Reactions from the
United States of America

Washington

School: 

Contact: Pendleton, Lynne

Date: 3-12-2001

Dear Mr/Ms De Ruyck,

You have reached a World Languages teacher (me) at a Middle School (grades 6, 7 and 8) in northwestern Washington State (near Canada). I inquired of our Social Studies teachers (who teach history), whether they taught any history of Europe. They do not. The 6th grade classes study the countries of the Pacific Rim (emphasis on China, Japan and Mexico). 7th grade classes study ancient history of Greece and Rome. The 8th grade classes focus on the history of the United States.

If you are interested in researching further in our school district, perhaps in the upper grades, I refer you to the home page of the school district http://www.bham.wednet.edu/. You might want to check at the individual high schools or at the Curriculum pages.

Speaking personally, I doubt that you will find any of your historical personages in our history books at the Secondary school level. American education tends to be fairly narrow, and nationalistic (ie those countries not considered 'important' to the US are not given much attention). I regret this situation. Good luck with your research.

Sincerely,
Ms Lynne Pendleton

School: Hanford High School

Contact: Jeff_Crow@RSD.EDU

Date: 3-12-2001

As I look at your list of people, only a few are recognizable. Mercator is covered in our World Geography text material covering projections. Jan Van Eyck is covered in our World History text. His painting," Wedding Portrait," is featured in a short section dealing with Flanders. Pieter Bruegel is also mentioned in this short section. These are the only people on your list that appear (from my short search). I hope this helps.

Sincerely, Jeff Crow

School: Shorewood High Shoreline

Contact: sw.webmaster@shorelineschools.org 

Date: 3-19-2001

Dear Belgian Researchers,

We looked through our history book:

McKay, John P., et al. A History of World Societies. 4th ed.

We were only able to find the names of two of your people referenced in our book. Pieter Paul Rubens is discussed in small detail in one paragraph of the text concerning baroque painting. Jan Van Eyck also has a painting in the Renaissance section of our text.

I hope this is helpful. Unfortunately we were unable to scan the pages to send them to you. If you'd like the photocopied pages, please email us your postal address.

thank you,

Jason Fisher
Shorewood High School
Shoreline, WA

School: Eatonville Middle School Eatonville

Contact: Christy_Miller@ems.eatonville.wednet.edu

Date: 3-22-2001

Hi.

The only name I could find in our 6th grade text book was Andreas Vesalius, with a short bit of information about being the first person to write an organized book about the human body.

Good luck on your research.

Christy Miller (6th grade teacher) Eatonville Middle School Eatonville, Washington

School: Klahowya Secondary School Silverdale

Contact: MichaelH@cksd.wednet.edu

Date: 3-28-2001

Hi -- Lee Marcum forwarded to me your email request regarding information of famous people in Flanders and our textbooks, etc. I teach several different history courses here and I am also the department chair for social studies at my school and would be happy to look into your request. However, I won't have much time to do the research until mid-April or May. Many of my students are preparing for exams which occur in early May.

I hope my schedule is suitable to you. I'll check all our textbooks and get copies of the pages (and covers of the books) to you.

I know our World History text (designed for 10th graders - 15/16 year olds) discusses Mercator... and his methodology in projection... but it never mentions where he was from!! It does have the artists Brueghel and Van Eyck. However, I don't think the others are included.

I teach an advanced European History course (its similar to a college-level course) and we, of course, deal with more of the people on your list, and many are included in the texts we use for that course. But, not that many students take the course.

Anyway, I will work on this in about a month and get the results to you. Let me know if you have any further questions.

Thanks!

Michael Holloway Social Studies Teacher and Department Chair Klahowya Secondary School PO Box 8 Silverdale, WA 98383 USA