Making Curriculum Pop

(from NYT) “The American Revolution”  isn’t great history programming, but it does teach us one thing: There are a lot of ways to help along an independence movement.

The three-part program (two Monday, one Tuesday, check local listings) on the American Heroes Channel, whose highest use is probably as a classroom aid, is a collection of mini-stories about people not named George Washington or Paul Revere who played parts in the American Revolution.

The idea is to show that in times of crisis, all sorts of people do brave things but don’t get as much ink in history books as those of founding-father fame. The tales don’t go into much depth, and the re-enactments used to tell them are of uneven quality, but the selection earns points for variety. We learn about James Armistead, a slave who spied for the rebels, providing vital information in advance of the Battle of Yorktown. We meet Samuel Whittemore, who in his late 70s staged what should have been a suicidal attack on a British regiment but lived to tell about it. And there is Betty Zane, a teenager who during the siege of Fort Henry in 1782 in what was then western Virginia made a death-defying run for more gunpowder.

Views: 4

Events

© 2024   Created by Ryan Goble.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service