March 9, 2010

Michigan Society
Spring 2010

Presentations were made to two world history classes at Groves High School in the Birmingham, Michigan School District in March 2010 by Dick Marsh and Bob Pettengill. This opportunity resulted from letters sent earlier in the school year to 21 high schools. That letter offered the services of the Michigan Churchill Society to assist in presenting Winston Churchill in the classroom. In consultation with the teacher, Mr. Geoff Wickersham, the material focused on the causes of World War II, appeasement and Winston Churchill’s “wilderness years” warnings. We also discussed the “Great Man” theory of history and closed with discussion and excerpts from his “Iron Curtain” speech. In these classroom presentations we “let Winston have the last word”. We play the recorded excerpt from his first speech to parliament as Prime Minster, his “Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat” speech. This is timed to end just as the bell rings for the students to move on to their next class – inspired, we hope, by our hero.