Any Civil War buffs out there?

A teacher at my school, Ura-sensei, asked me if I would talk to his world history class about the Civil War sometime in the next few weeks. I didn't feel as though I could tactfully refuse, so now I have to talk about something way outside my realm of expertise, and I was hoping I could get some ideas of what I should do. I had originally thought I would pick some specific area (ie, life during the civil war, or civil war technology, or effects on later generations), since I only have an hour. But then I looked at the kids' world history textbook. There is a grand total of 2 pages (with pictures!) covering Westward Expansion, Lincoln, the Civil War, and a couple of vague sentences about changes in American culture. Not a single battle is named, no important players other than Lincoln are mentioned, which states were on which side was completely omitted, and the reasons for the war are pretty sparse. This means just about anything is fair game.

I would just love it if one of you could give me a suggestion (entire lesson plans accepted as well) for how to do a meaningful 50 minutes on the Civil War.

Blowing stuff up

Hi there, campers! The other day Mike and I met on battlenet and played a couple rounds of Starcraft. I was just wondering if there was any interest in organizing a "for old time's sake" game across a half-dozen timezones. (Lisa, John, I'm looking at you.)

Now I'm driving legally

Praise {insert deity of choice here}, I finally passed my driving test. In Japan, you can only use an international driver's license for the 1st year after the entry date on your passport, after which you have to get a Japanese license. This means, that since July 27, I have been driving without a valid license (oops!). This is not for lack of trying. I took the test for the first time in the beginning of July, never imagining the difficulties I would face. The test is all closed-course, with nothing particularly hard. However, Japan being the perfectionist nation that it is, everything has to be textbook-perfect. I have been failed for such inanities as not looking in the mirrors enough, looking in the mirrors too much, going too fast (10km/h) around turns, being too confident/not careful enough through the S-turns (note that I got through them just fine), driving in the center of the lane (in Japan, it's keep left, unless you're making a right turn, changing lanes too quickly, changing lanes too slowly, and not keeping my hands at exactly 10 and 2. But thankfully, I passed on the 7th time. Ironically, no one, not even the DMV {insert derogatory term here}, ever implied that I was not a competent and safe driver.

Now, I go off the English "camp" for a week.

What do you mean, you're not going to college?

I just discovered something distressing today. My absolute smartest student, is not planning on going to college. I have long known that my students (and Japanese students in general) don't go to college as universally as I would like, but I can chalk that up to cultural differences. College is not seen as essential to getting a good job. In fact, companies tend to frown on bachelor's degrees that don't carry with them practical skills (*cough cough* liberal arts), preferring instead 2 year technical programs where applicable. So, with most of them, I can let it slide. However, this girl is very bright.

Her name is Momoko, and she's the equivalent of a high school junior. Because of differences in the academic calendar, she just started her junior year in February. Her English is amazing. Far from fluent, but able to hold a conversation, and her pronunciation is nearly perfect. In short, she's a lot better than most of her teachers. I can only directly attest to her English ability, but I know last year there was talk in the teachers' room that she was the only student to get the highest marking on all sections of some kind of achievement test. If Japanese schools did class rankings, she'd probably be number one.

Now that I'm done singing her praises... Today after a tutoring session for a speech contest (in which she placed 3rd in the prefecture last year), I wanted to talk to her some about study abroad. She then told me she didn't plan on going to college. After pushing my eyeballs back into their sockets I asked her why. Basically, she wants to start working right away so she can be independent of her parents. No real plan past that. (BTW: I'm quite proud of myself for maintaining my composure during this conversation.) I didn't exactly know what to say to her. Obviously I told her I think she should go, and I listed just a few perfectly valid reasons. I was at least relieved to hear that I'm not the only teacher that has told her that. Even in Japan which doesn't belive in unnecessary education, especially for women, everyone believes she should go. At the end, she did promise to think about it some more, and she did seem a bit conflicted.

I just can't believe that such a high-achieving student would even consider not furthering her education. It blows my mind. I know I'm a foreigner, completely ignorant to the ways things are done in Japan, but I wish there was something I could say that might help change her mind. I hate to think of that kind of wasted potential.