What can possibly be said about this episode that hasn't been said before? Sadly not much, which is kind of disappointing. Oh, but I'm gonna try.
Opie is having a hard time with his history lessons, and seems to blame "Old Lady Crump," who's not really that old (even if she looks that way). Andy replies with sympathy claiming that he had trouble with his schoolwork when he was a kid too. That day at class, he tells her that he doesn't need to learn history, and his friends join in that sentiment. Miss Crump blames Andy for convincing his son and their friends to forgo their schoolwork just because his father is the Sheriff of Mayberry. Both she and the kids have the wrong idea on how Andy feels about the issue.
It's just then that Sheriff Taylor decides he's going to get them interested in history by retelling the start of the American Revolution in his old folksy way, and it works! He even gives the Native Americans credit for helping Paul Revere and the Minutemen at Concord! A surprise for the teacher like this one won't be found again until 1967 with Sylvia Barrett at Calvin Coolidge High School in East Harlem.
As he grows up, Opie and his friends will realize that the "shot heard 'round the world" was only a metaphor, but a good one. They'll also grow up to learn that there are people in his state outside of Mayberry who resent the Emancipation Proclamation, and have been throwing a monkey wrench into it for a whole century. In addition, they'll find out that just five years earlier, 500 modern-day Indians defeated 50 stupid white men in white sheets from his own state. This is an episode that if it doesn't get you into Griffith's old comedy routines, is guaranteed to make you more interested in American History.
Opie is having a hard time with his history lessons, and seems to blame "Old Lady Crump," who's not really that old (even if she looks that way). Andy replies with sympathy claiming that he had trouble with his schoolwork when he was a kid too. That day at class, he tells her that he doesn't need to learn history, and his friends join in that sentiment. Miss Crump blames Andy for convincing his son and their friends to forgo their schoolwork just because his father is the Sheriff of Mayberry. Both she and the kids have the wrong idea on how Andy feels about the issue.
It's just then that Sheriff Taylor decides he's going to get them interested in history by retelling the start of the American Revolution in his old folksy way, and it works! He even gives the Native Americans credit for helping Paul Revere and the Minutemen at Concord! A surprise for the teacher like this one won't be found again until 1967 with Sylvia Barrett at Calvin Coolidge High School in East Harlem.
As he grows up, Opie and his friends will realize that the "shot heard 'round the world" was only a metaphor, but a good one. They'll also grow up to learn that there are people in his state outside of Mayberry who resent the Emancipation Proclamation, and have been throwing a monkey wrench into it for a whole century. In addition, they'll find out that just five years earlier, 500 modern-day Indians defeated 50 stupid white men in white sheets from his own state. This is an episode that if it doesn't get you into Griffith's old comedy routines, is guaranteed to make you more interested in American History.