In the past, some of B’s friends (mostly younger children in their families) bragged to B about the movies they had seen – the selection of which, if true, made my eyebrows shoot to the sky. One of these friend’s mother explained that when you have teens in the house, a lot of media compromise goes on, and the youngest sort of toughen up.
Hmmm. Do I want them toughened up?
Well, B was upset about his bragging rights state, and we decided to let him stay up with Dad after M and K were in bed to see Glory and Gettysburg – rated high because of people getting basted by cannon fire, not because they sleep with people they aren’t married to, or use dreadful language casually (they used dreadful language seriously) Lots of violence, but the cool factor is in the perseverance of the men, not their swagger. And there are consequences to the violence, LOTS of consequences. In Gettysburg, the weird feeling that in a civil war, both sides are your people come through. (Literally, on my mother’s side of the family, one set of brothers fought on opposite sides.)
B took out some biographies of Robert Gould Shaw, accounts of camp life from a member of the 54th, and the battles in South Carolina from the library. He was a bit disappointed that Shaw was a Unitarian, but appreciated his humor in his description of Harvard as disappointingly, "Like a School." We’ve seen the monuments to the 54th Massachusetts on Beacon Hill and at New Bedford, but B didn’t remember them, he probably will next time we see them.
We were up to the Civil War in the Story of the Modern World any way. In fact we are up to some wars in South America I’d never heard of before, but we need to be selective in what activities we do, or we won’t finish this year, which I want to do, So we can hit American history a little bit more tightly, and also do some years with a focus on the history of the development of math and science, and church history…I think? I’ll probably re-read the Well Trained Mind and follow their lead though.
So, are my youngest toughening up? I’m afraid so. B turned Gettysburg on again to see if he could learn the liet motifs of the different generals to play on his flute, and the two youngest followed him into the living room. DH is spell bound too.
Oh Well, at least B has something to contribute to those mindless one up man ship discussions…?