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.

Social Studies Tip of the Week -- Labor Day

We all know that Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer. We get a day off. We have picnics. It's the last day before swimming pools and amusement parks close for the season. But do you know the history of Labor Day?

It all started in 1894 in the town of Pullman, Illinois. Pullman was a factory town, and their product was Pullman train cars, which were made at the Pullman Palace Car Company. The company had lost revenue the previous year because demand for railway cars had dropped. Their answer to lost revenue was to cut workers' pay and increase their hours.

The workers were angered by the company's decision, and they held a wildcat strike. A wildcat strike is a strike that is not authorized by union officials. The American Railway Union, led by Eugene Debs, was a union of all railway workers. It was a large and powerful union. The ARU supported the Pullman worker's strike by refusing to run trains that included Pullman cars. Soon, all train traffic west of Chicago stopped. This affected both travel and trade.

President Grover Cleveland sent the U.S. military troops and U.S. Marshalls to intervene and get the trains moving again. During the clash, 13 workers were killed. These workers were instrumental in improving workers' rights in America.

As a result of the Pullman Strike in 1894, President Cleveland created Labor Day as a celebration of American Workers and their families.