Living History

I have a theory that if you don't tell your kids something is boring, they won't know it is. It's worked for our history lessons over the years.

Learning about the Civil War? Go to a battle re-enactment.

Lewis and Clark? Stand on the places they stood on their trip West.

Visiting Nana in New Mexico for a month? Be sure to go fossil hunting, try on different outfits at the Indian Cultural Center, and visit as many pueblos as you can.

Can't make a trip? Read excellent books that relate history as a story, not just a series of facts.

We've reached the end of our history curriculum and I'm getting worried about what we'll do next. Now that the kids will be doing high school level work, does it have to be boring? One of them recently wrote a paper about Alexander Hamilton and, I'll tell you, there's not much information about him that's written in an interesting way. By the time I was done helping her with her paper, I remembered very clearly the glazed-eyes boredom that always used to come over me in history class.

In fact, that's ALL I remember from my history classes - how boring they were.

So, the challenge is, how do we take history to the next level without losing its story, the part that makes it live?

Suggestions?

Unfinished Business

Leonardo da Vinci took years, sometimes decades, to finish a painting. He was such a perfectionist, he would work on a picture for a time, then set it aside to work on it later. Some of his most famous paintings remained unfinished after his death. He couldn't bear to let his creations go until they were exactly how he wanted them.

I might be related to da Vinci. Or at least my father is. He has a series of paintings he's working on which may never see the light of day as he adjusts, tweaks, repaints, and corrects.

I know the feeling.

I got another rejection back on my book proposal yesterday. It's the 3rd of three that said, "I really like this idea, but it needs some MAJOR work to make it shine."

My first reaction was to throw up my hands and say, "I quit. I'm just not a writer." My second reaction, though, is to say, "I really believe in this story. I want to make it work." What I don't want to do is chase after the market. I've tried that and it's a lot of work for a very unsatisfying result.

So, now my question is, do I leave the manuscript in the archives while I pursue something else or do I take it out and give it another go?

39

Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated 40 years ago today.

He died too young at the age of 39.

39 years to change the world. That's pretty fast work.

I know.

I'm 39.

Jesus lived only 33 years. Alexander the Great, too. It doesn't take long to make an impact, not if you believe in what you're doing.

On my first visit to Memphis many years ago, a friend drove me by the Lorraine Motel to see the balcony where Dr. King was killed. At the time, the biggest impression it made on me was how run-down the place was.

I didn't understand.

I was born 4 months after King's death, born at the end of the turmoil that embroiled our country. By the time I was aware, the biggest clash was between my orange plaid pants and my pink flowered jacket.

I can't say I fully understand even now, though I've had a taste or two of what it means to live in a country divided against itself. I've also come to realize that it's not the place of death that brings honor or dishonor - it's the life led. Jesus' life was not defined by his death on a garbage heap. Neither was Martin Luther King's by his assassination at a seedy motel. If anything, his choice of lodging speaks of his humility, his integrity.

His legacy.

39 years and we'll never be the same.

Twisted History

Okay, I'll admit that I didn't pay very good attention in Mr. Metzger's Western Civ. class in 10th grade (or Mr. Chu's American History in 9th), but there are things I'm learning as I do history with my kids that I'm sure I was never taught.

Like... how did I not catch that the same Isabella and Ferdinand who sponsored Christopher Columbus on his search for a passage around the world were the same Isabella and Ferdinand who sponsored the Spanish Inquisition at its height? That the same year they sent Chris off in the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria, they also kicked all the Jews out of Spain?

We're reading these stories from several perspectives now and it's interesting to see how some books remember Isabella as a power hungry maniac who took advice from men of the cloth who were even more wicked than she was. Other books talk about how devout she was and how her only goal in life was to turn Spain back into a country with a pure faith.

Hello? I'm not sure burning people at the stake, having neighbor turn against neighbor, or accepting the witness of the accusers, but not the accused, is the best way to get people to be honest about what they believe.

Work of the Devil

A peddler came by the king's palace selling books. He had a particularly fine copy of a Bible. The printing was so straight, so true. It must have taken a lifetime to write such a perfect book.

The archbishop paid a call on the king.

"I've got a book I want to show you," he said. The archbishop produced a Bible, written with perfect hand, remarkably like the king's own copy. In fact, when compared, the two Bibles proved to be identical, with the same number of pages and the same words upon each page.

How could this be? How could two such beautiful books exist, exact replicas of each other? It would have taken a man's whole life to produce just one such book, but two? Impossible.

More copies of the same Bible started showing up in other places, in monasteries and libraries, in the homes of noblemen. Not having any other explanation, they concluded that this must be the work of the Devil.

Isn't it interesting that what might have been God's greatest evangelical tool of all time, the printing press, was scorned by church and state alike as the Devil's work? Has there ever been anything that has done so much for advancing the gospel, for offering knowledge and freedom to the impoverished and enslaved?

Oh, Lait!

Anyone who has ever been to France knows about their love affair with dairy products. I spent many a day tromping through alpine meadows where the Beaufort cows eat the wildflowers that give Beaufort cheese its special aroma and flavor. Whatever the French need to do to spoil their dairy cows, they should keep on doing it.

Emmetaulier, cheese fondue, creme fraiche, boursin, yogurt and high fat milk... the lactose delights go on and on.

I was so disappointed to learn that the French also gave us one of the greatest disasters in culinary history - margarine. Oh la la! Quelle catastrophe!

Magna Carta and the First Amendment

For those of you who would like to follow along in your history texts, we talked about the Magna Carta yesterday. For those of you who don't remember why this document was so important, here's a quick review and a current event that brings its importance to the forefront again.

The Magna Carta was put into effect in 1212 by a very reluctant King John (the bad guy of Robin Hood fame). It limited the power of king and offered rights to citizens, including the famous "no taxation without representation" law that was so important in our own revolution.

Fast forward 550 years.

Our founding fathers borrowed the ideas of the Magna Carta while drafting the Constitution and, especially, the Bill of Rights.

Pop quiz time.

Q: What rights are granted by the First Amendment?

A: Freedom of religion, speech and the press.

An e-acquaintance shared a struggle with me this week that hit on all three of these rights. She's marketing a book on homeschooling by offering a free seminar at her county library.

"FOUL!" cried the mayor of her town. "You can't host a homeschooling event at a public library because homeschooling takes monies from the public school system."

He cancelled the event.

A city mayor cancelled a homeschool event at a county library, reportedly because it stepped on the government's toes.

The event has since been "uncancelled" and the mayor has backed down from his alleged strong wording, but it gives me pause.

Freedom of speech, religion, and the press are messy things. But they were worth fighting for in 1212, in 1776, and they're still worth fighting for in 2007.