Let a teacher do this today and they would be labeled a rogue teacher. Of course, most of the teachers today do not have the dedication that is necessary to be able to pull that off. The push for “standardization” is sealing the coffin of the teacher that would teach with the style of your beloved history teacher. I try to exemplify that history teacher’s style of teaching in my position. We have a set of PowerPoint slides for each class we teach. Our classes are designed for an average classroom to lab ratio of 7:3. I find that most people learn more through hands on activities rather than lecture. I quickly breeze through lectures and feed the details to them while they are working on the equipment. My ratio of lecture to hands on is more like 2:3. My end of course reviews higher than most instructors. Our customers (Intel, Samsung, HP, etc.) use a six month post course exam to determine how much the student rememberes. My students rank very high on that list. I am having difficulty convincing my company that we should move to my style of teaching for all instructors. The set style “guarantees” that all instructors (rookie and senior instructors) present the same information to the students. My argument is that it does not guarantee that they will remember it. The sad part is that I am a certifier for rookie instructors and MUST certify them to the standard, not to my style. :?
I read "The March" by E.L. Doctorow recently...a good book about Sherman's march, albeit a novel. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780812976151&itm=1
One of the most important victories of the Civil War was Sherman's taking of Atlanta. It took the thunder of the anti-war quitters in the north and probably more than anything else was the reason Lincoln won a second term. Every generation has to put up with those that think the cessation of war is a lasting peace.
I looked at that Amazon link Stu, read all the reviews, the vast majority of which were very good. I wonder if this guy is a resident of So.Carolina or Georgia!!
Well stated Gip...had there been no victory in Atlanta, it's not unlikely that Lincoln doesn't get re-elected, the seccessionists still holding bargaining chips with the Union coming out of the war as the real loser, imho.... God Bless Billy Sherman....btw, I purchased sometime back an early edition of his memoirs, Memoirs of Gen. W.T. Sherman published 1891. I started reading it but it was much too fragile. Now, I just pick it up gently from time to time looking for a nugget or two from a brilliant old warhorse.... After leaving Columbus to move down south, I enjoyed introducing myself to my newfound southern friends by telling them I grew up 30 miles north of the birthplace of Willian Tecumseh Sherman, certain that they would be more familiar with that than saying I grew up in Columbus.....my relationship with southerners has gone downhill ever since....... :twisted:
We'll never know.....a question for debate not unlike did we have to "nuke" Japan and/or incinerate the tens of thousands of German and Japanese civilians in the firebombing of their populated cities? Did it work? Yes, in each case..... War is hell, but in under certain circumstances, it can be the best available option.
Sherman's brother John Sherman lived most of his adult life in my town of Mansfield...becoming a US Senator and authoring the Sherman Antitrust Act.
What is old is new I guess with regards to Sherman's march to the sea, I guess he was going back to the way the Visigoths, the Mongol Hordes, the Romans, the Greeks, etc all fough. All out war, when did warfare start to have rules of "honor", Napoleon? I think maybe what General Sheridan did to the Shennandoah Valley was equally as brutal as what Sherman did in his march to the sea. I did read some place that the Confederate General who defended Atlanta (Johnson?) attended Shermans funeral as he respected him as a military man. Sheridan came to Texas as Gov for the recontstruction and was much hated and from what I remember he spent the rest of his career doing ethnic cleansing of the Indians. He was definitely a racist.
