Homeschool: Become an Expert on Paul Revere

Did Paul Revere actually warn the British? Was it one if by land, two if by sea, or the other way around? It's no secret that Americans are pretty uninformed about our history. But, thanks to Sarah Palin, we all have the chance to give ourselves a little refresher course on the midnight ride. In this week's edition of Homeschool, we take a little three-step YouTube journey to help us learn just what happened with Revere on April 18, 1775.

1) Make Sure You're Looking Up the Right Paul Revere: Search results may point you to the Beastie Boys classic. The Paul Revere we're talking about took his ride 211 years earlier. But still, to be culturally literate, know the song.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEM3dW2oWW4

2) Attend a Virtual Poetry Reading: You know the legend of Paul Revere thanks to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1861 poem, "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere." Interestingly enough, According to the Paul Revere Heritage site, "Revere’s act of bravery was not particularly known before this and the poem was intended to remind Americans about patriotism during the pre-Civil War times." Now generations of American school children have learned the poem—you probably remember the first stanza:

Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

But what happens after that? Listen to the entire poem to find out.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4hUMQG3MI8

3) Get the Lanterns and the Ride Right: It turns out the lanterns weren't a message to Revere to go take his famous ride and warn that the British were coming. They were actually a message from Revere. Yes, that's right. Revere was the one to put the lanterns in the steeple of the Old North Church in case he got busted by the British before he could row himself across the Charles River to take his ride.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7D-Fo7GH9U

Homeschool is a weekly series to help us learn something new, all with a little video fun.