Reactions from the
United States of America

Massachusetts

School:  Concord Academy Concord

Contact: Shirley_Moore@concordacademy.org

Date: 3-27-2001

We do not study any of the people you mentioned in your email in our history classes in any detail. While some of these names may appear briefly in our texts, it is rare and usually just a sentence or two. Art history is taught in our art department and I have passed along your message to that instructor for her comments.

Good luck w/ your research.

Shirley Moore
History Department Head
Shirley_Moore@ConcordAcademy.org
(978) 402-2282

School:  Medfield High School

Contact: rdesorgher@medfield.mec.edu

Date: 3-30-2001

Dear students, 

i was given your e-mail request by one of my students. I am a high school history teacher at Medfield High School which is located just outside Boston, Massachusetts, USA. I was interested in answering your request because I too am of Belgium heritage. My great-grandfather jumped ship in Boston Harbor in 1868 and stayed here in America, leaving behind his home in Oostand. He was 17 years old at the time and was a ship's carpenter on a Belgian ship. There are still a number of DeSorgher's living in Belgium, especially in the Brussels area. Our family members are the only remaining DeSorgher's here in the USA. Concerning your request, the following famous people of Flanders are studied in our World History classes: 1. Mercator 2. Pieter Breughel 3. Victor Horta 4. Pieter Paul Rubens 5. Van Eyck 6. Father Damien

It would be interesting for me to know which American individuals are studied in the schools in Flanders. Would students know a lot or a little about American history?

Sincerely,

Richard DeSorgher

School: Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School Orleans

Contact: Joan Barnatt

Date: 3-30-2001

I am a middle school teacher (6-8 eighth grade) at the Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School in Orleans, Massachusetts, US. Your website was forwarded to me by another teacher. There are two historical figures who have been part of the curriculum of our school - Mercator and Van Eyck. My daughter, who attended private high school also had both of these men in her studies. Mercator is mentioned briefly in regard to his map projection. Van Eyck is used in art classes. Again, the work is only a relatively brief look at this beautiful work. Interestingly, it formed the basis for an important independent art history project my daughter completed in high school. We still seek out examples of his work in museums we visit, particularly in Europe. Neither appears in textbooks that I have - but textbooks do not form the basis for all our teaching. The final figure, Father Damian is familiar from religious education classes (Roman Catholic) which is usually given to students from ages 6-16, and affiliated with local churches.

School: Newton South High Newton

Contact: Kimn_Muralidharan@newton.mec.edu

Date: 4-02-2001

Hi! I am a 6th grade Soc. Studies teacher in Newton, Ma. We are a town right outside of Boston. We are mixed income thought the impression is that we are a wealthy suburb. The reality is somewhere in the middle! My curriculum includes the development of humans, archeology--process and importance of-- and the ancient cultures of Egypt, China, Mesopotamia, and pre-classical Greece. Our textbooks and lessons do not involve any important Flemish peoples. Sorry. Good luck with your project, 

Kimn Muralidharan

School: Lenox Memorial High Lenox

Contact: Lars Eliot

Date: 4-03-2001

Dear Sirs,

I am speaking on behalf of my English Teacher. A few days earlier I received information about this website and its aims from my English teacher, Mr. James Hurley. The course that he teaches is not English in itself but also incorporates history into the curriculum. In teaching history, he has taken us as far back as the Greeks. Currently, we are entering the completion of the Renaissance Unit. It came to us as a pleasant surprise that we heard of this site at the right time. We are just beginning to cover the Northern Renaissance.

However, Mr. Hurley has provided me with two of the major sources that he has referred to very often. These books deal with the Northern Renaissance as well as other movements in history. These are the two:

1) Durant, Will. The Story of Civilization VI: The Reformation. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1957.

2) Fleming, William. Arts & Ideas: 9th Edition. Orlando: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1995

I hope these sources will provide you with the necessary information you need and thank you for your time!

Sincerely,

Majru Babu Varughese

(On behalf of Mr. James Hurley)

School: 

Contact: misiek@mediaone.net

Date: 4-6-2001

I teach in a required ninth grade survey program, World Cultures and Civilizations, in a public urban school outside of Boston. Our time frame is 500-1800. We tend very rarely to use textbooks as we find them to be too generic and unfocused. So I cannot send you the information you need as requested. We do however have lessons on Renaissance and Baroque art. Breughel, Van Eyck and Rubens are included. We use slides and pictures and ask students to select and learn about one to two artists from a list of about 30. The art is used as evidence to learn about political, social and economic trends in Italy and Northern Europe, Vesalius gets a brief mention in a list of the individuals who described the workings of the body and the natural world. The specific nationality of these individuals is not stressed.

Mary O'Connor