re: ethnic cleansing It was Sherman who became the great hero to the Navajo people of Arizona. They had been removed from their homelands to a place called Bosque Redondo in New Mexico by an Executive Order of President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. After being rounded up by Kit Carson and the U.S. Army, they were forced on the Long March of the Navajo that killed off many of their elderly and children. Bosque Redondo was a barren land and they were near extinction by the time Sherman was given control of them after the war. He was horrified at their condition and issued his own orders which returned them to their original sacred homeland where they reside to this day and praise his name. It was said that the Navajo literally kissed the ground when they saw the familiar mountain tops of their Arizona lands... re: Joe Johnston Johnston and Sherman had the most difficult surrender to work out at the end of the war. As they sat down in a tent, Sherman handed Johnston the letter which had just arrived informing him that President Abraham Lincoln had been assassinated by Southern sympathizers. Johnston broke out in a cold sweat and immediately denounced it as an act of murder which didn't represent true Southern feelings. The two of them finally brought in a bottle of whiskey and after many, many rounds of good cheer, worked out a cordial and generous surrender that included not only Johnston's army, but all remaining Confederate armies in the field. In other words: the end of the war. Sherman's bosses at Washington rejected this surrender, because it failed to punish the South and ended their chances of battlefield glory. Sherman was ordered home to face "trial" for having gone soft as Gen. Halleck and the other paper pushers raced to the Carolinas to attack Johnston, but it was too late. The war was over, Grant protected Sherman and the new president...a Southerner...eventually replaced them all. On the reviewing stand for the Grand Victory Parade...Sherman refused to even speak to them. When Sherman died in February 1891, old (84) Joe Johnston stood hatless in the cold rain out of respect for his old friend/foe. When told that he might catch cold, Johnston replied, "Were I in Sherman's place and he in mine, he would do the same." A few weeks later, Joe Johnston died of pnuemonia... re: March to the Sea Sherman informed Grant and Lincoln of his plans and they approved them. He also kept Grant and Halleck informed of his progress each step of the way in letters. For a good laugh, read page 705, (vol II) of Sherman's Memoirs as he contemplates burning his way through South Carolina. Halleck wanted him to burn Charleston, but Sherman prefers Columbia. The local Georgians don't have a preference; they want him to destroy everything in South Carolina! ....JO'Co
Being 84 years old in 1891 was really old. It must be the equivalent of at least mid-90s today. Amazing stuff. Thanks, again.
Hey JO'Co..... you got any room in your class for an old, smart-ass history buff? I promise to mind my manners, behave in class, not look up the girls skirts and even clean the black boards! Well, at least clean the black boards! Good stuff....keep it coming. Our nations school systems need more like you....
BT, if he allows you in his class, I will follow. I've been showing his posts to my wife. She has exclaimed how fortunate his students are to have him for a teacher.
To weave it all together..... as many of you know, Woody Hayes was quite a well-read history buff and was often asked to lecture to History classes both at OSU and at other schools when the Buckeyes went on road trips. It was a regular sight to see the entire travelling squad of Buckeye footballers visit the lecture halls of upcoming opponents to take in a Friday History lecture. As a former military officer, Woody's love was military history. So.....it should come as no surprise that in the celebrated recruiting class of 1967, a gifted young field general from Lancaster, OH (birth place of Sherman) named Rex Kern was given the reins of a new offense in Columbus - an offense evolving away from the classic Woody fullback off tackle from the Robust T formation towards more of a option style attack......Woody's message to the kids on the philosophy of the offense was precisely what one would expect given the leadership of a field general from Lancaster - straight from the mouth of William Tecumseh Sherman himself - "attack along a broad front with multiple objectives......" The parallels were significant even to Woody himself as he mentioned it many, many times is writings and speeches.....
Pertaining to the above mentioned "southern military tradition", one could say that it was firmly rooted in the fear of a slave rebellion. Hey BT I'm surprised you didn't mention the "Toe" in your plug for Lancaster :wink:
The most vivid memory I have of Lou "The Toe" Groza was - aside from his brilliant career with the Browns - was that my Dad's first job after graduation from Ohio State was at a very small radio station in Lancaster where he was not only the news guy, but also the sports guy and chief janitor and cook. He took me down there to visit the place - a tiny hole in the wall with a microphone and a turntable with a transmitter in the back. Right next to the "station" was a small building with a big neon sign in the form of a old style straight-on kicker on top in lights......"Lou Groza's Lounge". I'll never forget that vision as long as I live.....hell it might still be there. God Bless 'em both....
BT, Would that have been "Groza's Elegante"(sp?) right off of 33? So as not to be accused of hijacking the thread I'll pose these question to the board. Who was one of the youngest union generals to fall in the civil war and what ohio city is he buried in. <hint>think whirlpool