We parked where we could find parking and walked toward the Jefferson and encountered the George Mason on the way. I wish I'd have known the story to tell the kids when they asked "Who's that, Dad?". Mea culpa. I've only recently started learning history myself and had not yet reached that chapter. We might have addressed it when I was in school, but the motivation there was not to teach or learn, but to process students, check in the box, here's your diploma, now go get a job and promote the american machine. I never had what you might call a passion for learning.
Anyway, I failed. (I quickly recovered with long explanations of both the Jefferson and Roosevelt administrations, but inside I know there's a tic-marc on the negative somewhere.) Nevertheless, we might just hop in the car and drive to Gunston Hall tomorrow so I can recoup some ed-points.
The kids were great. They learned how to watch cricket (Wicket, not Jimminy) with some degree of awareness and were eager to learn about the Presidents asking questions left and right and getting involved in the monuments (Mia rode the statue of Fala, Simon pulled Roosevelt's finger only to the disappointing lack of a bronx cheer, and Chas even sat his on lap.) They learned about democracy (and a representative republic), freedom (again, I wish they had the Mason input as well, but we'll get that tomorrow) and had a great day doing it which I'm sure they'll tell you all about on their blog.
For now, I'll leave you with some pics until the movie comes out:
1 comment:
Your field trip was the scene of one of Jim and I's very first dates. We went downtown to see the cherry blossoms that day and wound up at the monuments.
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