Medieval Siege Weaponry: Castle Walls Beware by MCSW Webmaster

Written by MCSW Webmaster


Medieval siege weaponry was required in any self-respecting war leader’s arsenal in a time when castles with thick defense walls were common and cities surrounded by large, fortified walls were not out of place. With warfare commonplace, it’s little wonderrepparttar variety of medieval siege weaponry is great. After all, what was an attacking band of raiders to do when presented with an “impenetrable” castle wall? Break it down, of course, using one ofrepparttar 144364 many designs of medieval siege weaponry available.

One ofrepparttar 144365 earliest examples of medieval siege weaponry appeared aroundrepparttar 144366 300s AD whenrepparttar 144367 ballista was created. The ballista wasn’trepparttar 144368 most accurate inrepparttar 144369 line of medieval siege weaponry, but it could launch a wave of spears further than human arms could muster. Created using two wooden arms, tightly wound ropes and a cord to assist inrepparttar 144370 hurling of deadly projectiles, this example of medieval siege weaponry used torsion force to launch objects.

The Romans added their own model torepparttar 144371 list of medieval siege weaponry when they createdrepparttar 144372 mangonel. This model called for only one wooden arm. The mangonel, however, had somewhat of a design flaw in that in called for a wooden barrier to be constructed.

A ferocious example of medieval siege weaponry came online inrepparttar 144373 12th century withrepparttar 144374 deploying ofrepparttar 144375 trebuchet.

The trebuchet used a long wooden arm rested on a pivot point, which acted as a large lever. A projectile was placed on one end and warriors in this earlier version ofrepparttar 144376 trebuchet pulled on ropes attached torepparttar 144377 other end to essentially swingrepparttar 144378 arm around and hurlrepparttar 144379 stone.

As far as examples of commonly used medieval siege weaponry are concerned, however, catapults and their sister designs do not holdrepparttar 144380 only billing. Other tools were readily available to would-be conquerors.

How Public Schools Assault Parents' Values

Written by Joel Turtel


Is there anything wrong with lying, cheating, stealing, shop-lifting, taking drugs, premarital sex, insulting your parents, pornography, irresponsibility, or getting pregnant in junior high school? Not according torepparttar values taught to children in many public schools today.

Fromrepparttar 144044 earliest times in America, teachers have believed that schools should teach moral values. What good is a child who knows when Columbus discovered America but can't tell right from wrong? The most popular reading instruction books inrepparttar 144045 nineteenth century wererepparttar 144046 "McGuffy Readers," which taught children to read through stories of increasing complexity.

Each story also taught children a moral lesson about values such as honesty, hard work, integrity, perseverance, compassion, obedience to parents, respect for others’ rights, and indi-vidual responsibility. Up torepparttar 144047 1930s, most schools in America reinforcedrepparttar 144048 Judeo-Christian values most parents taught their children at home.

Today, many school authorities seem to have contempt for religion and traditional moral values. They force children to endure years of “values clarification” classes, which teach children that all moral values are subjective and meaningless. Many teacher-facilitators, as some now prefer to call themselves, teach kids that whatever feels good atrepparttar 144049 moment or whateverrepparttar 144050 group considers acceptable is a “good” value.

Most parents, when asked in surveys, say they want schools to teach their children such traditional Western values as honesty, hard work, integrity, justice, self control, responsibility, respect for parents, and fidelity in marriage. Unfortunately, those values are not what most public schools teach.

Values-clarification programs often pretend to teach children real values to pacify parents, but textbooks used in values-clarification classes often censor or distort traditional family and religious values.

Dr. Paul Vitz did a study on these textbooks, funded byrepparttar 144051 National Institute of Education.Vitz discovered that traditional family and Judeo-Christian values had been eliminated from children’s textbooks. He studied forty social studies textbooks used by first to fourth-grade public-school students and found no mention ofrepparttar 144052 words “marriage,” “wedding,” “husband,” or “wife.” These textbooks commonly defined a “family” simply as a group of people.

Values clarification (sometimes now called "character education" or other names, depending onrepparttar 144053 public school)differs radically from traditional moral codes because it claims that children do not need established values to make moral choices. Values clarification teachers don’t care which values children choose because in their view all values are subjective. The right value, they assert, depends onrepparttar 144054 situation andrepparttar 144055 individual -- a value is good if it “works” for a particular child at a particular time.

To many values clarification teacher-facilitators, cheating, lying, stealing, or having casual sex with other students are not bad acts in themselves. Such actions are just unfortunate choices that students make, depending on circumstances and personality traits, out of many alternative moral choices. Abiding byrepparttar 144056 Ten Commandments is merely one such option.

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