was never determined that an unknown enemy had caused the five tons of powder on the ship to explode the U.S. media encouraged war with headlines such as “MAINE EXPLOSION CAUSED BY BOMB OR TORPEDO” and ‘THE DESTRUCTION WAS THE WORK OF AN ENEMY”. Newspaper artists even recreated images of saboteurs fastening underwater mines to the hull of the Maine even though there was no proof that those events had happened. Newspaper magnate Randolph Hurst offered a $50,000 reward for information regarding the truth. Once the “Remember the Maine” cry became viral citizens across the country were speaking out against Spain and were burning the Spanish in effigy. In recent years students have had very grown up discussions regarding how media hype can help support a war or change the popularity of a war depending on the political climate in the country.

Telling the story of little known Americans like Ike, Peter, and John (they aren’t who you think they are) are very powerful educational tools, and I love to share these seemingly unimportant Americans. Students should realize the American story can be told by normal everyday Americans and not just the ones found in their text and trade books. While our traditional historical figures provide the framework our lesser known figures and the stories of our own ancestors can help us to understand events in history.

I love telling the story behind the story---we don’t simply arrive at a point in history by magic. There is always a backstory---a web of various other stories that dovetail and fit in many different ways depending on a given point of view. For example, answering the question have we always had terrorism or is it something new can lead students in all sorts of directions.

While I understand the requirements of my position with regards to beginning at point A and arriving at point B before testing time I love to use historical stories to teach character education. I think it is very imnport to teach kids to understand what motivates someone like Benedict Arnold or what causes a great political leader like Button Gwinnett to self-destruct as he did. Teaching students to evaluate the actions of historical characters is just one step towards developing citizens that can analyze events as their life unfolds---events that effect taxes, waging war, and most importantly elections. Just imagine....a literate electorate!

There are many reasons why I love to tell the story....the main one being I'm just compelled to do it.

I love to tell the story; ‘tis pleasant to repeat
What seems each time I tell it, more wonderfully sweet.
I love to tell the story, for some who have never heard….