Happy Thanksgiving

The District Learning Project office will be closed Thursday and Friday for the Thanksgiving holiday.

We've all heard the story of the first Thanksgiving. In 1621, the pilgrims at Plymouth, MA, gave thanks to God for helping them to survive the long New England winter. They celebrated by inviting their Native American neighbors to a feast that lasted for three days.

Although Thanksgiving has been celebrated since that time, it wasn't an official national holiday until 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln declared it, and proclaimed that it should be celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November.

In modern times, most families celebrate Thanksgiving by visiting and enjoying a turkey dinner. Certainly, we at DLP will be enjoying friends, family and food, and we hope that you will be doing the same. Please take the time to reflect on the things for which you are thankful, and remember those who aren't so fortunate.

History and Reading - Gettysburg Address

On this date, November 19, in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln made a speech at the dedication ceremony at the Gettysburg National Cemetary. This speech, called "Lincoln's Little Speech," because of it's short length, has become famous as The Gettysburg Address. This is the text:

Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation: conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war . . . testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated . . . can endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war.

We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that this nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate . . . we cannot consecrate . . . we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us . . . that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion . . . that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain . . . that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom . . . and that government of the people . . . by the people . . . for the people . . . shall not perish from this earth.

Let's look at it one paragraph at a time. Most people have heard "four score and seven years ago," but don't know what it means. A score is 20. Four score is 4 x 20, or 80. Four score and seven is 80 +7, or 87. If we subtract 87 years from the year 1863, we get 1776, the year the Declaration of Independence was signed. Lincoln was saying that, in 1863, the year he gave his famous speech, America had only been a nation for 87 years, and that our nation was founded on the principles of liberty and equality.

In the next two paragraphs, he is acknowleging that the civil war tested whether our nation was strong enough to uphold those founding principles, and that he and the other people were now gathered on part of the battlefield to dedicate the cemetary for the men who died to uphold those principles. He says they are there because it is the right thing to do.

In the fourth paragraph, the president then says that, although they have gathered to dedicate the cemetary, their efforts are small in comparison with the men who died here. The blood and bravery of those men who fought at Gettysburg had already made it hallowed, or sacred, ground. Lincoln goes on to say that in the future, people (us) will not remember the speeches that were given at the dedication ceremony, but they will always remember the Battle of Gettysburg and the men who fought and died there.

In the last paragraph, Lincoln asks that we, as Americans, dedicate our lives to the principles that the founding fathers set out for us, and that, over the years and throughout many battles, our citizens have fought to uphold: a nation where all are welcome, free, and equal.

Science - Uses for Human Hair

People laughed when the suggestion was made to use human hair to soak up the oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico earlier this year, but that idea is not so offbeat. It was also suggested to help with the cleanup of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska in 1989.

Try this experiment after your next haircut:
Fill a bucket with water. Add enough cooking oil so that you can see the oil floating in the water. Next, cut the foot off an old pair of nylon stockings (pantyhose), stuff it with hair, and tie the end shut. Put the bundle into the bucket of water and watch it collect the oil. It really works!

Woman have long known that the oil from human hair keeps sewing needles sharp and rust-free. They used to keep the hair from their hairbrushes in "hair catchers," and when they had enough, they would use it to stuff a pincushion.

Human hair has been woven to produce fabric for clothing, and twisted to make rope.

Recently, it has also been used as a substitute for silicon in solar panels.

It also has applications in agriculture and the food industry. It is being woven into mats and uses to keep moisture in and weeds out in gardens and fields around the world. In some countries, because food is scarce and hair is high in protein, oil is separated from hair and processed to become a substitute for soybean oil.

Of course, we can't forget the more obvious uses for human hair. It is still used in wigmaking, and cosmetic testing.

Can you think of any other ways to recycle human hair?

History - Watergate in a Nutshell

It all started in 1972 when a security guard at the Watergate Hotel and Office Complex in Washington, DC, was making his rounds. He discovered several doors with tape over the locks. He removed the tape and moved on. When he came back an hour later, he found more tape over the locks. He called the police.

