Some linguists have surmised that English people living in the 17th-18th Centuries sounded more like Americans than English people today (apparently, they learned this by reading contemporary letters, which were written phonetically in the days before standard spelling rules were adopted).
Words like ‘Fall’ (for Autumn) and ‘chore’ had fallen into disuse and were basically preserved and re-imported back into England later...
Which brings me back to my true story about how I became involved in school and city politics back in 1967 and have remained so ever since.
My 7 yr. old daughter brought home a work sheet handed out by her 2nd grade teacher on the occasion of Washington's Birthday, which was still a Holiday in Berkeley, CA.
The paper included a picture to color and a few "factual" statements about George Washington with words missing for the children to fill in. One of the statements said "George Washington was poorly educated and couldn't spell."
I hit the ceiling and dragged my 4 little kids down to the local book store and purchased every book on George Washington that I could find that was suitable for their respective ages. I even bought a cute wooden model of Washington riding his horse for one of the younger ones. Then, I marched up to school on the day following the Holiday and demanded to know what the teacher was thinking handing out such tripe and misinformation to our kids. She (being 3 steps away from being a hippy, but dressed nicer) didn't care what I thought and made a snide remark that it was good that her efforts had encouraged me to "read a book". I was furious, and I've never taken my eyes off of what our schools are teaching our kids since, much to the chagrin of several school districts where I have resided since.
If these teachers who are so *ell-bent on undermining the reputations of our Founding Fathers could actually visit their homes (such as Mt. Vernon, Monticello, and others) and see what actually went into managing a plantation, they wouldn't be so snippy about our Founders.