clair057

Many months ago I set up a Facebook page for this blog where folks could like the page and could have yet another way to keep up with updates.     Last week I was surprised to see someone had placed something on my wall that really made me smile.  HighBeam.com had stopped by my Facebook home to advise the following: To thank you for all your hard work and dedication we would like to acknowledge you by including History Is Elementary in our Top 10 Favorite Blogs for educational research. Now, isn’t that nice?!?  Notice my little badge is over in the sidebar. HighBeam's blog shared a link to this blog along with the other nine.  Here they are: Homeroom : The Official Blog of the U.S. Department of Education Honors College Admission Blog : The Honors College Admission Blog for Western Kentucky University with valuable commentary and tips The College Solution : The Blog of Lynn O’Shaughnessy, a nationally recognized college expert, higher-ed jo...

A good friend sent me this article the other night written by Rob Boston and published in the Pittsburg Post-Gazette.  My friend wanted to know my thoughts about the article.    He also wanted to know if the article was factual.   After reading the entire piece I advised my friend the article was indeed factual even though it was contrary to those who happen to think certain members of the Founding Fathers were Christians in the same sense the Religious Right profess to be. For the most part while I tend to be a Conservative in political matters, I also tend to part ways with the Religious Right in this county who follow a hard-line stance regarding their view concerning our nation was founded on Christian beliefs.      It really comes down to understanding what the Religious Right believes a Christian to be and how the majority of our Founding Fathers actually viewed Christianity when you place them under a microscope. I advised my friend, “ We ...

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 problem...

Christmas Day I sat in a very full movie theater and experienced a crowd so moved by what they had watched they cheered and clapped at the end of the movie.    It’s such a rare occurrence.   I think I can count on one hand the times in my life where I’ve witnessed clapping after a movie, but the particular movie I saw deserved it.  I just have to wonder how many of those people realized they enjoyed a story that was originally published as juvenile fiction. Yes!   The movie War Horse was originally published as a book for young adults in 1982 by Michael Morpungo. The movie could be summed up by five words – a boy and his horse – but it’s so much more than that.   While the main storyline involves a very special horse and a young man who owns him there are other story lines as well involving duty, responsibility, patriotism, etc.  Morpungo expertly weaves a tale about the horse and various people he meets before and during the course of W...

I've been writing about the official White House Christmas card here at History Is Elementary and American Presidents Blog since 2006 .  I love to look back at past administrations to see what design was chosen. Unfortunately, over the last few years the card seems to cause some type of controversy...either it causes the politically correct leaning folks to be appalled because a Bible verse is on a card that happens to be recognizing a holiday  which happens to celebrate the birthday of Jesus Christ OR the card happens to be too secular for the taste of Christians who get their feathers ruffled because there aren't enough details on the card to determine it is in fact a Christmas card. Well, this year is no different. Head on over to American Presidents Blog for the whole story and to get a glimpse of this year's official card.

When we think of Flappers we think of women in the 1920s wearing dresses with low waistlines, with hemlines a little below the knee, long strands of beads, rolled stockings, cloche hats, bobbed hair and lots of dancing, right? 1. All of that is true and more including rather scandalous behavior for the times that had to do with smoking, wearing make-up and being sexually promiscuous.  It has to be pointed out though some women took on the Flapper style, but they opted out regarding some of the more scandalous behaviors, but others took to some of the more tame activities which including driving a car. 2. The word "flapper" dates back as far as 1631 and meant "prostitute."  Eventually, it came to be a slang term referring to a mid-teenage girl.  In 1904, the novelist Desmond Coke used the term "flapper" in a sentence that read, "There's a stunning flapper." 3. Many think the Flapper Era began in the United States, but it can actually be traced...

I have to admit that I have had my fair share of overdue library books before.    Stuff happens, right? We don’t mean to steal the book.  We just get a little sidetracked with our busy lives or the book ends up in a place where it is no longer in our line of sight and we forget all about it. We’re human, right? Why on Earth would we think that the same thing couldn’t have happened to President George Washington? (Head on over to American Presidents Blog here for the rest of my story……)