[lit-ideas] Re: What is the Purpose of a Pay Slip?
- From: "Judith Evans" <judithevans1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 22:39:26 +0100
>Then there's a touchy bit about winning the battle of
>Yorktown with French help
Hee. Didn't W. say something about that to Sarko?
I've never seen our booklet but it probably dodges Historical Glory
and also probably tries very hard to avoid anything like the Tebbit
Test
Judy
----- Original Message -----
From: David Ritchie
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2007 10:24 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: What is the Purpose of a Pay Slip?
On Aug 12, 2007, at 9:58 AM, Judith Evans wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
You didn't get Alfred burning the cakes and the Magna Carta, and Kings and
Queens, and Agincourt, Bannockburn, Crecy, Dunkirk, all the way through to
Zulus and the battle of Rorke's Drift? You didn't grow up with people
stiffening like old soldiers remembering parades, when "Land of Hope and Glory"
was sung on the last night of the proms? My generation was tasked with quizzes
and essays on all that and so aspired to undo much of it; we were well versed
in what we wanted to undo.
<<<<<<<<<
No. History began at grammar school, really, with the Beaker Folk. By 'O'
Level (I didn't do
'A" Level history) we'd done the Industrial Revolution in England and in
Wales (there was almost
always a 'and in Wales') and reached, as I recall it, the Corn Laws/Potato
Famine.
I have been working my way through the American pamphlet, noting the
different tenor of questions from the British one. There is nothing in it about
how to claim Social Security or unemployment benefits, and though history is
clearly the theme, there's nothing about the W.P.A. or the Wobblies, the
Spanish-American War, Henry Ford, Coca Cola, Jazz. Questions one to seven are
about the American flag. Then there's a touchy bit about winning the battle of
Yorktown with French help, and then we move swiftly on to identifying the first
president and the current president and the current vice president.
Questions fifteen through thirty nine are about the constitution, and then
we're back again to history, "Who said, 'Give me liberty or give me death'?"
followed by "Name some countries that were our enemies during World War II."
The answer to that one, BTW, is "Germany, Italy, Japan." I have no idea what
happens if you say, "Romania," but I can guess. Then comes, "Who was martin
Luther King, Jr.?"
The American equivalent of Alfred and the cakes creeps in with question fifty
three, "What holiday was celebrated for the first time by American colonists?"
Columbus Day is not the right answer. Neither is it, "Black History month."
Turning pages we return to the Declaration of Independence, the Star-Spangled
banner (sung to the tune, "Anacreon in Heaven"), and "Who was president during
the Civil War?" The Emancipation Proclamation follows and then more George
Washington questions, more pilgrim questions and then one I know I won't be
able to answer, "Name the amendments that guarantee or address voting rights."
The answer? "The 15th, 19th, 24th and 26th amendments."
Bits about the white house and the capitol building, voting, sundries close
the thing out. Sundries? "Name one of the purposes of the United Nations," and
"Name one benefit of being a citizen of the United States." The right answer
for that one is, "To obtain Federal government jobs, to travel with a U.S.
passport, or to petition for close relatives to come to the United States to
live." In other words, the benefit of being a U.S. Citizen is that you can help
others to become U.S. Citizens; it's a pyramid scheme! My favorite sundry
question? "What U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services form is used to apply
for naturalized citizenship?" In other words, "Which form did you fill out
before you arrived at this interview?"
David Ritchie,
Portland, Oregon
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