Having enjoyed stormwreath 's presentation of British history, I thought it would be fun to write up the American version. As it happens, I need to give two versions.
As someone who has taught 4th and 5th graders about conservation and endangered animals, sometimes it is hard to find a balance between what is "age appropriate" and what is just happy-to-the-point-of-being-wrong. And it's even harder with history than with science.
I'm sure never more so than these days with some of the rhetoric showing up in the news from people who should know better. These days anything that is in the least bit critical = you hate your country. Unless, of course, it's the right kind of critical.
Delightful in two versions. Someone is the most important country in the room either way, non? The second version is the one that kind of gets filtered north the most, but I suppose neither is exactly correct.
Someone is the most important country in the room either way, non?
Exactly. That's the American disease, and we all have it, even the people who think they've diagnosed it. It'll be interesting to see what happens when we are no longer The world power. In a couple of decades I expect it will have shifted. Then again, the French never quite got over being the center of the world, so maybe we'll be like them.
If I was the rest of the world, I'd be nervous about America no longer being THE world power if only because the very idea of it is enough to seemingly cause some sort of panic in our elected leaders. God only knows what they'll do to ensure that we remain #1.
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There was a guy named Daniel Boone who shot a bear. Or maybe it was Davy Crockett. Awesome.
I'd also like to mention Johnny Appleseed, who we all know invented trees.
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As someone who has taught 4th and 5th graders about conservation and endangered animals, sometimes it is hard to find a balance between what is "age appropriate" and what is just happy-to-the-point-of-being-wrong. And it's even harder with history than with science.
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I hadn't thought about it from the teacher's point of view -- but you're right, of course! It is tricky.
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Exactly. That's the American disease, and we all have it, even the people who think they've diagnosed it. It'll be interesting to see what happens when we are no longer The world power. In a couple of decades I expect it will have shifted. Then again, the French never quite got over being the center of the world, so maybe we'll be like them.
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