My "150th Anniversary of the Gettysburg Address"

[brtmchl]

Politics aside, this is just a dull exercise. As if children of this age group need further guidance into believing school is boring. Now we have this, a classroom exercise based on 150 year old language and writing, given to children to read without any build up and told that they probably won't understand it the first time. Kids always love boring subjects that make them feel stupid.
Why?
What's the point?
I was lucky enough, when I was in school, to have a History teacher who acted, and taught with emotion. Who would tell the context leading up to this speech that we were about to read in a dramatic fashion. And while we read it, we had a sense of understanding. Then he would break down the speech, as we read, and discuss it.
And we understood it the FIRST time. And we remembered it.