American History, Period 2 01/22

[shiroi_tiger]

When students filed into the Danger Shop, they would find themselves in the front room of a large colonial home. Algren, who was, yes, fully clothed thank you very much, seemed almost worryingly amused as he waited for everyone to settle in. He started speaking even as the students were sitting down and thawing out.

"Okay. Last week, we covered pretty much everyone who ever landed in America... Ever. This week, we're going to be nicer to you all. From there, history until about the mid-1770s can be summed up as follows: We didn't like Britain. They were kinda being overbearing jerks. So we wanted out. We fought. We got it. And somewhere in there, to cement our point, we wrote on a sheet of paper to prove that it was ours. It's a pretty important sheet of paper, which states right in the title what purpose it serves. It was the American Declaration of Independence, which was approved by Congress on July 4th, 1776."

Tyler was wearing a t-shirt. It didn't match the surroundings, but he was warm for the first time in a while and he meant to enjoy it. "The reason we're in the Danger Shop today," he contributed, "is so you can watch this lovely -- and completely historically accurate -- re-enactment of the decision to leave the writing of the Declaration to Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. He was young, 33, but he was the best writer in the group that summer. He also didn't manage to talk his way out of it."

He hit a button on the shop console, and five men in Colonial garb appeared in the midst of the students and started to sing.

When they were done and vanished again, Tyler began to read from a sheet of parchment. " 'When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.' That is what Mr. Jefferson wrote."

Algren, arms crossed over his chest, flashed a bit of a grin.

"You will each be given a printed copy of the Declaration of Independence to take home with you to read over the course of the week," he stated, walking across the room to a wooden chest and opening it up to reveal a heap of powdered wigs, enough for each person in the class to have one. "Your assignment today, however, is a more simple one. You are to each take a wig, to help you get into character, of course. We'll be writing our own Declaration of Independence, and you are to discuss as a class what points you would be certain to include."

"And speaking of in character," Tyler added, passing out a thick stack of handouts, "you should each pick one signer to represent. It's up to you whether you want to be John Hancock or Button Gwinnett, with one exception." A specific costume was plopped on the TA's desk. "Ino, you get to be Benjamin Franklin."

Tyler might have still been paying her back for the onsen message.

[OCD is up! Run wild!]

Comments

Sign In [01/22]

[shiroi_tiger]

Independently! (But still collapsey!)

Re: Sign In [01/22]

[sixstandingby.livejournal.com]

Gavin Darklighter

Lecture [01/22]

[shiroi_tiger]

Watch the scene unfold, try on the wigs, pass notes- but do note, all notes not written with a quill pen will be confiscated.

Re: Lecture [01/22]

[sixstandingby.livejournal.com]

The singing was amusing but the wigs were...less than amusing. And ugly. Holy kriff, they were ugly.

Re: Lecture [01/22]

[iruinenglish.livejournal.com]

Buffy was looking and feeling more like herself today, which meant that the bandages were gone from her forehead, but the cut was still there, and the scrapes around her eyes were healing nicely. Still, she was a little self-conscious and wondering if people were going to stare, or whether it'd be more "That kind of thing happened to the other Buffies all the time!"

...Oh god, singing. And was he reading from parchment?

Re: Lecture [01/22]

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Cal didn't want to be incredibly amused and entertained, but, for some reason, he couldn't really help it.

Re: Lecture [01/22]

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

Anemone was doing her best to ignore the wigs, the singing, and anything else that wasn't her sketchbook. It was the only way she'd make it through class without wanting to throttle Mr. Durden.

Re: Lecture [01/22]

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

. . . oh, they had to be kidding.

Katchoo slumped lower and lower into her seat, her glare rapidly building in power until it could probably bore a hole straight through a mountainside should she spontaneously develop a superpower.

Which, it should be noted, it was better for everyone that she didn't.

Re: Lecture [01/22]

[carsexual]

Sam was...pretty sure that scene wasn't how it had actually gone down. Unless Americans of 1776 had been way more fond of singing than they were at present.

Re: Lecture [01/22]

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

Alice was quite enjoying trying on the wigs. Perhaps far more than one should.

Re: Lecture [01/22]

[likethegun]

Sam cracked up at the singing. The wigs? Not so much.

In-Class Activity 1! [01/22]

[shiroi_tiger]

You heard the men! You're writing the Declaration of Independence yourselves. What do you figure should go into it?

Don't forget your powdered wigs!

[Let chaos reign in this thread. Ping off of one another, go nuts!]

