Gallows

[L Verge]

Years ago, when I did the school tours at Surratt House, I would sit the children on the floor in front of our electric map and go over the assassination story with them. Then I would let the map tell about the escape. After a q&a session with the students, we would focus on the word "conspiracy." Since we deal mainly with grades 4-8, very few of the kids would get the gist of what a conspiracy entails.

However, they all knew/know what the word "gang" means. We would then go into the term "vicarious liability," using them as role models in a mock bank robbery where a teller is shot and killed. They all understood that the person who pulled the trigger was guilty, but they got a little shaky when it came to the second robber in the bank -- and then really shaky when it came to the third man waiting outside at the wheel of the get-away car. They were amazed that all three could be tried for what we now term "felony murder."

My parting words to them were to alert them that they were at the age where they might be asked to join a gang (we seem to have them in every neighborhood down here) and that they better think twice because they could be found liable for whatever any member of that gang might do. It would get very quiet in the room. One day, I actually had a vice principal who had accompanied a group of fifth graders come over and hug me for making that lesson clear to them.

I don't want to sound smug here, but I used to conduct mock trials of the conspirators in my eighth grade classes when I was a teacher, and I know that Roger did too. These are the types of techniques that teachers should be using today to teach modern lessons to live by at the same time you are teaching the past. Unfortunately, in this area, social studies has replaced good old U.S. history and it seems to be a bunch of gobbledy-goop.