| February 2024 Core Virtues News We enter February with great joy: Punxsutawney Phil, Pennsylvania's (not so) reliable groundhog, predicts an early spring! But let's not spring over the important civic virtues of honesty and justice, loyalty, and love of country. A lively 2015 children's book, Groundhog's Dilemma , will help kids reflect on the virtue of honesty. And our February holidays of Presidents' Day and Black History Month allow us to further ponder and model the civic virtues. Coming Soon: New Book for Teachers We have a surprise that we have been working on for a while. We hope teachers will enjoy this slender "coffee break" book. It is a compendium of Telling Our Stories essays featured over the years. For each month of the academic year we've chosen three different reflections, mirroring the three-year virtues cycle. One cup of coffee (or tea) is just about enough time for one essay -- and a chat with friends. This book will be an affordable addition to any teacher's lounge (where we know that teachers seldom lounge). Available in April. February Heroine: Susan B. Anthony As early as the 1840s, Susan B. Anthony campaigned for equal justice, working to get women the vote. She did not live to see her beloved country achieve that goal, but she will go down in history as one of its most powerful defenders. Here are two of our favorite new books on Anthony, including one with special relevance to Black History Month since it spotlights her friendship with Frederick Douglass. A Presidents' Day Book My Country ‘Tis of Thee: How One Song Reveals the History of Civil Rights. Claire Rudolf Murphy. Illustrated by Bryan Collier. Henry Holt, 2014. (K-4) Love of Country, Justice America's rich history and victories for liberty come to life with Murphy’s text and Collier's marvelous illustrations. We learn the history of the song "My Country Tis of Thee," used first as an anthem for King George II as “God Save Our King.” Lyrics in the (soon to be) United States were continually updated to reflect new quests for liberty: colonists (during the French and Indian War), revolutionaries in 1776, nineteenth century women suffragists and slaves in the south. Yankees and Rebs each had their own versions of the song during the Civil War. Labor movements and Native Americans sang verses to lament their lack of liberty. And the song continued to inspire when Marian Anderson sang it at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939, as did Aretha Franklin at President Obama’s inauguration in 2009. Patriotism, protest and progress--it's all here in one moving book. Telling Our Stories Gallup polls reflect young people's plummeting attachment to their country. We need, in E.D. Hirsch Jr.'s words, "a new nationalism." Read More |
February 2024 Core Virtues News | |
We enter February with great joy: Punxsutawney Phil, Pennsylvania's (not so) reliable groundhog, predicts an early spring! But let's not spring over the important civic virtues of honesty and justice, loyalty, and love of country. A lively 2015 children's book, Groundhog's Dilemma, will help kids reflect on the virtue of honesty. And our February holidays of Presidents' Day and Black History Month allow us to further ponder and model the civic virtues. | |
Coming Soon: New Book for Teachers | |
We have a surprise that we have been working on for a while. We hope teachers will enjoy this slender "coffee break" book. It is a compendium of Telling Our Stories essays featured over the years. For each month of the academic year we've chosen three different reflections, mirroring the three-year virtues cycle. One cup of coffee (or tea) is just about enough time for one essay -- and a chat with friends. This book will be an affordable addition to any teacher's lounge (where we know that teachers seldom lounge). Available in April. | |
February Heroine: Susan B. Anthony | |
As early as the 1840s, Susan B. Anthony campaigned for equal justice, working to get women the vote. She did not live to see her beloved country achieve that goal, but she will go down in history as one of its most powerful defenders. Here are two of our favorite new books on Anthony, including one with special relevance to Black History Month since it spotlights her friendship with Frederick Douglass. | |
 | My Country ‘Tis of Thee: How One Song Reveals the History of Civil Rights. Claire Rudolf Murphy. Illustrated by Bryan Collier. Henry Holt, 2014. (K-4) Love of Country, Justice
America's rich history and victories for liberty come to life with Murphy’s text and Collier's marvelous illustrations. We learn the history of the song "My Country Tis of Thee," used first as an anthem for King George II as “God Save Our King.” Lyrics in the (soon to be) United States were continually updated to reflect new quests for liberty: colonists (during the French and Indian War), revolutionaries in 1776, nineteenth century women suffragists and slaves in the south. Yankees and Rebs each had their own versions of the song during the Civil War. Labor movements and Native Americans sang verses to lament their lack of liberty. And the song continued to inspire when Marian Anderson sang it at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939, as did Aretha Franklin at President Obama’s inauguration in 2009. Patriotism, protest and progress--it's all here in one moving book. | |
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Telling Our Stories
Gallup polls reflect young people's plummeting attachment to their country. We need, in E.D. Hirsch Jr.'s words, "a new nationalism." Read More
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