Re: In-Class Activity 1! [01/22]

[sixstandingby.livejournal.com]

Gavin stuck the wig on his head and felt dumb.

"Uh, well, if you're declaring independence, you should probably explain why and how you're going to maintain that independence. It's one thing to say it, it's another thing to keep it up."

Re: In-Class Activity 1! [01/22]

[carsexual]

Sam had one contribution he felt the need to make to this discussion: "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings."

In-Class Activity 2! [01/22]

[shiroi_tiger]

When the class was finished writing their own Declaration, Algren handed out another sheet of paper to kill time for the last little bit of class:

Pick a word for each category, and then fill in the blanks of the matching number.

1 - Living Creature, Singular
2 - Verb, Present Tense
3 - Verb, Past Tense
4 - Verb, Present Tense
5 - Proper Noun
6 - Noun, Plural
7 - Noun, Possessive
8 - Noun, Plural
9 - Verb, Present Tense
10 - Living Creature, Plural
11 - Noun, Plural
12 - Noun, Plural
13 - Noun, Plural


When in the Course of 1_______ events it becomes necessary for one people to 2_______ the political bands which have 3_______ them with another and to 4_______ among the powers of 5_______, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of 6_______ and of 7_______ God entitle them, a decent respect to the 8_______ of mankind requires that they should 9_______ the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all 10_______ are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are 11_______, 12_______ and the pursuit of 13_______.

Re: In-Class Activity 2! [01/22]

[sixstandingby.livejournal.com]

Gavin got to work on the activity.

1. bantha. 2. show 3. showered 4. laugh 5. Tatooine 6. rocks 7. twins 8. ships 9. sleep 10. sarlaac 11. mud 12. sand 13. landspeeders

After filling in the blanks, Gavin decided that his little story did not make much sense at all.

At all.

Re: In-Class Activity 2! [01/22]

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Cal tapped his pen thoughtfully on his chin before setting to the task.

1. monkey 2. swing 3. drooled 4. spit 5. Michigan 6. hotdogs 7. women's 8. skirts 9. shoot 10. polar bears 11. knee socks 12. mulberries 13. sliding doors

Which left him with:

When in the Course of monkey events it becomes necessary for one people to swing the political bands which have drooled them with another and to spit among the powers of Michigan, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of hotdogs and of women's God entitle them, a decent respect to the skirts of mankind requires that they should shoot the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all polar bears are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are knee socks, mulberries and the pursuit of sliding doors.


...Which he felt was pretty awesome. Anything that included the skirts of mankind and the right to kneesocks had to be awesome.

Re: In-Class Activity 2! [01/22]

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

Oh, this looked quite fun indeed.

1 - white rabbit (who is running late)
2 - dance
3 - poured tea for
4 - execute (the nonbelievers)
5 - Oxford (which is very proper indeed)
6 - pawns
7 - the dormouse's
8 - flamingo-shaped croquet mallets
9 - frolic
10 - mock-turtles
11 - Queens
12 - Card Guards
13 - toe-socks

Which left her with a quite impressive opening:


When in the Course of white rabbit (who is running late) events it becomes necessary for one people to dance the political bands which have poured tea for them with another and to execute (the nonbelievers) among the powers of Oxford (which is very proper indeed) the separate and equal station to which the Laws of pawns and of the dormouse's God entitle them, a decent respect to the flamingo-shaped croquet mallets of mankind requires that they should frolic the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all mock-turtles are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Queens, Card Guards and the pursuit of toe-socks.

Really, that deserved to be framed, somewhere.

Talk To The TA [01/22]

[shiroi_tiger]

When Ben Franklin she signs in, of course!

Re: Talk To The TA [01/22]

[intraspective]

Oh come on. Geez. She put the costume on, with ill-grace, and then devoted herself... almost entirely to staring at the clock.

And wondering what she'd done to deserve this right before a mission.

Talk To The Teachers [01/22]

[shiroi_tiger]

No, they will not be wearing powdered wigs today.

Re: Talk To The Teachers [01/22]

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

Anemone had tried to be good today, really, but the assignment had frustrated her beyond the point of endurance.

It would help if she knew what a noun-thing or a verb was. No one had ever actually gone over grammar or anything like that with her before.

"Are you always this crazy?" she snapped, marching over to Tyler and cocking her head at him. "Or just on days ending in 'y'?"

OOC [01/22]

[shiroi_tiger]

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiibs. :D

Re: OOC [01/22]

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

OMG I LOVE MADLIBS!

Re: OOC [01/22]

[justwantsquiet.livejournal.com]

MADLIBS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

...shh, I love them.