Anne --

Oh, you might be surprised. If my view prevailed we would teach about  
and emphasize the Founding Americans, by which I mean everyone of  
whatever age, race, or gender in the colonies between 1754, when  
Franklin proposed The Albany Plan, the first statement of national  
unity on record, to 1789, with the passage of the Bill of Rights. The  
people of this period each made decisions great and small which  
created the culture and system of which we are the heirs. But  
Founding Fathers means something quite specific to me and, if it were  
my choice, we would teach that as well. It is a subgroup of this  
greater whole, comprised of those individuals who created the  
Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Congress which  
passed the Bill of Rights. It was their vision that created the legal  
and governmental Klein Bottle within which the idea of America was  
made manifest.

-- Stephan



On 5 May 2008, at 00:30, Anne Pemberton wrote:

> Stephen,
>
> You may be right, but I wonder about the designation "Founding  
> Fathers" and whether it is as inclusive in your mind as it is in  
> people who were educated in other states. What about Governor  
> Clinton in New York who battle the tories in his state hot and  
> heavy to keep the new nation from becoming an aristocracy instead  
> of a true democracy? What about the brave men from New England who  
> did the actual fighting in the Revolutionary War. I've read some  
> reports that do not credit Washington with great military gifts - I  
> once told a class of first graders about a little story that  
> Washington had a special uniform made to attend the Continental  
> Congress to improve his chancs of being named Commander of the  
> forces, along with the other more usual details. The next week when  
> the class was to put into a powerpoint what they knew of each of  
> the Famous Americans we'd discussed, one boy, who was asked to  
> provide the text for Washington, said with the clear surety of a  
> little one, that Washington became General because he had the best  
> looking uniform. Sometimes the real gems of history spill forth  
> from the rosy, innocent lips of our children!
>
> BTW, in some parts of the country, the identity of the woman who  
> made the first American flag is controversial. Again, the evidence  
> that it was Betsy Ross was handed down in oral history which does  
> not suit all historians. I don't know that they have proposed any  
> other instead of Ms Ross, but I've seen some ugly comments about  
> historial "proofs" in that controversy as well as this one.
>
> Anne
>
> Anne Pemberton
> [log in to unmask]
> http://www.erols.com/apembert
> http://www.educationalsynthesis.org
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