Stupid Questions

[79th N.Y.S.M.]

Re: Stupid Questions

Same thing happened here. My unit was doing a 20 mile march to Ft. Stevens Oregon for an event. A man in his car stoped and said:
Man in car: "Where are you guys From?"
Someone in the ranks: "We are the 79th New York!"
Man in car: "wow you guys marched from New York ot Oregon?!?!"
Everyone got a kick out of it. We told him who we Really were.

[HOG.EYE.MAN]

Re: Stupid Questions

Usually when spectators ask: Where are you from? They really want to know where you're from in real life. It's not always the best idea to do "first person" with spectators. It's better to talk to them in a regular manner while explaining them through your impression.

[Alamo Guard]

Re: Stupid Questions

I had a guy ask me once "Is this your full time job?". Sometimes I wish it was. Be fun to travel around the world and meet and fall in with each and everyone of you. However Im sure the constant diet of crackers and salt pork would lead me to an early grave.

[texandrummer61]

Re: Stupid Questions

It is very interesting that many of us see children as a way to get the conversation going and not only involve the kids, but get the older spectators asking the who's, what's, when's, and why's. As an Education Major, I have been studying child psychology as well as general teaching methods and I must say that one could spend a lifetime trying to figure out children. The one thing that I am being taught and have learned from my own childhood is that kids need visuals. They learn best when they are shown concrete examples and are able to see things demonstrated. I am student teaching in a kindergarten class right now and am amazed at what these children pick up on, no matter how minute I may think it is. My point is that if we make a good impression with the children and give them hands on demonstrations, it is likely that it will stick with them for quite a while and make them interested in learning more about what the soldiers did and most important, why they did them. Hey, we might even get them interested in learning true history instead of the politically correct B/S the schools shove down their throats now. :tounge_sm

I totally agree that kids are being taught garbage that is' politically correct'.
I had a third grader challenge me while I was doing an anv impression . He asked why the rebs did'nt win any battles and why did we choose such a dumb commander. He also went on about how we fought to keep our slaves,
which we all had. At this time, I felt like putting either him or his teacher in
a headlock, but I sat him down and gave him a history lesson. I've seen the books , they claim that cold harbor, spotsylvania, and antietam were major union victories. It's scary what elementary students are being taught. :confused_ _ Ian Broadhead

[Jayhawk102]

Re: Stupid Questions

they claim that cold harbor, spotsylvania, and antietam were major union victories. It's scary what elementary students are being taught. :confused_ _ Ian Broadhead[/QUOTE]

If I remember correctly Cold Harbor was a Disater not a victory. In your case I would of gave them a 5-hour history of the war and a couple of doses of Ken Burns "the Civil War."

[RelicRoomGuy]

Re: Stupid Questions

I find that the kids who visit the museum are less affected by PC bias in teaching, than by a simplistic reduction of the War to about a sentence "summary". Teachers often cover it in the shortest possible way, suitable for TV attention spans: "TheNorthfoughttheSouthslavesfreed" is about the most many students seem to get. (At any age.) I encounter raw ignorance more often than bias from students.

Of course truly PC-biased teachers likely aren't taking their kids on field trips to THIS museum anyhow...

And a recent class DID ask half-a-dozen variations of the question, "Didn't women dress up as men to go fight a lot?" It seemed like a friendly attempt to show that they already knew SOMETHING about the war - and it was the ONLY idea about the war they seemed to have been exposed to. That, by the way, is the genesis of a LOT of stupid questions: "I want to show you indirectly that I know something..." ("even if I don't"). Or some folks just want to posture about how "above" this sort of thing they are - anyone with ideas about reaching that latter group, please share 'em.

[hireddutchcutthroat]

Re: Stupid Questions

I totally agree that kids are being taught garbage that is' politically correct'.
I had a third grader challenge me while I was doing an anv impression . He asked why the rebs did'nt win any battles and why did we choose such a dumb commander. He also went on about how we fought to keep our slaves,
which we all had. At this time, I felt like putting either him or his teacher in
a headlock, but I sat him down and gave him a history lesson. I've seen the books , they claim that cold harbor, spotsylvania, and antietam were major union victories. It's scary what elementary students are being taught. :confused_ _ Ian Broadhead

Well Braxton Bragg and John Bell Hood were pretty lame commanders, why did Ole Jeff keep them? And why dont schools teach kids about the battles in the West rather than harping on bloody stalemates in the East?

[BishopLynch]

Re: Stupid Questions

I agree exactly... there is a "whole new world" out there which teachers never touch on in their classrooms...except shiloh and vicksburg. In highschool my teacher asked if i had any requests for anything while he taught a semester course on the war. I asked that we concentrate on the western theater of the war. Very informative and allows us to see the "other half" of teh country at war. sorry this is sooo sloppy.....im late for class and in a rush.

[texandrummer61]

Re: Stupid Questions

Well Braxton Bragg and John Bell Hood were pretty lame commanders, why did Ole Jeff keep them? And why dont schools teach kids about the battles in the West rather than harping on bloody stalemates in the East?

Yeah, I've been wondering 'bout that too. But General Hood was a great leader on the brigade level, but yes- he really screwed up in Tenessee. :cry_smile

Ian Broadhead

[hireddutchcutthroat]

Re: Stupid Questions

Yeah, I've been wondering 'bout that too. But General Hood was a great leader on the brigade level, but yes- he really screwed up in Tenessee. :cry_smile

Ian Broadhead

And everything else he did in the west. :baring_te

[PrettyBoyDonovan]

Re: Stupid Questions

My High School (Farmington, MI) actaully offered a pretty in-depth class on the Civil War, so I guess I was lucky. We also had a great Old West class.

[79th N.Y.S.M.]

Re: Stupid Questions

I terms of being careful about judging spectators by their clothing, at the Chancellorsville event several years ago I was sitting knitting when a 70ish spectator came up to me wearing one of those solar powered pith helmets, a seriously wild Hawaiian shirt, bermuda shorts worn with black socks and (I am not making this up) sock garters. I admired his sock garters and he stopped to ask some questions about civilians in the Chancellorsville area during the battle. Two sentances into the discussion it became clear that he knew a bunch about the military side of the war, but little about the civilian side. It turned out that he was a) a Civil War buff, b) retired military and c) had taught the battle for the U.S. Army War College. He learned a bit about civilians, and he went on to diagram the battle for me, and clarify quite a few things that I'd not understood in the accounts that I had read.

This is very true. At an event last year there was a guy mabe 16 dressed like a "punk", he had meatle spikes patches on his leather jacket stuff like that, was sitting watching us in formation. Later that day he was in our supply tent getting on a uniform and arory to get a rifle. He is a good guy and make a DANG good soldier.

[hardtack1864]

Re: Stupid Questions

I have one, I was asked by a cub scout this weekend and he asked "Are you cowboys?" I replyed that we were western soldiers, but I think if he saw any of the reb dismounties that weekend then he would think that we were all "cowboys" .