Fascinating. I don't recall reading or hearing about his being
anti-Semitic, but knowing how common that was I wouldn't be surprised. I
know he was no friend to labor and had more than his fair share of strikes.
I'm sure those who worked more closely to him felt lucky to be working for
such a man or at least felt it would look good on the resume, but I don't
think people who were basically factory workers gave more than half a
damn....they just needed the job. And let's face it, assembling phonographs
all day was probably not the most rewarding career.
-----Original Message-----
From: Abe Feder
Sent: Friday, January 25, 2013 6:01 PM
To: Antique Phonograph List
Subject: Re: [Phono-L] Little Known Facts About Edison :)
Just make sure that you don't teach them everything about Edison, he was
very hard on employees and paid a low working wage and fired most who
disagreed with him. He had a strange view-almost myopic view about art, the
people that produced it and music. If it didn't fit his view or like he
simply dismissed it as inferior. And just like his good friend Henry Ford
he was very anti-Semitic.
Both men are viewed as great and in many cases they were-both both had some
major flaws.
Abe Feder
On Fri, Jan 25, 2013 at 3:53 PM, Melissa Ricci <[email protected]> wrote:
Hello Everybody,
As many of you know, I am a middle school music/band teacher and I always
run a unit about Edison and the phonograph. We always end the unit by
recording on a wax cylinder.
For the first time in many years, I am teaching two 6th grade general
music classes along with my band classes this year. Today was the first
time I approached the topic of Thomas A. Edison. To see where the class
was
with their present knowledge of Edison, I broke the kids into groups and
asked them to write down everything they knew or thought they knew about
him.
Here is what the majority of the class wrote down:
1. Edison was the 2nd, 3rd or 16th president of the United States. We're
not sure which.2. Edison was originally from England.3. Edison's face is
on
the $20.00 bill.4. Edison was a male.5. Edison probably had a wife and
might have had children.6. Edison died a very long, long, long time ago.7.
Edison helped to write the constitution.8. Edison had very long, wild
hair.9. Edison was very old.
One student surprised me by writing that Edison invented the first talking
doll. I was amazed so I asked her where she had learned that information.
It turns our that it was on a recent episode of a TV show called
"Oddities". Who says TV can't teach!
Obviously, I plan on starting at the very beginning of Edison's life and
of course his many inventions of which not even the light bulb was
mentioned.
If any of you have any words of wisdom or little known/especially
interesting facts about Edison, please let me know. I plan on going pretty
in depth with these kids so anything I can learn will only help me capture
their interest and put these misconceptions to rest once and for all.
Thanks!Melissa
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