Five men were arrested for burglarizing an office on the 6th floor. The office belonged to the National Democratic Party. After much investigation, it was discovered that the burglars had ties to the Committee to Re-Elect the President, also known as CRP, or jokingly, CReeP. Many prominent people in Washington were allegedly involved, not only in the conspiracy to commit the burglary, but also in the resulting cover-up. These included some of the president's top aides and advisors, as well as people in the Justice Department, the FBI, and the CIA.

The Watergate Break-In quickly became known as the Watergate Scandal, which eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974. Nixon maintained his innocence to the end, but the Republican Senate voted to remove him from office. Nixon decided to resign rather than be impeached.

Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, uncovered much of the story with the help of an anonymous source who went by the name of Deep Throat. Deep Throat's identity remained secret until 2005, when it was revealed that he was the former Deputy Director of the FBI. Woodward and Bernstein wrote a book about the Watergate Scandal called All the President's Men. It was published in 1974. In 1976, All the President's Men was made into a movie starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman.

Writing - More Fun with the English Language

Here are some rules to remember when writing:

1. Don't use no double negatives.
2. About them sentence fragments and pronouns.
3. Verbs has to agree with their subjects.
4. Correct spelling is esential.
5. When dangling your participles are in the wrong place.
6. Use your apostrophe's correctly.
7. Don't use commas, that aren't necessary.
8. Proofread you writing.
9. i think case is important.

Remember, you must first know the rules before you can break them!

Reading - Fiction, Nonfiction and Genres

Have you ever gone into a large bookstore and felt completely overwhelmed? It can help if you understand how the books are arranged.

The first thing you should know is that all forms of writing are divided into two groups: fiction and nonfiction.

Fiction is made up.

Nonfiction is true.

Fiction and nonfiction are both divided into subcategories called genres.

A genre is a category.

Fiction is divided into genres such as mystery, science fiction, romance, and drama.

Nonfiction is divided into genres such as biography, how-to, travel, political, history, and self-help.

Fiction and nonfiction are both made up of many, many genres. I've only listed a few. If you're one of those people who says, "I don't like to read," maybe you just haven't found the right genre yet. Think of something you're really interested in, something you would like to know more about. Everyone is interested in something! It could be cars, dogs, cooking, outer space - absolutely anything! There is a book - probably a whole genre out there just waiting for you! And remember - books are like potato chips; one is never enough!

Writing -- A Few Simple Rules

Have you ever noticed that, while your writing teacher corrects your punctuation and your tenses, famous authors use them in novels all the time? If you pay attention, though, those novels are sometimes written from a certain character's point of view, that is, the character is telling the story. Other times, the author only breaks the grammatical rules when he is writing one character's dialog. In these cases, the author is using grammar to reveal details about a character.

Make no mistake. These authors know how to use perfect grammar, but they choose to break the rules in order to let us infer more about a character. You must know the rules before you break them!

Here are some examples of how you can have fun with the rules of grammar:

1. Always avoid alliteration.

2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.

3. Avoid cliches like the plague.

4. Employ the vernacular.

5. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.

6. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.

7. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.

8. Contractions aren't necessary.

9. Foreign words and phrase are not apropos.

10. One should never generalize.

11. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."

12. Don't be redundant. Don't use words more than necessary. It's highly superfluous.

13. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.

14. Be more or less specific.

15. Understatement is always spectacular.

16. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.

17. One-word sentences? Elliminate.

18. Analogies are like feathers on a snake.

19. The passive voice is to be avoided.

20. Who needs rhetorical questions?

Reading - Bram Stoker & Margaret Mitchell

What do these two authors have in common?

Bram Stoker was an Irish threatre critic who also wrote several novels, the most famous of which was Dracula, which was published in 1897. With this book, Stoker took an obscure bit of Eastern European folklore and turned into a cultural phenomenon. Without Dracula, there would have been no Interview with the Vampire, and no Twilight.

Margaret Mitchell was an American journalist who spent ten years writing one novel, Gone With the Wind, which was published in 1936. This book tells the story of a spoiled southern belle during the American Civil War, who loses everything, but finds herself. Without Gone with the Wind, there would have been no Steel Magnolias, and no Cold Mountain.

