How will artists and writers portray this Trumpian time of disillusion, delusion and deception in which we now live? All a poet can do today is warn. That is why the true Poets must be truthful. – Wilfred Owen Perhaps we can find some clues in the extraordinary exhibit World War I and American Art now showing at the the Pennsylvania…
About suffering they were never wrong, The old Masters: how well they understood Its human position: how it takes place While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along; …
A few images from a century ago to wish everyone the very best for 1917. War is lurking! This Reading (Pennsylvania) Times cartoon sees the threat of war lurking ahead. The US entered the war in April.
It’s politically incorrect to say Happy Holidays these days. We must all say Merry Christmas. No word on the acceptability of Treasons Greetings so I’ll play it safe and stick to Christmas. Religious freedom – it’s a wonderful thing. Just like freedom from religion. Part of making America great again is that we don’t have to worry about other people’s…
I’ve been asked on occasion to add my two cents on a panel at the NYSAIS conference for assistant heads and division directors in a session they call “So, you want to be a head.” My participation has more to do with the geographical proximity of Poughkeepsie to the conference venue at Mohonk Mountain House than with any presumed super…
The first day of my new life as an idle good-for-nothing superannuated coffin-dodger (my brother’s description of retirees) coincides with the centenary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme – a day – and a battle that has long held my interest. Not so much because of the military aspects – fascinating as they are – but…
After forty five years it’s time to re-wire! And the start of my re-wirement coincides with the centenary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Tomorrow – July 1st 1916 at 7.30 am – 100 years ago. When I started teaching in 1970 that day, and that war – that cataclysmic break in human history – were…
A small selection of New Year’s greetings from a a century ago.
On Christmas Day 1915 David Lloyd George the former radical liberal,then Minister of Munitions and soon to be Prime Minister addressed a crowd of restless shop stewards and trade unionists in St. Andrew’s Hall, Glasgow. He was there to try and forestall strikes in an area where labor relations were contentious and complicated. He also needed to make the case…
London on November 11th 1919 – a two minute silence at 11 o’clock to observe the first anniversary of the end great war. This photograph by an unknown artist conveys the collective grief of a people. To stand in that crowd in the stillness and silence for two minutes – the individual weight of personal loss and mourning magnified beyond…
Here’s something terrific for free: It’s an E-book of great articles from the always useful Educating Modern Learners, an online source with which I am proud to be associated. I’m still working my way through the content – and in some cases re-reading – but no disappointments. These people write well about important and useful topics. See the list below.…
This well outfitted German trench has a lighted Christmas tree and soldiers celebrating with music and sausages! It’s true – there was a truce in parts of the line along the western front in 1914. The official diarist of the 3rd Battalion Rifle Brigade reported: “Christmas in the trenches will always be remembered by the Battalion as a day of…
I’ve been researching grit – the way one does on a snowy day. In the process I discovered an Australian newspaper archive with tens of thousand of instructive stories about grit and who has it. It seems grit frenzy has been with us for a while and this latest round in grit mania in education is just the latest version.…
For anyone with even a passing interest in the First World War here is an unparalleled opportunity: Operation War Diary. The National Archive (UK) has digitized 1.5 million pages of British Army unit diaries, signals, operations orders and messages from the war. They are releasing them to an army of citizen historians to read, classify, and tag. Moving through the…
I take comfort in knowing that I am not the only gritless wonder on the internet. Peter Gow has now confessed to being genetically lacking in the GQ (grit quotient) department. I think it must be this that sinks me on the infamous grit test: “For the most accurate score, when responding, think of how you compare to most people…