Did anyone else sing Battle Hymn of the Republic in school?

[ProudLib72]

I distinctly remember singing it in 1st through 4th grade when I was still living in Texas. And I am pretty damned sure why I was made to sing it -- us southerners had to sing a Union song to get it through our thick heads that we were wrong and that's why we lost. Maybe we need to make it mandatory in all red states to be sung on a daily basis. Maybe we can get Sessions to lead us.

[TexasProgresive]

1. I grew up in Texas as well.

I don't remember ever singing that song in school. We would sing this on the bus:

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the burning of the school
We have tortured all the teachers – we have broken all the rules
We ramrocked the offices and hung the principal
March on, third grade, march on!

Glory, glory, hallelujah
My teacher hit me with a ruler
I hid behind her door with a loaded .44
And the teacher don't teach no more!

Probably go to jail for that one or at least expelled.

[ProudLib72]

7. Oh man! That sounds like a good version!

Kids come up with much better versions on their own.

[DBoon]

15. We got a similar version in California in the mid 1960s

Don't remember the part about a loaded .44, the rest is the same

[Tanuki]

26. Our version said "bopped her on the bean with a rotten tangerine"

[Maeve]

34. Heard (sang) both versions in Ohio in the '60's eom

[Solly Mack]

2. No. Never.

[GulfCoast66]

3. We sang it in Louisiana

No one was forcing anything on us. It is the Battle Hymn of the Republic and everyone loved the republic. And most still do.

That said, we also sang Dixie and Bonnie Blueflag.

[ProudLib72]

8. That's the difference

Battle Hymn of the Republic really stands out in my mind. The only other sort of patriotic song I remember singing was John Brown's Ashes. We didn't adulterate our Union songs with Rebel squawking.

[SharonAnn]

4. Yes, and we had to sing it in Church on Palm Sunday last year. So, I quit the choir and the church.

[hlthe2b]

5. Because it celebrates the Union? Really?

[bhowle]

6. I was in Mississippi as a young lad -

We sang Dixie.

Black and white school films supplied by the state started with the playing of Dixie. We'd all snap to and sing along and then watch a film about how to tell if someone was a communist.

"... to live or die in Dixie..."

I got of there as quickly as possible and never looked back on Dixieland.

[AngryAmish]

9. Men of Harlech is still the battle hymn for the Welsh.

[Tanuki]

27. .....

https://m.

[Madam Mossfern]

10. I went to public school in NYC

and we sang it.
But we sang a lot of songs.
It was the 50's and 60's.
I think there's less singing in schools now.
Pity.

[TexasBushwhacker]

11. Texan from birth

We sang the Battle Hymn and Dixie, but we also learned some spirituals like "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" and "Go Down Moses". It was all part of learning about the Civil War.

[ileus]

12. 1-6th in WV yes...

We sung it and several others of that type.

76-81

[Hekate]

13. Yes. Our 1950s-1960s school songbooks had quite a section of songs related to war & patriotism...

Battle Hymn of the Republic was right up there. Tenting Tonight on the Old Campground. Yankee Doodle. From the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli. When the Caissons Go Rolling Along.

It's been over 60 years and I can still sing them. It was a standard public school song book in California.

[ProudLib72]

17. Now I remember From the Halls of Montezuma

Oh well, I guess that blows my theory of being forced to sing Union songs. I think Battle Hymn of the Republic stood out to me because of the imagery. Or maybe they conflated the Mexican/American war with the Civil War.

[Igel]

19. Sounds familiar.

One year it was traditional songs like that--not just war and patriotism, but also Turkey in the Rye and Go tell aunt Rhody. Maryland, elementary school in the '60s.

Another year it was folk music. And since nobody actually wanted to teach us much actual American folk music, we did the Soviet thing: Modern folk music with copyright and credits. Guthrie and the like. That was the year when the music teacher played the zither and wore peasant dresses. We thought she was certifiable. She came to a working-class area trying to enlighten the masses. She lasted a year. Then again, her music classes were in the cafeteria, which had truly crappy acoustics ... but better than the old music room. (School was a WPA project.)

