daily blog 3/30

We split into groups to read and answer questions about certain people during the reconstruction period and  what they thought about. It seemed most people in the South during that time all  have a positive opinion of the idea. However, most had doubt that the project would end as well as expected. 

daily blog 3/29

Today we had a sub but we still managed to get some work done. We read Lincoln's second inaugural address and compared that to the things we did yesterday. It was a little difficult but I got it done!

daily blog 3/21

What we talked about in class made me think about how the things we learn in class and at school are obviously very important but at the same time there are so many other skill sets that we have to know to be able to make it in the "real world". I remember a while back in the year when Mr. Boyle talked about how each of us will probably have a variety of careers in our life times. This makes me want to explore new things before I settle on what I really want to do. You never know until you try it out.

daily blog 3/17

Happy St. Patrick's day! and also FINALLY the civil war is over with and the confederates surrendered. General Robert E. Lee and General U.S Grant agree that the war is over with and the confederates are back in the Union. We had a little argument about whether it was rude that Grant didn't wear his nicest suit to the meeting. Some people were saying that he should look presentable but honestly, that's just ridiculous. It's a war not a fashion show. 

daily blog 3/15

Today we learned about Sherman's attack on the confederacy in the south. His action were incredibly destructive in a way that wasn't even warlike. It was basically like he got personal with the Confederates by attack their homes, livestock, their families, and using "scorched earth policy" on complete towns at a time. I know the point of war is to utterly obliterate the enemy but at this point Sherman's attacks were such low blows. It's one think to fight a soldier, but to go up to innocent civilians like that and ruin there lives is just plain cruel and unnecesary. Especially when the war is to get the south back into the union. Even though the union won the war and the confederates were forced to come back in, they still lost the repect of many southerners even to this day.

daily blog 3/14

Happy Pi(e) day! The beginning of class we did one of those analyzations of art papers. This one was of the Robert Shaw Memorial but you may be wondering... who is Robert Shaw? Well, we learned all about how he was the (white) leader of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment. Which was the first African American unit for the Union in the civil war. It was a turning point in the war that these men got to fight yet there wages were less, they weren't really promoted, they were segregated from the whites, and they weren't able to be leaders of their own units! It is kind of sad that even though the Union and the abolitionists wanted African Americans to be free, they didn't exactly treat them fairly as a free person would be treated. If you think about it, they aren't really staying true to their word.

daily blog 3/9

In class, Mr. Boyle showed us the routes taken in the Battle at Gettysburg via googlemaps. It's interesting to see that with all the new development, the areas that were used for battle remained the same. That's kind of how it is here in Massachusetts as well. All the historic landmarks are preserved for people to enjoy. The clip we watched from the movie Gettysburg was kind of hard to watch due to all the violence but it did show the tactics that were used and how location really is everything when fighting in battle!

daily blog 3/2

Talk about course decisions  for next year continued today starting with history class where we went out and talked individually with Mr. Boyle about our thoughts for next year. While this was going on, in class we talked and wrote more about Lincoln's idea of liberty to all. We talked about things like where it derived from? (the Declaration of Independence) and the importance of this principle. It probably seems repetitive but I feel like I do learn something every day about how the principle plays into the country as a whole even to this day.

daily blog 3/1

The discussion of Lincoln's belief that the principle of "Liberty to all" being the basis of the Declaration of Independence continued today. We wrote a few paragraphs on how we thought this connected to how it he thought it is what will help achieve the ultimate goals. We passed them around and commented on whether or not we thought the person understood the concept. This is kind of flawed, however, because if someone really doesn't understand concept then how are they in the right position to tell another person they don't understand it. It just seemed a little confusing to me.