Caturday!

 

It's Deja Vu All Over Again

 

And in other news, off to the mighty Mississip' for two weeks while we wait for the Minnesota snowpack to decide how quickly it's going to melt.

There Is Nothing New Under the Sun etc

 "Many influences have conditioned the teaching of history in the public schools—local and national, statutory and constitutional, ephemeral and enduring, religious, educational, racial and patriotic.

It is the purpose of this study to give an historical account of some of the attempts to control the teaching of history in the public schools. The first four chapters trace the legislative control that has been exerted in all periods of our history, beginning with the educational enactments of the early colonies and following the development of the curriculum to the present time.

Such statutory control falls into fairly definite periods. The first embraces the earliest statutes relating to public education. During this period history was introduced into the school curriculum as a separate subject specified by law. The next stage, 1860 to 1900, was characterized by the influences set in motion by the Civil War and the Economic Revolution. In the years from 1900 to 1917, the history curriculum reflected the new interest of the American people in the social and economic conditions that had developed. From 1917 to the present, the dominant note has been a dynamic patriotism growing out of the World War.

Besides the legislative aspects of the subject, I have endeavored to set forth the propagandist influences on textbook-making exerted by religious, patriotic, racial and[Pg viii] other organized groups. Within the last five years attention to an unprecedented degree has been focused upon history and its allied subjects. Although much interest has been attached to the agitation carried on since the World War, similar movements marked earlier periods. A chapter on Disloyalty Charges against Teachers since 1917 has been included as pertinent to the discussion in general." ~ Public Opinion and the Teaching of History, Bessie Louise Pierce (published 1926).

Grrrsday

 

Hey, That's Prokofiev

 

 Attended a performance of Cinderella last night, along with what seemed to be every little girl in the county.  The blissfully oblivious and tiny ballerina behind me kept executing dance steps on the back of my seat - about half a beat off tempo.

Toymaking - A Doll's Umbrella Stand

 

From Toymaking at Home, another free download from Project Gutenberg.  I can't find a copyright date but it appears to be around or just after WWI (it's also in the public domain according to the Internet Archive so - before 1923?).  

There's no table of contents but this little piece of furniture - to be constructed of matchsticks - is on page 28.

Fox Lets Carlson And Bongino Go

 

Happy National Garden Month

 

copyright-free image from the Graphics Fairy.

Caturday!

 

Someone Up There Does Not Like Me

 There are two MEGA church rummage sales this weekend and I have injured my right Achilles tendon and can't walk.

Quote Of The Day

 

There are more people who wish to be loved than there are willing to love. ~ Nicholas Chamfort

The Online Bookshelf - A Pet Reader

 

By Edith Wilhelmina Lawson, a series of simple (very simple) animal stories with charming 1920's illustrations.  Free download from Project Gutenberg.

Vintage Accessories - A Rope Belt from 1940

 

A "Sailor's Knot" belt (looks suspiciously like macrame to 21st-century eyes) from Britannia and Eve, August 1940.  Left-click to enlarge both pages of instructions.

International Bat Appreciation Day

 

copyright-free image from the Graphics Fairy

Caturday!

 

You Snooze, You Lose

 

I got up from the sofa to put another log on the fire and - 

March Certainly Went Out Like A Lion

 April the beautiful, with streaming eyes, Weeps o'er the havoc that rude March has made. ~ John Askham.

(Just a note to say that I'm assigned to this mess until Friday.  Posting may or may not happen).

Suffer The Little Children

 

Caturday!

 

Pahk The Cah In Hahvahd Yahd

 

I'm on a Red Cross conference call and deriving a great deal of enjoyment listening to a volunteer from Boston trying to pronounce "tarp."

Quote Of The Day

 

That Is Not The Flex You Think It Is

 

The following is a transcript of a conversation I had earlier this week in the village hall.

Pickup-driving Man In A Ball Cap:  We should not be banning guns.  These mass shooters are mentally ill from violent video games and what they see in movies and on tv.  We need to start talking about mental health, not banning guns.  Guns don't kill people!

Me:  Do you know how many mass shootings there have been in Canada?

PDMIABC:  Unh...no.

Me:  Seventeen.  That's since 2000, not just this year.  Are Canadians so different from us or do they just have better access to mental health treatment?

PDMIABC:  Canada has free healthcare!  So of course - (his voice dies away as he realizes what he's about to admit).

Hasta Manana

 

image from FB

I will be up to my armpits in alligators for at least the next three days - but in the meantime, here's a mouse napping in an iris.

EDITED TO ADD:  Yet another reason I love living in the rural Midwest - a local EMA posted this on FB on Friday after the tornado predictions for Friday night got pretty dire.

"(Small Town) residents with no basement - if you need a place to go, the back door to the Methodist church will be open.

a

Caturday!