They don’t mean literally “sketch” him as a drawing. They mean write out a short outline of his character. This is very “Great Man” style of thinking about history - the class would have probably spent a lot of time discussing his character traits (and probably very little about his time in Ireland).
The purpose of teaching history was to teach character and morals. Any K-12 history exam you see before 1970 or so is going to want students to think about what George Washington and Abraham Lincoln’s values and morals as the cause of their actions. History as a type of Sunday school.
They don’t mean literally “sketch” him as a drawing. They mean write out a short outline of his character. This is very “Great Man” style of thinking about history - the class would have probably spent a lot of time discussing his character traits (and probably very little about his time in Ireland).
The purpose of teaching history was to teach character and morals. Any K-12 history exam you see before 1970 or so is going to want students to think about what George Washington and Abraham Lincoln’s values and morals as the cause of their actions. History as a type of Sunday school.