On November 19, 1863, the people of Gettysburg held an opening ceremony for a cemetery for soldiers killed four months prior in the Battle of Gettysburg. Local lawyer David Wills invited U.S. President Abraham Lincoln to give "a few appropriate remarks" after the keynote address by famed orator Edward Everett.
The initial reception to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address was mixed. Chicago Times was highly critical, writing, "The cheeks of every American must tingle with shame as he reads the silly, flat, and dishwatery utterances." Charles Sumner, an abolitionist senator from Massachusetts, was prescient in his opinion of the speech when discussing it several years later. "In the modesty of his nature he said 'the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; but it can never forget what they did here.' He was mistaken. The world at once noted what he said, and will never cease to remember it. The battle itself was less important than the speech. Ideas are always more than battles."
Students learning Spanish or English may appreciate reading our article about the Gettysburg Address in Spanish. Students can also take a physical or virtual field trip to Gettysburg through the resources in this article.
The former CEO of General Electric, Jack Welch, turns 75 today. Long retired from GE, he is now a leadership guru whose viewpoint is routinely requested by companies and business students.
Highlights from SweetSearch2Day:
One of the three comic strips we carry each day is Calvin & Hobbes, which debuted 25 years ago yesterday. Click here to view a link bundle with the very first strip, a series about when Calvin tried to time travel to the future to get his future self to do his homework (your students will love this one), and the famous final strip from December 31, 1995. For easier navigation, once you open the 2nd link, use the arrow bar above the strip to click through the rest of the series.
The NatGeo Photo of the Day is of a mass migration of wildebeests in Kenya.
The New York Times Learning Network asked earlier this week, "What Tech Tools Do Your Teachers Use?" The 50+ comments show a wide range of responses, from "a #2 pencil, to be exact" to a student describing a $60 million make-over under which even the band room has a SMART board.
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