Little House on the Prairie

Little House

Our visit to the Independence Little House site was worthwhile for a variety of reasons. The most basic impression is simply how little the house is. Even at its diminutive size, however, it is clear from the replica that the construction of the original by “Pa” would have been an extremely strenuous process, especially considering that the timber and stone would all have had to come from the creek. While it was hot enough during our visit to dissuade me from walking down to the creek, it was fairly obvious that the creek at its closest was at least a half mile away, and I cannot imagine that the horses could have pulled many timbers or too much stone at one time. The description of the building of the fireplace in the book was especially interesting to me, so I was pleased to examine the replica. While seeing the site brings the book to life to a degree, it still takes considerable imagination to picture the site in 1868. One has to eliminate the extraneous structures, most of the trees and the cars on the highway. One also has to imagine most of the grass, except for that in the immediate vicinity of the cabin, being head-high. The information from our guide was useful, especially because I was able to become more comfortable with some of the obvious discrepancies in the book; I saw it in the sense of a composite of Laura’s family’s experiences rather that an exact account of her life. My daughter loves the little House books, and I think I’ll take her for a visit. I’m not sure I agree with the decision to put the schoolhouse and the post office on the same site, although they were interesting in their own right. For more information see http://www.littlehouseontheprairie.com

Life

It was clear right away what Dr. Matthew’s purpose was with this activity and I thought it was a good combination of simple and effective. I had never read any of the Little House books before this class, so I was bothered by some of the things in the book that didn’t quite fit together in terms of dates and Kansas history. Our trip to Little House and the memory activity made me more comfortable with the book as more of a composite of remembered experiences. I decided as I was struggling to come up with my own timeline that it would be an extremely useful activity to use with my students as a lesson on the limitations of the historical evidence in things like memoirs. It’s also an interesting way to look at how we remember. As Dr. Matthews pointed out, the calendar year is a construct that doesn’t necessarily mesh with how we recall our lives.

Agriculture Today

I’ve been asked to address the topic of change in the agricultural aspects of my community during recent years. My comments will be based entirely on personal observation and are not backed by data. (I suspect that one valuable source for such data would be the local FSA/NRCS office.) My connections to this community date to childhood although not on a continual basis. For the last 12 years I have lived on the family farm northwest of Moran in Allen County, Kansas. While I do not farm, I co-manage the family’s interest in the operation with my grandmother and pay close attention to the actual farming, which is done by a father-son team of relatives. As a starting point, it’s worth noting that the father and son farm not only their own holdings, but also all of the land once farmed by my grandfather and his two siblings. This is the general pattern in Allen County. Most farms are still family operations, but the smaller outfits are essentially gone; there will clearly be further consolidation as the current group of 60-70 year old farmers retires. There is no such thing as a young farmer who starts out from scratch on his own. The last really big shakeout in this area was during the 1980s agricultural debacle; change since then in terms of numbers of farmers has been incremental but steady. Allen County is probably just far enough outside the Kansas triangle to keep many of its acres from being attractive as the sort of 40 acres ranchettes that are in demand closer to urban areas. In other words, the price of an acre of Allen County land is still usually a function of its agricultural potential. That price is still so high, however, that it’s hard for me to see how the remaining farmers can make it pay. They clearly could not make it pay in the absence of the various government payments, which for some local farms I suspect runs to at least a third of all income. The relative stability of recent years owes a great deal to those payments. Agricultural practices in Allen County have changed in ways consistent with natural trends. Changes in machinery and chemical/fertilizer application have radically reduced the man-hours per acre. By way of example the father and son who farm our place (as well as some 3,000 other acres) hire additional help only during harvest and sometimes not even then. They no longer do any of their own chemical application. The chemicals that they pay to have applied significantly reduce the work during the growing season. They lose some time in harvest because of having to drive further to an elevator, but the overall impact of technological and mechanical change has them essentially idle for significant portions of the growing season, to say nothing of the winter. In sum, while agriculture is still the way most of Allen County’s land is used, there are fewer and fewer of its inhabitants that make a living from the land. As a teacher, I see fewer and fewer students whose families derive any, let alone all, income from farming. Because I suspect that the nation will continue to want its food cheap and fast and highly packaged, I see no particular reason that the trend will change. If I were Agriculture Secretary for a day, I would propose that any future government assistance to agriculture be tied to sustainable practices. The twin results in my idealistic opinion would be higher crop prices (because of lower yields) and healthier land.

Bakke Case

There’s an 8th grade Civics-Government standard on recurring issues of minority rights with affirmative action as one of the examples. After reading The Bakke Case by Howard Ball, I feel much more confident that I could get into this issue with my students and explain both sides of what is an extremely complex Constitutional issue to them. I’ve shied away in the past from using affirmative action as an issue to teach Constitutional interpretation because of that complexity. I’ve felt that I would just confuse 8th graders whose natural instincts are for explicit fairness and therefore would be unable to see the real v. ideal world arguments that support affirmative action. I’m not saying that I would expect them to agree with those arguments but I would like to be able to explain them so that they could understand. Eighth graders tend to label all adult action that they cannot understand as “stupid” and I would like for them to see that there are rational arguments to be made for affirmative action, whether they agree with them or not. My students are 95% white and while they are dismayed by the historical situation of minorities in America, it’s very difficult for them to put themselves in someone else’s shoes in terms of imagining the current world. I will use what I have learned from this book to do more than just explain affirmative action. Ball does a good job of explaining various Supreme Court procedures from the decision to hear a case, to the role of clerks, to the nature of oral argument before the court, to the role of amicus briefs. He also does a good job of reviewing the unpredictable ways in which deaths, retirements and elections interplay to change the personality of the court. If nothing else, Bakke is an extraordinary example of the fact that judges are living, breathing humans and that their interpretation of the Constitution is necessarily less than computer-like.

