
03-13-2008, 07:06 AM
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 | Puritanboard Professor | | Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Pittsburgh, PA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Davidius Quote:
Originally Posted by JBaldwin I would agree with the above, but what I've seen around her is a replacement of teaching history as a "story" and instead teaching it as a list of facts that are not connected.
Here's my favorite. One of the neighbor children came along with us on a homeschool field trip. I engaged the child in conversation about school, since he goes to the local public school, I was interested in what he was learning. He proudly announced that he had learned that Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin. When I asked him "what's a cotton gin" I got a blank stare. "well, when did Whitney invent the cotton gin." Another blank stare. He then proudly announced to me that he had learned this information for the upcoming PACT tests (standardized tests required for SC public school students).
What I want to know is what good is it to know facts, if you have no clue what they mean or when they happened? | Eli Whitney was black and did something neat. That's all the kid needs to know.  | I wrote a paper in college that said that Eli Whitney caused the Civil War. (Let us see if any History dudes or dudettes can figure out why)
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