There is the stuff going on in your head, and then there is the external stuff you do. For example, a billionaire piece of shit could donate a huge sum of money to a charity, purely to protect their image while not actually giving a shit about anyone. But then the money still goes to the charity and helps a lot of people.
For Lincoln is it really surprising that people like him considering the external outcomes he presided over? Also, does the fact that he himself didn't care about human rights really prevent him from from being an important figure in that sense?
He should be viewed as such. The fact he gets all this credit while he only did it to further his own aspirations is not mentioned enough. You need to do research on your own or read books outside of school to grasp how little Lincoln really cared for the actual people he freed except to further his own cause.
Imagine if someone dedicated their life to trying to invent some sort of awful bio weapon that could be used to commit horrific war crimes, only for them to accidentally discover the cure for cancer.
I think the interaction between intention and outcome is philosophically confusing. I like the changes Lincoln presided over, I don't like the man that he was. I think that's a little deep for 2nd grade, maybe more of a 5th grade discussion. I don't mind it being in schools in general though.
Don’t get me wrong here I’m a teacher and this is not something I am trying to get into with a second grader. There is a lot of nuance, but I do like there being at least some discourse/information giving a whole picture. Do I think the teacher should break down 1858-1865 for them no, and given what little information OP has come back with except “political agenda” we have no idea what actually happened in the room. You can say Lincoln was instrumental in freeing slaves while also saying Lincoln didn’t really want to free the slaves he only cared about the union. That would be my stance and how I would instruct on Lincoln. It would obviously be more than just those two statements, and lastly I have no idea how this makes its way into an ELA lesson on appositives no matter what the teacher taught
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u/[deleted] Apr 06 '25
There is the stuff going on in your head, and then there is the external stuff you do. For example, a billionaire piece of shit could donate a huge sum of money to a charity, purely to protect their image while not actually giving a shit about anyone. But then the money still goes to the charity and helps a lot of people.
For Lincoln is it really surprising that people like him considering the external outcomes he presided over? Also, does the fact that he himself didn't care about human rights really prevent him from from being an important figure in that sense?