Paul,

I am retired now, and while I can tell inspiring stories about the days 
when, my modest contribution to education now is limited to what I write and 
upload on the web. I truly hope that as education branches out from the 
textbook to the richness that is possible on the World Wide Web, that we 
will see students taking more of an interest in the little details that make 
the story of history worth knowing, than back in the days when I was in high 
school and "history" consisted of memorizing lists of dates and battles with 
narry a name that wasn't preceded by General or President.

I recently read a book that I hope to make into one of my personalized 
stories, about the great interpreter between the Pennsylvania colonists and 
the Native Americans of that part of the country, Conrad Weiser. It is sad 
that the county I grew up in was where this great man lived and from which 
he made his extensive travels into "Indian Country" to bring to two cultures 
into understanding, but I don't for the life of me remember ever learning 
anything about him. Schools and such are named for him in my home county, 
but I never learned who he was or why so much was named for him, including 
his "homestead" along a frequently traveled highway. Conrad Weiser was to 
Pennsylvania what Pocahontas would have been to Virginia if she had lived 
longer.

The challenge I face is getting the word out to the teachers and parents 
that my website is there for them to use, along with the many others I have 
found in my work, that can do so much more for today's students than hanging 
in dangerous chat rooms.

Anne

Anne Pemberton
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http://www.erols.com/apembert
http://www.educationalsynthesis.org