This month we made the transition from 19th to 20th century America. We started with the Gilded Age, a period of rapid economic growth which saw both great riches and great poverty and injustice. We learned about robber barons and the Great Johnstown Flood.
We learned about the Muckrakers, the journalists who sought to expose corruption and the appalling working and living conditions of the lower classes: Ida Tarbell (Standard Oil), Jacob Riis (slums), Lewis Hine (child labor), and Thomas Nast (political cartoonist).
We learned about the Mill Children’s March, to highlight the dangers of child labor, and the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, which sparked laws to protect workers.
Our art history artist this month was Mary Cassatt and our composer of the month was Rimsky Korsakov. We listened to Rimsky Korsakov’s “Scheherazade” and did an accompanying art project.
We also learned about the work of William H. Johnson. Our virtue of the month was “courage.”