Mrs. Kuhr's Language Arts Blog

   We kick off our week with Rosh Chodesh Adar!  Monday, 2/11 is “Wear A Silly Hat Day”, so get creative with your headwear and celebrate the joy of Purim!

ITBS Week begins March 4, 2013.  As of this week, all classes are in the process of test prep, which includes applying test taking skills and tips to practice drills in vocabulary, grammar, spelling, and reading comprehension.  For editing reinforcement, go to Check This Out: Time for a Tune-up on this blog’s sidebar.

is up and running.  Please see the writing samples from last week’s featured writers.  Click on the category “Author’s Page”.

Yippee-CHAI-ayee!  CHAI books have been selected; the genre is Westerns/Pioneer Life.  Students should be engaged in some nightly reading, down home on the range.

*Note:  This weekend, I read the New York Times bestseller Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson, which I heartily recommend.  The author captures the spirit, the grit, the   courage, and the angst of Montana homesteaders.  In setting this work of historical fiction during World War I, Larson is able to offer compelling, often disturbing, insights on American “patriotism”.

The lifetime accomplishments of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel – his impact on the Civil Rights Movement, his challenges to all freedom fighters, and his vision for humanity, spearhead our recognition of Black History Month.

Throughout the month of February, students in LA classes 6-8 will research, recite, respond and reflect on praying with one’s feet.

Author: Mendel G.

Throughout world history, one factor has influenced, if not caused, many a country to fall. This factor is money. Wars have been fought over it and world superpowers have been crumbled by it. “Money is power” is truly one of the most true expressions of all known to man.

When our country was founded, our fledgling nation was at risk of falling apart. Debts from the American Revolution threatened to cripple us. Non-uniform paper money from the American Revolution had caused many problems with its rapid deflation. Two opinions emerged from within the Washington cabinet to solve these issues. In 1790, Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton submitted a proposal to Congress that would create a “Bank of the United States” that would pay off foreign and domestic debts. This bank would issue new federal loans to pay for these debts. The National Bank would be owned by private citizens, and had the ability to issue money, something that it should not be able to do under the Constitution. Additionally, the federal government had no Constitutional authority to create such a bank in the first place. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, among others, was fiercely opposed to this bill. President George Washington grudgingly signed the bill due to the desperate debt situation.

This whole bill really did not help us get rid of our debt. It only created a means to borrow money almost indefinitely. We still owed the same amount of money, if not more in interest. We just had a way to get a loan guaranteed from a central bank, it’s main purpose being to loan the federal government money and issue currency.

This entire system did not last forever; it has changed several times during our country’s history. You can see how we had problems with money even at the beginning of our history, and how conflicting opinions emerged that are still somewhat prevalent today. In following posts, I will describe the gold standard and our debt and its dangers today.