The first thing I noticed when I entered the class today was that Mr. Armstrong had drawn a simple picture depicting a mother and a child. Without the slightest idea of what the drawing was about, everyone giggled thinking that it was amusing and funny since it was so random.
However, when Mr. Armstrong started class, the drawing was not just a thing to laugh at; rather, we could see that it was a metaphor used to help us better understand the class materials.
Today we learned that the mother in the drawing represents England and that the child represents the 13 colonies. What Mr. Armstrong was trying to convey to us was the fact that the relationship between England and its colonies was similar to that of a mother and a child.
England built an empire in the New World, and established 13 colonies. It governed and took care of its colonies by providing it with essential needs such as food, wealth and protection. However, as the 13 colonies grew and prospered they demanded more independence and freedom from England.
This is similar to a mother and a child relationship in that when a child is young, his or her mother would nourish and protect him at all costs. The child, also young and helpless will be very much dependent on his or her mother. However, as the child grows he/she would want more freedom, and when that freedom is not granted to his/her satisfaction, the child would try to leave his/her mother.
By this comparison, we were able wrap up out thoughts on this week’s lesson.
After that activity, we were to review and discuss our week 8 immersion with the people in our table group. We were expected to be able to know our key terms and resources from which we have gotten the information we used. We researched and went over significant terms such as John Peter Zenger, Navigation Acts, Town Meetings, Mercantilism, and so forth. It is very interesting that the town meetings consisted of local people solving current day issues, which is very similar to today’s democratic governments.
At the end of the class, Billy and I gave a presentation in front of the class on the economic system of the 13 colonies.
Billy and I were chosen to show the whole class how things worked in terms of trade by demonstrating how economic deals were made during the colonial era. We exchanged fake cash for necessity goods such as yarn (clothes) and shoes, while at the same time we showed how colonies could increase or decrease their profit by pretending to purchase some goods and paying for it.
Today was a wrap up review session to make sure we worked diligent and efficient enough to get the accurate information into our heads. I thought it was a good opportunity to refresh and polish our work by discussing it with the rest of the class.
I believe that the class star should go to D.K. because he helped our table group understand things more clearly. He also asked good questions that sparked new conversations which also reminded us of the immersions we did a while ago.
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