Vietnam-National Archives

I have all students read Rifles For Watie as part of my Civil War unit. The main character in the book receives a Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions during battle. Those actions include voluntarily going to the aid of a Union artillery battery as it comes under Rebel infantry attack. When I first read the book, I felt that the author had written unrealistically, that the character’s actions, while commendable, were not Medal of Honor caliber. However, after doing some research, I discovered that for a variety of reasons, the Medal of Honor was awarded far more liberally in the Civil War than in any subsequent war. I use this episode in the book now to teach a small lesson on the medal and its history. I have a book, which excerpts some of the commendation language for awards of the medal in 20th century wars. I read from these to demonstrate the kinds of actions for which the medal has been awarded since the Civil War. I explain that often the medal has to be awarded posthumously. I also have a chart of statistics about the awarding of the medal that make it clear how much more liberally the medal was awarded in the Civil War. This helps me reinforce the historical credibility of the book. The image I’ve attached will enrich my lesson considerably. I will also use some of the related images archived with the eyewitness statement, including a description of the terrain and some nice diagrams. (ARC Identifier: 305387 Title: Eyewitness Statement of Michael Watson, Second Lieutenant, Company D, Second Battalion (Airborne), 501st Infantry, 101st Airborne Division, ca. 03/12/1968.This eyewitness statement contains evidence of the actions of Staff Sergeant Clifford C. Sims, who distinguished himself on 21 February 1968 in the battle of Hue, Republic of Vietnam. As a result of this and other statements, Staff Sergeant Sims was awarded posthumously the Congressional Medal of Honor. )

Truman Library

While the Truman years are in a strictly chronological sense outside the scope of the 8th grade curriculum, I see several ways I might have students use the Truman Library website. Most of these would come in the context of the civics/government standards having to do with a close examination of the Constitution and more specifically in my efforts to explain Article II and the executive branch. One of the things I try to stress with my students is the overwhelming level of responsibility that accompanies the modern presidency as well as how the role of the president has grown beyond the text of the Constitution. The collections of documents having to do with the decision to drop the bomb and to desegregate the military are ideal illustrations of these concepts. I suppose with both collections I would have students pick documents and summarize their contents; I would then ask them to explain the impact of the document on the sequence of events, whether the document would have pushed Truman toward or pulled him away from the final decision. These really are both very useful collections of documents. One that stands out among the bomb decision documents is the Petition from the atomic scientists asking Truman not to use the bomb. Among the interesting ones on the desegregation decision is the brief history of black military contributions done by a black officer. This might be valuable in terms of teaching those contributions with a Veteran’s Day activity. These materials on desegregation might also serve as a useful follow up to the 8th grade standards on the aftermath of Reconstruction, offering more perspective on the length of the struggle. Another potentially valuable tool in terms of teaching about the nature of the presidency would be the online diary; a student could pick a few representative days and keep a list of different aspects of the job. The diary is also “every-day” enough that students can see the human side of the presidency. It might also be instructive for students to compare some of the political cartoons with the ones I show them about the current president. Finally, students might explore the link to the exhibits they might see at the museum as a way perhaps of interesting them in visiting the museum.

War Without Mercy

“War Without Mercy”

I read this book a few years ago, but it was worth a second read. The first time through, I’m sure that my lasting impression was of the more spectacular manifestations of the race hatred of both sides, the skulls sent home to sweethearts, the decapitation contests, the monkey cartoons. This time I tried to pay closer attention Dower’s explanation of the intellectual and philosophical roots of Japanese and American racism. The result is that I’m impressed more than ever with the twisted uses to which human intelligence is directed. We (Americans, Japanese, all people, but especially people whose positions of temporary ascendance cause them to look for innate reasons for their good fortune) can make almost any argument with a straight face. While as an American I can never view this story neutrally and while I think I have read enough about the Pacific War to have deep sympathy for the unique miseries of its participants, I still derive sort of a guilty satisfaction from the massive comeuppance dealt both sides. I was also interested this time in the internal contradictions in the propaganda of both sides, for example, the care Americans had to take in differentiating between their Chinese Allies and their Japanese enemies, even though the underlying race hate was not so precise. It’s also interesting to see the use made by the Japanese of the other racial Achilles heels of the Allies, Jim Crow in America and the colonialism of the British, while at the same time not being able to carry the argument too far for fear of seeing too clearly the truth about their more powerful ally. The Japanese also were vulnerable as the war progressed as it became clear to their fellow Asians just what “Co-Prosperity” meant. My students, who tend in typical ugly American fashion to lump all Asians together, are always interested to learn that Asians can wield anti-Asian prejudices.