LESSONS IN THE SCHOOL ROOM
It’s not just tea parties and pretty frocks at the Big House
by the Park, the girls also know the value of a good education. So between September and June a good part of
every day is devoted to school work. The
third floor was originally a ball room, but the girls have made it their school
room. Since they don’t care much for
boys, instead of pictures of Teddy Roosevelt and George Washington, the room is
graced by Alice Roosevelt and Martha Custis.
Leah, who is ten and the oldest of the girls, is also the smartest and
teaches most of the lessons.
The two
most eager pupils are Gila Gali, the Jewish immigrant girl who knows she could
never have gotten an education back in her shtetl
in Poland,
and Jane deLacey, who, coming unexpectedly from 1594, knows that she has a lot
of catching up to do.
Some of the
girls teach things they have special knowledge of. Savannah
teaches French, Samantha teaches painting and drawing, and Jane deLacey teaches
English history up to 1594, and Shakespeare.
She’d never heard of Shakespeare before, but certainly knows the
language. She is having trouble
retraining her hand to write Spencerian script instead of Elizabethan secretary
script. She also can’t get her head
around the idea that there is only one correct way to spell a word.
Nellie
teaches Social Studies and Current Events, with a focus on industrialization,
immigration, and worker’s rights. Today
she is talking about the day the iron and coffee industries met.
“This
photograph was made three years ago, in 1901.
This is the Eiffel
Tower, the tallest
man-made structure in the world, built seventeen years ago for no other reason
than to prove it could be done. Next to
it, up in the air, is Alberto Santos-Dumont, in his Number Six Airship.”
“Alexandre
Eiffel made his fortune and built his tower on the backs of the workers toiling
in his foundries. Santos-Dumont never
did a day’s work in his life; his fortune comes from the sweat of the laborers
on his father’s coffee plantation in Brazil. The tower holds up an expensive restaurant,
and the airship is one man’s clever toy.
Is this is how the industrial elites should use their power? The plight of the workers is overlooked in
the glare of these extravagant follies!”
Jane raised
her hand. “An it please you, Nellie, may
I speak?”
“Certainly,
Jane.”
“You see
there the suffering of the workers, I see a world where anything is possible. I mean, ‘struth! ‘Tis a flying machine, for
cryin’ out loud! If such an iron tower
that reaches to the sky can house a restaurant, surely one even grander can be
built to house the poor. If that is only
the Number Six Airship, what a marvel will be the Number One Hundred! In such a world, surely it is possible to
bring fairness and justice to the downtrodden masses!”
“That is
our hope, Jane,” said Nellie, “in this new century, and a goal worth working
towards.”
“May I have
this photograph, Nellie?” asked Jane, “I would that I could look on it daily,
as a reminder of the wonders of this new age, and the promise of a better
future for all, rich industrialists and oppressed workers alike!”
“It’s yours, Jane, and let us all
do what we can to help fulfill that promise.
That’s all for toady.
Tomorrow we’ll begin a series of lessons on women’s suffrage.”
