ROANOKE TIMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, August 20, 1995                   TAG: 9508180096
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: D2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium


HISTORY

VIRGINIA is so rich with history that elementary-school teachers in every state give special focus to the commonwealth in teaching about our nation's heritage. Some kids not fortunate enough to live in the Old Dominion don't quite get it, of course, but their ``wrong'' answers in some cases are refreshing anyway.

In 1966, The Commonwealth magazine, now defunct, published an article by Missouri schoolteacher Harold Dunn sharing his 9-year-old pupils' perceptions of Virginia. They're still worth reviewing today:

``Once upon a time it happened that there was this spot on the map called Jamestown. Pretty soon some people came and made the spot bigger. By and by it grew bigger and bigger. And then bigger and bigger. And that is about the size of it up to this morning.''

``Compared to the James River, people have been living in Virginia for only a drop in the bucket.''

``George Washington is probly the most famous of Virginia's four fathers.''

``James Monroe expired in 1831. This proved to be a fatal happening.''

``James Madison was born in 1751, supposably on his birthday.''

``An anachronism is an untrue fact about a future event of Virginia's past.''

``Cattle around Grundy have been trained to be beef as well as steak.''

``Winchester has two main parts to it - the Virginia part and the gun part.''

``Much lumbering is done around Lynchburg. And not just by clumsy bears.''

``I would like to visit Norfolk some day because one thing I don't understand about building ships is plenty.''

``Just because Richmond's population is dense does not mean its people are.''

``The Chesapeake Bay has saved many lives by people not trying to swim across it.''

``Alexandria is what is closest to Washington, D.C. and still west enough to be called Virginia. Things are all pretty much touch and go in Alexandria.''

``Fortunately all of Virginia's counties fit snugly together.''

``The western is the part of Virginia most thickly spread.''

``The mountains have been found to have an abundant supply of gravity.''

``Virginia is good at making furniture, fertilizer, shoes, textiles and chemicals. Keeping all this stuff separated is one of the main jobs of Virginians.''

``If Virginia's Atlantic shoreline was straightened out it would be much longer. But we must cut government spending somewhere.''

``How Virginia can keep both her beautiful scenery and cilivization should be part of everybody there's spare thinking.''

Now, a back-to-school test for Virginians: Which of the above are actually wrong?



 by CNB