So, Ana has Thanksgiving homework.

[conuly]

She's supposed to research the first Thanksgiving and write two pages on it. Internet research is OK, in fact, they gave her three sites to start from. They misspelled "Plymouth", btw. There's no "i" in it, no matter what you think. (In fact, they may have put it down as "Plimoth", but I can't check.)

Naturally, I'm a little... doubtful about the... well, about the perspective and the accuracy of the information. And, secure in the knowledge that the teachers will (probably) not read what is handed in (seriously, would *you* want to read 23 homework assignments? I'd just check that they filled out two pages and give it a sticker), I'd like to, well, be a little better. No reason to teach the nieces lies! (Unlike that stupid, stupid, STUPID syllable work Ana's doing. No, sweetie, I don't care *what* your teacher told you, in English we don't typically end syllables on a consonant unless not doing so would force us to start the next consonant with an illegal cluster. No, it has nothing to do with whether or not the vowel is short. But, you know, slightly more important than that.)

So! Who has a better website to direct me to, one that has a more accurate and complete picture up?

(Actually, what really upset me about the syllable homework is that it's all busywork. Giving children a list of 40 words and telling them to mark them up is one thing, but when each word is marked in the exact same way I can't figure out what, if anything, they're supposed to be learning.)

Comments

[dogstar]

I am almost certain there is a historical precedent for the spelling "Plimouth". If that helps. :)

[conuly]

Apparently that was the original spelling, and the website really is plimoth.org. I was the wrong one.

[karalianne.livejournal.com]

Does this one help? http://www.phonicsontheweb.com/syllables.php

It seems to be pretty thorough. :)

Well, with the syllable stuff, anyway.

I have no idea where to find stuff about Plymouth and all that. :P

[conuly]

No, because it just reiterates the same false information.

The two syllables in "happen" are not "hap pen". You can't say it like that, you'd break your teeth if you tried! They are "ha pen" and we write it with two ps as an orthographical convention to tell us that it's not "hay pen". Similarly, basket doesn't really divide up "bas ket". Try saying it, slowly. Odds are you'll naturally divide it up after the first vowel - baaa sket.

[karalianne.livejournal.com]

I'll give you happen, but I split basket after the s. :)

[leora.livejournal.com]

Actually, I often do end my syllables with consonants. Maybe that's what people pick up on when they say I speak funny? I can say hap pen no problem, although I seem to switch off between that and ha ppen.

Part of my problem with syllable homework as a child was that how do you write out the syllables when the consonant is used in ~both~ syllables, as it often is when I speak?

However, basket is very much bask et.

[leora.livejournal.com]

Oh, to be clear - it's easy in happen, but often when the letter isn't doubled, but I use the sound at both the end of one syllable and the beginning of the next, but it's only in the word once. So, it makes dividing up the word really stupid.

Regional variations again...

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

To me, basket divides into bas-ket and happen into hap-pen; the double p is distinguishable from single p. I think ending syllables on the vowel is an Atlantic regional variation; therefore I lay odds that where a person naturally divides syllables in verbal speech is determined by where they hail from. Would be interesting to see what the dispersal looks like, but might not tell much, since people move around so much.

LOL, pagin 'enry 'iggens...

Re: Regional variations again...

[conuly]

...

You're telling me you can hear doubled consonants in your own speech?

I gotta do a poll.

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

In 1637 near present day Groton, Connecticut, over 700 men, women and children of the Pequot Tribe had gathered for their annual Green Corn Festival which is our Thanksgiving celebration. In the predawn hours the sleeping Indians were surrounded by English and Dutch mercenaries who ordered them to come outside. Those who came out were shot or clubbed to death while the terrified women and children who huddled inside the longhouse were burned alive. The next day the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony declared "A Day Of Thanksgiving" because 700 unarmed men, women and children had been murdered. (http://www.manataka.org/page269.html)

Amidst the imagery of a picnic of interracial harmony is some of the most terrifying bloodshed in New World history. (http://www.danielnpaul.com/TheRealThanksgiving.html)

The original Thanksgiving feast wasn't to celebrate a bountiful harvest, it was *explicitly* to celebrate a victory massacre.

[conuly]

The trouble is I'm trying to find that sort of information in a way that won't give Ana nightmares. Frankly, I think it's absurd to teach children this age anything other than "We're thankful for things" about the holiday - either it's lies, or it's scary and depressing as hell.

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I never really expected you to use these. The information is fascinating but most people who put up sites do so with an agenda to "expose the truth".

Still, they're good sites to get information from, well documented and all, if you want to then present the information more gently.

Or you could just have her watch that one clip from that one Addams family movie. Wednesday rocks. :)

[conuly]

Or you could just have her watch that one clip from that one Addams family movie. Wednesday rocks. :)

YES.

[siderea]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptLD0kCoHG4

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

Bless you. Every time someone wishes us a happy Thanksgiving, we feel like giving them the finger.

[conuly]

I will say we are still celebrating,in a very simple, we're-all-thankful way, and a "isn't it nice nobody has to go to work or school today so we can eat together" way.

I just don't want to lie about it.

[jan-andrea.livejournal.com]

FWIW, the location's original name was spelled Plimoth. Plimoth Plantation is a "living history" museum on the subject.

[conuly]

Really? Huh, maybe they spelled the website's name correctly, then! I'll put away my red pencil for a few minutes and check it when Ana gets home.

[siderea]

You beat me to it.

http://www.plimoth.org/

[conuly]

Indeed, that's the website they gave. I wish they'd put a little disclaimer though - I spent a day thinking they were total illiterates!

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

I did a quick google, being curious myself about what really happened at Thanksgiving. Wikipedia entry is a bit of a mish-mash, but had one thing I didn't realise:
"The group's charter required that the day of arrival be observed yearly as a "day of thanksgiving" to God."

So it wasn't a spontaneous thing, it was a legal requirement.

I haven't read through the lot yet, but there's a lot of links that might be of use.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_(United_States)

For the alternative viewpoint, this article at least uses wording that shouldn't produce nightmares
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/Perspectives_1/article_7448.shtml

[peebs1701.livejournal.com]

http://www.law.ou.edu/ushistory/thanksgiv.shtml

Thanksgiving was a way to reunite the country after the Civil War. There were days of Thanks before that of course, but the holiday we celebrate now is only about 150 years old.