A student came up to me after class yesterday

[Coventina]

And asked me, "Did you know that the Alamo is actually in TEXAS?"

I said, "Yes." (Wondering where this was going).

"All this time I thought it was in SPAIN!" he exclaimed.

I was a bit dumbfounded, "No, it's in Texas."

"Yeah! I was just really surprised!"

*********************************

I had been talking about El Greco that day. I guess that's what prompted him to share that intel with me.
Gee, what are they teaching kids in K-12 these days?
I can't even remember when I learned about the Alamo, but it certainly wasn't in college!

[rurallib]

1. And remember that the Alamo - a symbol of freedom -

was being held by people who were fighting to keep slavery

[yorkster]

2. I wonder if he heard about the Alhambra as a child

and somehow mixed it up with the Alamo....

[mwmisses4289]

4. That's what I was wondering.

Maybe good follow up next time you see him, ask if he was thinking alahambra, which is in Spain. May show pics of each?

[soldierant]

17. I'd say probably. There are actually a number of names of pkaces in Spain

which begin with "Al", many but not all of which are from Arabic. (Portugal h a few also.)
Alburquerque (yes, with two "R"s)
Almeria
Aledo
Alarcos
Alberca
Albelda.
Albufera
Alborg
Albufera

are just some examples. "Al in Arabic means "the" - for instance, Alborg means "The tower." And Spain and Portugal were under Aeabic rule for a long, long time.

[usonian]

3. Blame Wikipedia. Too much knowledge!

There's an Alamo in California.
Lots of Moscow's in the U.S. (20, in fact)
And lots more places "that ain't where they should be"

Perhaps, a good exercise for students.
They need Wikipedia, that's all.
No short videos








https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alamo%2C_California
https://theworld.org/stories/2016/03/09/there-are-last-26-towns-america-called-moscow-why

[wcmagumba]

5. I was in my small town Kansas college choir, we did a performance in Moscow, Kansas on a tour...

The place we performed was a school or church (I don't remember) but the town square was right outside...Myself and a couple of choir friends ran out and captured the town flagpole while wearing our black tuxedos during a break...I don't remember if we were the Whites or the Reds...it was fun in our own minds...

[lastlib]

7. Ask a Missouri school kid to find the following places:

California
Mexico
Nevada
Paris
Milan
Cuba
Moscow
Albany
Kabul (Cabool)

and he might point to Missouri for every one of them. We're HORRIBLE at geography!

(Of course, 95% of the world thinks Kansas City is in Kansas......they're only half right...)

[usonian]

11. Everyone in the Boston area knows that Kansas City is in Saugus Mass.

At Frank Giuffrifa's Hilltop Steak House


And here is a picture of Kansas City.

[RazorbackExpat]

31. Don't forget Hayti (pronounced HAY-tie)

an alternate spelling to Haiti

[dsc]

6. well in a sense it was in Spain

or at least New Spain.

[3catwoman3]

8. Holy crap! One of the most disheartening displays of woeful ignorance I've ever heard of...

…came to me from a story told to us by a friend. The friend’s now ex-husband was a minister, and a member of the congregation objected to foreign languages being taught in schools with the following rationale - “If English was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for me.” What do you even say to someone that uninformed.

Another favorite is something I saw online many years ago. Moms at the pediatric office kept asking about putting Vicks Vaporub on babies’ feet to help with cold symptoms. I thought this sounded bogus, but decided I would look it up just in case there was something to it. The only thing I found was some woman’s personal blog in which she stated, “Yes, this works, because babies breathe through their feet.”

I remember thinking that somebody that stupid probably should not be entrusted to care for a baby.

[3Hotdogs]

19. "If English was good enough for Jesus, It's good enough for me."

Makes. sense. In my Bible, when Matt and Luke and them guys tells us what Jesus said, Jesus talks English. He don't talk no Spanish. j

[Ms. Toad]

9. Sometime before I was 12.

I know I learned it in the one-room country school I attended through 6th grade.

That's also the age range in which I learned about the holocaust.

[PCB66]

10. Not too long ago I ordered a book on the Alamo

I was reading it and my Daughter in Law came by to visit.

My Daughter in Law is well educated. A MS in Sociology. Usually smart on anything. 40 years old.

She saw the book and wanted to know what it was about. She told me she had never heard of the Alamo. I couldn't believe and thought she was just pulling my leg but she was serious.

[3Hotdogs]

22. In fairness, when I was in H.S., the history book went up to WW2.

U.S. history was divided - U.S. 1 and U.S. 2. U.S. 1 went to the Civil War. There was time to present Chris and Isabella, Squanto, George and Tommy J. Hamilton wasn't in any of the books.

As time progressed, the books became filled with more pages. When I began teaching, the book stopped before the Viet Nam war. By that time, I had to decide what to focus on and what to skip. There wasn't time to cover it all.

It is not unreasonable that people today, would not know about the Alamo, Manifest Destiny, The I.W.W., The Populists of the 1890's and so forth.

[Mblaze]

12. I think he meant the Alhambra

There is a basement in the Alhambra. 😀

[ToxMarz]

13. I bet he doesn't know who John Wayne is either

Or if he does, it's John Wayne Gacy

[3Hotdogs]

18. I recall reading about the time Johnny Gacy and Jeff Dahlmer were having lunch together.Jeff asked John,

"Johnny, ya gonna eat all that?"

[mackdaddy]

14. I watched the John Wayne movie many decades ago.

Not sure how historically accurate it was.

[Brother Buzz]

23. Cool trivia on the Alamo

The chevrons on the columns at the door were reversed in the film

[NBachers]

15. Learned about it through Davy Crockett on the TeeVee

[Coventina]

16. King of the Wild Frontier!

?si=6xtF896yhXQlVC5K

[FakeNoose]

20. That was a teaching moment - your student was curious

He might have heard that the Alamo was originally built by Spanish missionaries. Or maybe he heard that it was taken over by the Mexican government back in the days before the Louisiana Purchase.

There's a lot of interesting history regarding south Texas. Occasionally that cool old movie "The Alamo" (starring John Wayne and Richard Widmark) is show on TV. Maybe your student learned something by watching the movie.

[TexasBushwhacker]

21. Was this student from Texas?

I mean, I know about it because I'm from Texas and learned about Texas history in grade school. I probably wouldn't know much about Oregon history or Montana, etc.

[WarGamer]

24. History is woefully mistaught nowadays....

[Xavier Breath]

25. I hope you gave him the most important information about the Alamo.

[Woodwizard]

28. That was a fun movie.

[Xavier Breath]

30. Indeed.

[H2O Man]

33. Classic!

[Bavorskoami]

26. I was eight when I learned about the Alamo

To be fair to K-12 schools I do not know when the Mexican-American war first came up in school, but I was eight years old in 1955 when Disney put the Davy Crockett series on TV with Fess Parker.

[badhair77]

27. I swear, our cartoons were more smartly written than children's programming as the years progressed.

Bugs Bunny would be dressed up as George Washington and crossing the Delaware. Donald Duck would be another person from history. And so it went. And Mr Peabody! Loved that cartoon.

[ProfessorGAC]

29. My Parents Took Me To The Alamo When I Was 10

We went to the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, & The Painted Desert.
We took the long way home & went to San Antonio first.
My parents were way into taking me (later all the kids*) to historic places. So, I got to learn first hand where the Alamo was.
Also, if he thought it was in Spain, did he know they were fighting Mexico?

* - When I was in 8th grade, both my aunt & uncle died, so my 3 cousins came to live with us.