June 10, 2013

FINEST HOUR 134, SPRING 2007

ABSTRACT
THE CHURCHILL CENTRE ensures that students at Churchill Junior High now see their school’s namesake every day. The Churchill teacher seminar series travels to South Carolina.

BY SUZANNE SIGMAN

Ms. Sigman is the Centre’s Educational Programs Coordinator.

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A CHURCHILL PORTRAIT TO GO WITH THE NAME

EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J., SEPTEMBER 19TH— Represented by James Thomas of Allendale, New Jersey, The Churchill Centre presented an oil-on-canvas reproduction of Martin Driscoll’s painting, “Churchill After Karsh,” to Churchill Junior High School today. The original work was presented by the Centre in 2001 to the RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach; it hangs in the Churchill Suite. The presentation was inspired by Scott Kominkiewicz, who teaches English at Churchill Junior High. Held in the school’s lobby, where the portrait now hangs, it was presided over by Principal Mark Sutor. In attendance were Board of Education members, a former mayor, civic leaders, faculty, administrators, townspeople and a class of history students. Other students viewed the program on closed circuit television—an inspired idea.

Scott Kominkiewicz and a former president of the Board of Education offered remarks. In his 10-15 minute talk, Jim Thomas engaged the students assembled in discussing Churchill and his contributions to history.

Everyone at Churchill Junior High School was appreciative and expressed gratitude to The Churchill Centre. Every day now, a school full of young people sees a picture of the man for whom their school was named. The Centre is grateful to Scott Kominkiewicz and East Brunswick school authorities for their enthusiasm.

PROFESSORS JABLONSKY AND KIMBALL LEAD TEACHER STUDY OF “CHURCHILL AT WAR”

CHARLESTON, NOVEMBER 4TH— Through kind arrangements of Professor Warren Kimball and The Citadel, The Churchill Centre held a seminar for high school teachers here today. Both Kimball and Professor David Jablonsky, who joined him in a day-long examination of “Churchill and War,” are Churchill Centre academic advisers.

The Centre is grateful to Professor Bo Moore, who chairs the History Department at The Citadel, for hosting the seminar and providing a delightful buffet lunch for all attendees. Through Susan Miles, a learning specialist at Charleston’s Social Studies Curriculum Department, we were able to place eighty-one copies of Celia Sandys’ biography Churchill in the Charleston County Public Schools.

Session titles were “Young Winston and the Victorian Small Wars,” “Churchill, World War I and Interwar Reflections,” and “Churchill and the Politics of War.” In a wide-ranging discussion of the 20th century, the two professors shared their expertise and invited teachers to relate their classroom experiences.

David Jablonsky began the inquiry into Churchill’s military experiences and viewpoints with a definition of “Grand Strategy,” that which encompasses the economic, psychological, political and military: “Churchill subscribes to Clausewitz’s ‘Remarkable Trinity,’ but there is no evidence that Churchill read his work.” Each part of the trinity—people, military and government—is necessary in discussions of civil-military relations and the role of the electorate.

Jablonsky went on to describe Churchill’s Victorian inheritance and his participation in several of “Queen Victoria’s Little Wars.” He contends that World War I was the turning point of the 20th century: empires died, democratic systems such as Weimar Germany failed, decolonization began, and “flank powers” (USA and Russia) arose. Churchill, he said, tied the two world wars together by terming them “another Thirty Years War.” His discussion revealed Churchill’s path to leadership during World War II, and the assertion that military commanders can have only a narrow view, and must remain dependent on statesman to provide broader perspective.

Warren Kimball shared his views on the 1920s and 1930s, examining the implications of Versailles and Wilsonian philosophy. He offered a detailed explanation of Isolationism, and the international scope of the Great Depression. In explaining the relationship between Churchill and Roosevelt and the various wartime conferences, Kimball offered that “FDR and Churchill gave us the world we have today” because from day one of the war, everyone planned for the postwar period.

An overview of the three major theatres of the Second World War preceded a closer examination of Roosevelt and Churchill. “There was a certain superficiality and artificiality to [their relationship] because interests are what matter,” said Professor Kimball. “Even their 2000 exchanges didn’t make a ‘special interest.’ There was little difference in their large goals, but many differences of opinion about strategy.”

If Wendall Willkie (the Democrat turned Republican who ran against FDR in 1940 but shared his world view) and Neville Chamberlain—or U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull and British Foreign Minister Lord Halifax—had been the allied leaders, Kimball asserted, “the wartime relationship wouldn’t have been any different.” Any pair of leaders, he continued, would have shared an intersected history and common values. Forces outside of Roosevelt and Churchill, such as nationalism, mattered to the outcome as much as they did. That said, Kimball admitted, leadership, personality, and the ability to motivate others did matter: “It would be hard to imagine Eden, Attlee or Hull providing it.”

Though this seminar drew the smallest number of teachers yet, those who attended gave it high ratings. All deemed the seminar “an appropriate professional development activity,” that “expanded our understanding of the subject.” As with previous seminars, teachers rated the handouts, readings, excellent lectures, free materials and the open discussions as its “best features.”