I am now residing at the guesthouse on the plantation grounds, and the seminar experience has reached full power. Thirty teachers from around the country have converged on Stratford Hall for a three-week seminar on revolutionary America. For this, we will receive six graduate credits from UVA, for which we are required to produce an in-depth classroom unit utilizing the vast materials at our disposal.
I was a bit apprehensive on the bus ride to Stratford, as the logistics of the course were less than ideally stated to us at the outset. More than anything else, I wondered just how many people applied for the seminar, fearing that 31 had applied for 30 positions. Come to find out there were over 100 applicants, so that made all of us feel better.
Stratford Hall was the home of the Lees. Two of the Lee brothers signed the Declaration of Independence (those of you have seen the movie may remember the family's Broadway-designated motto: "Here a Lee, there a Lee, everywhere a Lee, a Lee!), making this an important colonial site. The grounds have been restored as faithfully as possible to reflect the way they must have looked in the mid-to-late eighteenth century, and the house is awe-inspiring.
Interestingly enough, and I think this is a good reflection of the constancy of the Civil War in the South, Stratford is also billed as the birthplace of Robert E. Lee. Now, his family moved from the house to Arlington when Bobby was only four, but guess whose name is the only one depicted on the sign out front...
Yesterday we settled in and had our first taste of the food they will be providing for the duration of our stay. It was great! Of course, being authentic southern food, I plan to gain about 25 pounds (sorry, Colleen and PJ), so I'll have to stick to a strict exercise regiment to counteract the size of the meals.
The classroom portion of the seminar started today with three lectures of about 90 minutes each. They were all very informative and very well delivered, although we had a pretty mythical talk about Robert E. Lee that couldn't have been based in fact. Yet another indication of the perseverance of southern ideology...
Tomorrow we head out to a neighboring site to do some hands-on farming. I'll let you all know how things are going.
I hope all of you are well, and thanks for continuing to faithfully read my dispatches from education's front lines.
Paul
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