Country Roads

No mail Monday. No banks open Monday. It was Presidents’ Day! I can remember when President George Washington and President Abraham Lincoln each had their birthdays observed this month. Then they were lumped together to create Presidents’ Day. I guess I’m thankful that Washington and Lincoln still have their birthdays observed in some matter, but their names are not included on most calendars.

Recently a media broadcaster went out into the public to ask questions, testing the history knowledge of the younger generation. It did not go well. One young woman was asked who was the first president of America and she couldn’t come up with the name. Another was asked to name five former presidents and though he came up with two, the young man could not come up with three more names. Do they still teach American history in our schools? I wish the students today had someone like the history teacher we had in high school. You’d learn what was in the American history book or else! Mrs. Mildred Mullins was her name and she taught history for years, at least two generations of students. About every other day, you could expect when the students sat down in their seats, she would announce there was going to be a pop quiz. Textbooks were shut, pencils were brought out and sheets of questions were passed out. A limit on the quiz time was set and the challenge began. If you hadn’t done the homework the night before, or was a classified genus, you were sunk.

Certain things were memorized in her classes, such as the Gettysburg Address, dates of importance and names of battles and other history events. Mildred Mullins and her sister, Edna Masters, made teaching their life’s mission. I think they held the record for the amount of teaching years between them. Both women were Burr Oak natives and both were student challengers. Students certainly learned in their classes. History, along with English and speech, were my favorite subjects.

These days, it seems that history is not thought of much as we hear of statues being torn down, and names of streets, public buildings and schools being changed. We need to learn from this country’s history, the good along with the bad. History should not be erased.