Name: Memory and Lost Causes: A Tale of Two Monuments
Start: 2023-2-7T19:00-5:00
End: 2023-2-7T20:30-5:00

Savannah Country Day School

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We are in a period of genuine historical reckoning over how we remember the Civil War and honor its participants. Prominent Confederate statuary has been removed in many cities including New Orleans, Memphis and even the former capital of the Confederacy, Richmond, Virginia. Further, southern military bases named for Confederate generals are now in the process of being re-named. Within this wider context, Georgians are grappling with two prominent relics from their Confederate past, the monument to the Confederate Dead in Forsyth Park in Savannah and, to a greater extent, the large relief carving of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson on the north face of Stone Mountain near Atlanta. While both of these monuments celebrate the Confederate experience, they are very different in terms of when they were created, why they were created and the messages they hoped to convey. A comparative examination of these artifacts yields a deeper understanding of the intersection of memory, race and power in our state from the end of the Civil War to our not-too-distant past.

Instructor: Chris Beckmann is in the seventh year of his second tour of duty at SCDS; he is also a Savannah native and Country Day “Lifer” who graduated in 1979. Chris earned a BA in History from the University of Georgia before continuing his education at the University of Florida where he studied with renowned Southern historian Bertram Wyatt-Brown. His Masters Thesis “Forbidden Thoughts: The Metamorphosis of Katharine Du Pre Lumpkin,” traced the evolution of this daughter of a Confederate veteran through her childhood Lost Cause indoctrination and later adult transformation into a progressive New Deal-inspired sociologist. Chris taught several courses across the history curriculum in his 30 years at Oak Hall School in Gainesville, Florida in addition to his college counseling duties before returning to Savannah and Country Day in 2016 to assume the Director of College Counseling post. Chris is married to former SCDS Middle School instructor, Mary; he has two daughters and he enjoys live music, cycling, swimming at Tybee, southern literature and listening to Atlanta Braves games on the radio.

TO REGISTER FOR THIS SEMINAR, CLICK HERE.

Time

(Tuesday) 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm

Location

Savannah Country Day School

824 Stillwood Dr, Savannah, GA 31419

Organizer

Savannah Country Day School 824 Stillwood Drive, Savannah, GA 31419

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14feb7:00 pm8:30 pmBiology: It's Always More Complicated Than You ThinkFaculty Explorations

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It’s simple biology” is a phrase you hear in popular speech over and over again, but biology is anything but straightforward. As living organisms evolved over millions of years as collections of chemicals made of primarily 6 different elements, the processes that sustain life have developed to impressive levels of complications throughout many series of mutations and selections. A common refrain in my biology classes is, “it’s always more complicated that it seems,” and in this hour, we will dive into some of the biological “facts” that are taught as absolute and explore the ways in which there’s always more to the biological story and see that nothing found in “myriad forms wonderful and beautiful” is simple and straightforward as it might seem.

Instructor: Ariane Wright has been teaching for 15 years, 10 of which have been at SCDS. She has taught science from 8th grade through 12th grade; covering subjects from physical science to AP Environmental, AP Biology, and AP Chemistry; her current course load. She hails from Irmo, South Carolina, went to college in Atlanta where she graduated from Agnes Scott College, earned her masters in Education at American College of Education, and has split her teaching career between Savannah and New Orleans. She is married with a son in 2nd grade at SCDS and a daughter in The Little School.

TO REGISTER FOR THIS SEMINAR, CLICK HERE.

Time

(Tuesday) 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm

Location

Savannah Country Day School

824 Stillwood Dr, Savannah, GA 31419

Organizer

Savannah Country Day School 824 Stillwood Drive, Savannah, GA 31419

Learn More

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