Why Were The Radical Republicans Radical?

[Liz Rosenthal]

(05-11-2013 03:56 AM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  Liz, you were right, I really enjoyed reading "Tad Lincoln's father". The title might be a bit misleading since the book is as much about J.T.'s life. But she reveals some interesting insights about her education and (social) habits, e.g. I was amazed that monolingual foreign language teaching (students were only allowed to speak French at school) had already been practised in those days. I suppose Mary's education had been about the same, what a difference to A.L.'s poor frontier schooling!
I was also pleased with the (uncommmon) point of view on Mary, whom J.T. first of all introduces and presents as a lovable, likable character. Whatever positive I had read about Mary before, her skills and abilities had always been stated in a way an attorney defends an dafendant, but none of this had suggested truely lovable character traits.
Back to school(ing). J.T. mentions that during wartime no schools were open in Washington (p.65). Is this true? As far as I know, Washington was only once (in July 1864)seriously threatened, so why? Was it due to the risk of passing on epidemic deseases? Were the buildings used as military hospitals or did the teaching staff have to serve as nurses or soldiers?
Finally, what do the 3"R's" in "we formed some acquaintance with the '3R's'" (p.22) stand for? (Whoever could give a hint,please help!)

I actually don't know the answer to the question of whether all schools in Washington DC were closed during the Civil War. If true, several factors may have been at work. In the months leading up to the Civil War, the city bled residents. A huge number of southerners left to go South, to fight for their state or the Confederacy or to be with family. Probably there were a good number of northerners who went North for similar reasons, although my impression is that Washington was dominated by southerners, culturally and demographically. And, of course, slavery was alive and well there. But I suppose that, with southerners and some other city residents leaving, the student populations of existing schools were decimated - not to mention the population of teachers and even school owners/administrators. And, certainly, as the war progressed and the casualties mounted and the troop presence in the city increased, all available space was likely needed for hospitals and for soldiers, medical professionals and humanitarian volunteers to take up residence. Someone else here might know, though, to what extent public schools even existed in Washington at the time war broke out, with Washington being a southern city, and the South not being particularly friendly to the public schools movement that had been gathering steam in the North, so we might just be talking about the closing of a bunch of privately-run schools. My guess is that children were probably schooled in people's homes during the war, by private tutors or perhaps in informally established classrooms. Again, here, someone else probably knows better than I do.