[Generic Brad]

14. We sang it at my MN Catholic school

Man, did we get into it.

These days I no longer enjoy that tune.

[msongs]

16. in abilene tx we sang the eyes of texas every morning in elementary school nt

[oasis]

18. One year, the chorus at my high school sang it so rivetingly at an

evening event, the principal held a special assembly for the student body to hear it again.

[JI7]

20. in california around 80s-90s i did. but we also sang dixie

these were public schools in los angeles

[Music Man]

21. I am a high school choral director in Kentucky.

We did "Battle Hymn" this spring, actually. I've always loved it.

"As he died to make men holy, let us live to make men free" is one of the most beautiful poetic lines ever.

[Tanuki]

28. It's actually "let us die to make men free" in the original version.

[WinkyDink]

32. Someone, perhaps the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, changed "die" to "live." Atlantic

Magazine printed Howe's 1862 original:

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2010/11/the-battle-hymn-of-the-republic-americas-song-of-itself/66070/

[Sgent]

22. We had to play "From Dixie with Love"

in HS band. Its also sometimes known as "Slow Dixie".

Funny name, because the song is half Dixie and half Battle Hymn of the Republic. It was written by the Ole Miss band director in the 70's to try to find a unifying theme.

[jpak]

23. My eyes have seen the glory of the burinng of the school

We have tortured every teacher

We have broken every rule

We are marching down the corridor to kill the principal

Our truth is marching on!

Glory Glory Hallelujah

Hit my teacher with ruler

Bopped her on the bean with a rotten tangerine

And boy did she turn green

[Aristus]

24. We sang it in 1st and 2nd Grade when I was living in Arizona.

Arizona is right-wing, but I don't think they have the Deep South's hangups about Union songs from the Civil War.

Our music teacher also had us sing "This Land Is Your Land", and other Woody Guthrie songs. So she may have been a bit of a lefty...

[politicat]

30. I think it depends where you were.

So... in the heavy Mormon areas, it's been repurposed because the MTC uses it as their signature song. But there's also the extremely uncomfortable relationship between the LDS and slavery, racism and strategic alliances. So as with everything, it's complicated.

But Arizona was divided; the Confederacy claimed half the territory, and there was at least one battle (Picacho Pass). And it attracted a lot of lost causers and "Killer Angels" in the aftermath.

My sibs and I grew up with this but mostly ignored it, like most young'uns; however, one of my sibs spent last school year teaching it at the high school level, and kept getting outraged that she didn't know it. She'd message me, all offended, and I'd remind her that yes, we did cover that, and sorry, you weren't a little grade grubbing geek. That's what you get for cramming instead of studying. (I get to tease her about this now that she's a teacher and finds it annoying when her students do exactly what she did.)

[Aristus]

37. I didn't know any of that.

Thank you!

[ProudLib72]

38. Whoa, I didn't know that about AZ

When I think of the Civil War, I imagine it as contained within the deep south with TX as a western border. Very interesting.

[politicat]

39. No, the Confederacy wanted quite a lot of the western territories.

There were incursions into Colorado and New Mexico as well. Those were mostly about resources -- the CSA wanted silver, gold and copper, which the old Confederacy didn't have.

The eastern fronts properly get far more of the attention because they were much bigger and more complicated battlefields and strategies, that carried on for years, but there were additional fronts in the mountain West and desert southwest. Just much smaller scale.

[bdjhawk]

25. We sang it in Iowa

As kids, everyone giggled when we sang "bosom". But what a great song!

[leftyladyfrommo]

29. We sang it in Spokane.

I loved it. Still do. Really got the blood going.

[muriel_volestrangler]

31. I sang it in school. In Britain. Because it's a hymn.

And we have religion in schools (it's compulsory, by law).

[krispos42]

33. Yeah, I think I did in grade school or middle school

I think "The Battle Cry of Freedom" is more pointed in the circumstance you refer to.

Although the "as He died to make us holy, let us die to make men free" line is a hell of a kicker.

[Tanuki]

35. Gone too soon....

https://m.

[oberliner]

36. Listen to this parody for a laugh

Helps if you enjoy/appreciate Jewish humor.