flynn057

Great American Communicators: Patrick Henry Patrick Henry was home schooled by his father and his uncle. He had ten brothers and sisters. He didn’t do well at farming or storekeeping, so he taught himself law. He became famous for a case known as “The Parson’s Cause” and went on to establish himself as a prominent lawyer in Williamsburg, Virginia. Patrick married twice. His first wife, Sarah, went insane after childbirth and had to be confined to her home for several years until she died. Between both wives, he had 15 children, but not all of them survived childhood. A powerful orator, Patrick Henry was always a staunch supporter of liberty and patriotism. His “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” speech in March 1775 is credited with starting the American Revolution in Virginia. He held the following public offices:    Delegate, Virginia House of Burgesses, 1765-1775 Member, Virginia Committee of Correspondence, 1773 Delegate, Continental Congress, 1774-1775 Delegate, Virginia C...

Great American Communicators Sequoyah: Inventor of the Cherokee Syllabary Sequoyah, born in the 1770’s, was a Cherokee Indian. His mother was full blood Indian, and his father was probably at least half-white. His English name is Geroge Gist or Guess. Sequoyah became an excellent blacksmith and silversmith and operated a trading business. He also had a drinking problem, but he gave up alcohol when he saw how it was ruining his life. Sequoyah wanted the Indian people to have a way to read “talking leaves” like the English speaking people did. He never spoke English, and he never understood how the English alphabet worked, although he had seen some books. Facing much opposition and taking 12 years away from his business, he invented the Cherokee syllabary. This is like an alphabet, but there is a character for each syllable, not for each individual phonetic sound. He had originally tried to do a character for each word, like in Chinese. Sequoyah used 85 characters in his syllabary. In or...

This is another handout from my series on Great American Communicators that I taught to my students in the middle school English class in a large home school co-op. Benjamin Franklin’s C ontributions to Communications Benjamin Franklin was born in 1706, the 15th of the 20 Franklin children! There must have been a whole lot of communicating going on in his house when he was a kid! He stopped going to school when he was 10 (his parents couldn’t afford it) but he LOVED to read! He apprenticed as a printer -- but he hated working for his brother James and so he ran away. His pseudonym (false name) for writing letters to his brother’s paper was “Mrs. Silence Dogood”! At age 24 he started the Pennsylvania Gazette newspaper. He created the Poor Richard’s Almanack from 1732 to 1757. It was a yearly book with a calendar, list of events, advice, witty sayings, weather predictions, etc. He founded the first public library in Philadelphia. He established the postal system. He founded a...

In the middle school English class which I taught for a large home school co-op, I used to do a series on Great American Communicators the years we studied American literature.  I featured about a dozen men and women who had made significant contributions to American communications either by what they spoke or wrote themselves, or what they did to improve communication for others.  Some of them included John Winthrop (Puritan pastor), Jonathan Edwards (preacher in the Great Awakening), Benjamin Franklin (statesman, newspaperman, inventor, library and college founder, etc.), Noah Webster (creator of the American dictionary and spelling books), Alexander Graham Bell (inventor of the telephone and teacher of the deaf), Sequoyah (inventor of the Cherokee syllabary for written language), and  Phillis Wheatley  (slave poet).  Here is what I gave my students in their handouts for Thomas Jefferson. Great American Communicators: Thomas ...

Dear friends, In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, my home school co-op English class is listening to his "I Have a Dream" speech and answering study questions on it.  I thought you might like to join us.  I have split the speech text into three sections to make it more manageable.   You will find a persuasive paragraph writing assignment at the end of this post. For peace and justice, Virginia Knowles Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. "I Have a Dream" Speech August 28, 1963 (Section 1) I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But one ...