What I meant by my comment about the teacher and history was that if they don't teach anything about the Mayflower, the Pilgrims and that sort of thing, they are skipping over a whole lot of history in my opinion. If the teachers don't teach specifically about the names of the Mayflower passengers, that's okay because I didn't get that in school back then either. But to only teach the kids as it relates to Thanksgiving only is disappointing. I seem to recall there was much more taught to kids in the past than kids of today. I guess because now we have so much more history to learn, the "older stuff" gets pushed into the far reaches of the attic. Instead, the kids are learning things like the holocaust of WWII as it is more relavant to the events of today's world rather than the fact that 102 plus or minus passengers came over, many died, etc. in 1620 and that's the start of the USA as we know it. My own granddaughter, whose father is African American seems to only concentrate on the time period of Martin Luther King. She could care less about the Pilgrims, though she is not only a Mayflower descendant (the same number of Pilgrim's that my husband is descended from), but she is also a descendant through her father's ancestry to the black culture. Our other granddaughter also is a descendant from Jamestown. Her interest doesn't include this historical fact as she is only interested in the here and now. Forget history! The two would rather watch Disney! They are only interested in their ancestry when they get around grandpa! Christie Trapp

Regarding the teaching of pilgrim and other history in schools.......the Social Studies curriculum in most districts is crowded with numerous benchmarks. For example, Social Studies content in elementary school includes history, civics/core democratic values, geography, inquiry, thematic strands, multiple perspectives, and so forth. It's much more complicated than the "straight" history and some geography most of us experienced when we went to school. You can see an overview of the standards here: http://www.socialstudies.org/standards/execsummary/ In my own school district 5th grade Social Studies focuses on explorers and the new world, the first Americans, the Columbian Exchange, the Jamestown and Plymouth settlements, the 13 colonies, the Revolutionary War, the struggle for Independence, core democratic values, and the U.S. Constitution. There are about 600 pages in the textbook. One lesson is devoted to the Plymouth Colony. It is 6 pages long. In my opinion, Social Studies curriculum has taken a back seat to other curricula such as English/Language Arts, Math, and Science. Just my two cents! Grace