[Tamaroa]

It never ceases to amaze me how little today's kids know about our nation's history. Once I got so disgusted at one of my employees (Anthony) lack of knowledge that I told him I wasn't going to approve his request for days off until he answered 4 questions relating to the Civil War correctly.

Then using the socratic method, I asked him the following:

Which famous American General was Robert E. Lee related to by marriage - A. Washington

What famous American was portrayed on the Great Seal of the Confederacy - A. Washington.

What date was the Confederacy officially Founded?

A. February 22, 1862.

When is Washington's Birthday

February 22nd

Another series of questions I ran him through was:

Who was Sarah Knox Tyler?
A. Daughter of John Tyler, future President.

Who did she marry,
A. Army officer Jefferson Davis .

Who is generally considered to be one of our nation's finest Secetaries of War?
A. Jefferson Davis.

Jefferson Davis was elected President of the Confederacy.
John Tyler was elected President of the United States. Sense of Irony here, maybe?

To make a long story short he got a kick out of the interrelationships of the dates and people. I told him the point of the exercise was to show him that the south using the father of the U.S. as their symbol was attempting to demonstrate that they themselves were not straying from the constitution. That each side thought they were right.

Now we make a game of it. Whenever a new guy is hired, Anthony tells them to bone up on their history.

At any rate Anthony is appreciating American history more and more. But the guy who sits next to me will require a lot more work. He says I'm a font of useless information.

Granted these questions are a bit specific but one of the things about the Civil War that truly fascinates me is how everything seems to be related and these types of questions really point out how similalr we were as opposed to how different. Oh well one at a time, right!!



Makes for some interesting conversations. :-)

Bill