Although Stoker was born in 1847, and Mitchell was born in 1900, they share a birthday on November 8, and their works have heavily influenced modern literary and film culture.

Both Dracula and Gone with the Wind have been made into award-winning films.

Social Studies -VOTE!

Did you vote on Tuesday? Are you registered? Everyone in America ages 18 and over has the right to vote, and we should all exercise our right to choose our leaders. If you're not registered, it's easy! Just go to the Voter Registration Office at your local courthouse and tell them you'd like to register. They'll ask you to fill out a form. That's it! Bear in mind, that even if you are registered, your registration can expire if you don't go to the polls on Voting Day.

Here is a brief history of voting rights in America:

In 1787, the US Constitution allowed only white male property owners, ages 21 and over, the right to vote.

By 1843, all white men over the age of 21 could vote.

In 1870, the 15th Amendment was passed. This gave all men over 21 the right to vote, regardless of race or ethnicity. Despite the passing of the 15th Amendment, minorities were regularly discouraged, and even prevented, from voting through the use of literacy tests, grandfather clauses, and even intimidation.

In 1920, the 19th Amendment gave women over the age of 21 the right to vote.

In 1965, the Voting Rights Act was passed. This put voter registration into the hands of the federal government to ensure that minorities were not kept from registering. In essence, the 15th Amendment was finally enforced, almost 100 years after it was passed.

In 1971, the 26th Amendment was passed, lowering the voting age to 18.

In 1982, amendments were made to the Voting Rights Act to include provisions for Americans with disabilities that may have previously prevented them from registering and/or getting to the polls. This also included Americans who are unable to read and/or write, or who are not fluent in English.

As Americans, we are very fortunate to have the right to choose our own leaders. Citizens of many other counties do not have this right.

In case you're wondering whether your vote really counts, consider this:

One vote made Rutherford B. Hayes the President of the United States of America in 1923. One vote also gave Adolph Hitler control of the Nazi Party in Germany in 1923.

Writing - The English Language is Difficult!

Did you know that the English language is one of the most difficult languages to learn to read and write? The reason is that, although we have rules, we also have many, many exceptions to those rules. We also have tons of homophones, or words that sound the same, but are spelled differently or that have different meanings. And then there are homonyms, or words that are spelled the same, but have different meanings.

Keep in mind that because our language is so crazy, we are able to have a lot of fun with it!

The bandage was wound around the wound.

The farm was used to produce produce.

The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

We must polish the Polish furniture.

He could lead if he would get the lead out.

The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

I did not object to the object.

The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

Since there is no time like the present, it is time to present the present.

There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

They were too close to the door to close it.

The buck does funny things when the does are present.

A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

To help with the planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

After a number of injections, my jaw got number.

Upon seeing the tear in the painting, I shed a tear.

I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Reading - Stephen Crane

On this date, November 1, 1891, American author Stephen Crane was born in Newark, NJ. Crane's best-known work is The Red Badge of Courage, a novel about an 18-year-old young man who goes off to fight for the Union Army in the Civil War. The main character, Henry Fleming, has a romanticised idea of war when he leaves home, but he as the story progresses and he is forced to confront the realities of war, and becomes a man as he faces his fears.

The Red Badge of Courage is an example of American naturalist literature. Naturalism portrays the subject as it is, rather than how we think it might be. For example, like the Fleming character dreams of becoming a war hero at the beginning of the book, but when he gets there, he actually sees the grit and violence of war, and Stephen Crane portrays this very much as if he had seen it himself, in stark detail. It is interesting to note, however, that Stephen Crane had never seen battle at the time he wrote the book. Crane chose to write the book in this manner, because he had read accounts of soldiers who had fought in the Civil War, and he found them dissatisfying because the soldiers told about what they did, but not about what they felt. Crane felt it was important to include emotion in his story so that the reader could empathize with the characters, rather than just read dry accounts about what they did.

Stephen Crane died in 1900, of tuberulosis, at the age of 28.