One of the joys of watching my daughters grow up is the opportunity I have to talk about American history with them. Both of my daughters are studying U.S. history this semester. What is even better is that both of them are now studying the American Revolution. Caroline is taking an 8th grade history course that covers early American history to 1865. Ally is taking AP United States history. And I am teaching the first half of the U.S. survey. In other words, we are all roughly at the same place in our courses.
The Stamp Act was part of our dinner discussion tonight. Following dinner Ally and I went out to get an ice-cream cone (Caroline was at church youth group) and ended up discussing John Dickinson’s resistance to American independence. I suggested that she watch/listen to this clip from the movie 1776:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7K9k84R5ok]
Of course she was one step ahead of me. She had already seen the movie in her political science class and was using the song as a starting point in her preparation.
This led to a discussion about the amount of work she has to do in her AP U.S. history course. I told her she might be better off taking the U.S. survey in her freshman year at college. It would be less work for the same academic credit. At the same time, her teacher is doing a good job and I am sure that Ally enjoys the challenge.
