School program in
Mound
May 16, 2019 Compatriots Chris
and Craig were joined by D.A.R. Ladies Teresa and
Gigi for a living history presentation at Grandview Middle
School in Mound.
Assisting was student James ,
C.A.R. Three one hour sessions were held with 30+ 5th
grade students per session. The team introduced themselves and their
persona and gave a brief history of their patriot ancestor then
launched into a series of short stories, pointing out some facts and
fictions about people and the struggle, offering several vignettes
and answered plenty of questions coming in from the students. Some
subjects covered were flag history (in which students held flags)
Molly Pitcher lore, camp followers, how the Cubans helped our victory
at Yorktown, the Sybil Ludington story, clothing, pay, child life in
the era, death or incapacity due to disease vs battle wounds, militia
service, how Mount Vernon got its' name, the help of the French and
Spanish, Franklin's snake cartoon and “Huzzah” (which the
students shouted with enthusiasm). One
of the teachers wrote us: “it's fun to hear crazy stories that you
wouldn't read about in a 5th grade text book,” and “more about
what did they eat, how did they sleep, what were the weather
conditions, ... more random details that the kids wouldn't have
learned about”
and suggested we use more replicas from the period which the
students may hold and pass around.
The living history team concluded
that there will most likely be more such teaching opportunities
arising now and that a combined S.A.R./D.A.R./C.A.R living history
team equipped with replica items of the Revolutionary War era will be
pursued. The D.A.R. and S.A.R. working together to further
education on the Revolution together was a great success.
 |
| photo by Heidi Knudsen |
 |
| Gigi, Teresa, James, Craig, Chris |
 |
| photo by Heidi Knudsen |
 |
| photo by Heidi Knudsen |
