By Matthew Tungate
matthew.tungate@education.ky.gov
Kentucky Chautauqua performer Obadiah Ewing-Roush, as Berea founder John G. Fee, talks to Sioux Finney, a social studies teacher at Woodford County Middle School, after Ewing-Roush’s presentation at Boone Tavern in Berea. Photo by Matthew Tungate, July 13, 2012
Abraham Lincoln was a native Kentuckian, as Sue Breeding teaches her 8th-grade social studies students at Monticello Middle School (Monticello Independent). That he was an attorney, became president, freed the slaves and was assassinated are among the other highlights of his life Breeding shares with her students.
He was not, in any way or under any circumstances, a vampire hunter.
“I’m always saying, ‘Don’t learn history from Hollywood. They’re out to make money. The movies are fine for fun, but go to the primary sources to learn history,’” Breeding says, laughing and shaking her head.
She also encourages her students to visit historical sites, of which Kentucky has plenty.
“It just comes alive. It puts you there how it would have been 100 years ago or 200 years ago. You can’t get that from just reading,” Breeding said.
Breeding and about 30 other teachers visited several sites important to the history of emancipation in July as part of a tour organized by the Kentucky Historical Society (KHS) following the Kentucky History Education Conference in Frankfort. Continue Reading
