My Brother Sam is Dead's time has come

Schools are finally beginning to realize that the censors are wrong. Many schools all over the country are reading My Brother Sam is Dead and those that do are finding out what a helpful tool My Brother Sam is Dead can be in the classroom.

One teacher, whose name I won't disclose, found that the censorship actually played in his favor...while reading the book to his classroom he mentioned how the book was "banned" in many schools for its content. A student almost giddy with excitement asked "you mean we aren't supposed to be reading this book??" the teacher replied something along the lines of "well, its not banned here, but in other schools it is." which caused great joy in the faces around him as they urged him to read more.

[Note: this teacher was reading the book to his 3rd grade class, this allowed him to censor out foul words and smooth over graphic violence. A great idea in my opinion for kids in 3rd to 5th grade]

So you see, it's really not a problem unless you make it one. I've read other blog posts that state the book isn't exciting or Tim Meeker is too meloncauly. These people are missing the point. They are no different than those that read Huck Finn and believe Mark Twain is a racist. Christopher Collier was/is a historian and his brother James was a children's novelist. Between the two of them they wove a tale that was intended to shed light on the early years of the American Revolution. They wanted to portray it as a civil war as in many ways it truly was.

The novel is focused on 1775-1779, volatile times where it wasn't uncommon for people to disagree on the issue of rebellion, sometimes those in the same family. This is why My Brother Sam is Dead is such a valuable teaching tool...it gives us a front row seat to the "colonial kitchen table". What they felt, what they delt with, what they sacrificed, why they suffered and how is all in this book. Take a deeper look and you will be rewarded.

One example is the Collier brother's use of the store and tavern to highlight the financial problems of the that time period (1775-1779). These financial problems occurred when both the Government (Continental Congress) and individual States started issuing paper money to pay for the war. They issued far too much currency and almost immediately the value of paper money crashed, so they issued more. As a result hard money or coins became the currency of choice and its value skyrocketed. These issues are somewhat like we are experiencing today as financial companies over extended credit to people who could not afford it...as a result the value of the dollar is low and the value of hard currency like Gold has skyrocketed. So you see, with just a little leg work you can teach students a great deal with this book.

If you need ideas, I have a listed out all the topic and explained a good number of them, visit: http://www.historyofredding.com/mbsd.htm