Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1924-02-09

In these days when our public
school systems are under fire and
being subjected to criticisms which
in many cases are unjust and with
out reasonable foundation in fact,
it certainly is interesting to learn of
some of the methods being used with
success in our own Augusta schools
to teach our children the subjects on
the curriculum.
At the Lincoln school recently in
the English composition work in the
seventh grade, of which Mary A.
Gardner is teacher, the subject for
study and the writing of compost
tiOns was THE Flag" When the pa
pers were all prepared and presented
before the class, the pupils were called
upon to select the two compositions,
which in their opinion were the best.
The papers prepared by Muriel
Holmes and Angela Mclean were
voted as the most deserving.
1t is particularly evident that the
English composition work must be
closely correlated with the history
work. The two compositions also
indicate considerable information on
the subject which must have been
obtained by particular study of the
WIN ltICItHIC W WI anu
authority beyond that of the school
histories.
The two compositions winning the
special commentator of the pupils
follow:
Angela McLean's "History of the
Flag"
Every day as we pledge allegiance
to our flag, do you never wonder just
what was it's beginning? Was the
flag which we now so much admire
always the same flag? And how did
it happen to be as it is? Have the
colors any meaning and why the
stars and stripes?
1.-THE English colonies of course
had the English flag. which is a com
bination of the English red cross of
st. George and the Scottish white
cross of st. Andrew upon a blue
ground. You will see that the flag
of the colonies was red, white and
blue.
II had always thought that the
flag we know was the flag carried at
Bunker Hill. June II, 1776. 1t was
not. The Bunker Hill flag was blue
with a white corner in which was a
red cross and u pine tree, the colorS,
YOU sec, being red white and blue.
There was also carried during the
Revolution what was called the Rat
tiesnake flag. This was a flag hav-
ing a coiled rattlesnake on yellow
back ground and bearing the words
Don't tread on me-"
1.-THE first flag of the United
States, raised by Washington at
Cambridge. Jan. 2, 1916, consisted of
thirteen stripes alternate red and
white as now. but what is at present
the blue field of stars was the Eng
lish flag. If you took away the thir-
teen stripes you had left the English
flag.
In June 1717 Congress substituted
for the crosses of ST. George and ST.
Andrew thirteen white stars and we
had the flag very much as we now
see it. At first a new stripe as well
as a star was added as each new
state was admitted, but in 1918 this
plan was given up and the flag was
restored to the thirteen stripes to
represent the thirteen original colon
les and a new star was added on the
4th of July following the admission
of Il new state to represent that
state: so now the stars represent
the states while the stripes repre-
sent the thirteen original states.
There are many flags in many lands,
There are flags of every hue;
But there is no flag however grand
Like our own red. white and blue
"The Story of the American Flag"
BY Muriel Holmes
when we see the Stars and
Stripes floating over our Lincoln
school the first thing it seems to say
to us is: Ours is n free country"