Greetings,
GreenMount Community,
I
am very excited about how our 6th - 8th grade students
performed during our trip to Gettysburg. We are talking a lot about excellence
these days, and in every way our students were excellent last Thursday.
On a wet and cold battlefield where the
6th Wisconsin overwhelmed Confederate forces in a railroad cut, our
students walked and marched in their footsteps, covering the 300 yards from the
base of Seminary Ridge to the railroad cut, which remains there today. The students were impressed with the
experience, and I think many of them felt some measure of what it must have
been like for the 490 or so Union troops who began the assault. It was also impressive to see them look back
over that battlefield and picture the 220 soldiers who did not complete the 300-yard,
45-minute journey.
The experiential process for these
students began days prior at school, where they were familiarized with the 6th
Wisconsin and practiced the drill and ceremony that were required in order to
perform as a cohesive unit. They familiarized
themselves with the qualities of leadership that resulted in this decisive
victory and impressed the park ranger with their extensive knowledge of the
Civil War and leadership.
Later in the day, a different guide took
us to several other sites where the students experienced numerous authentic
activities of the period, such as loading and firing a cannon and mimicking the
most decisive battle of Gettysburg, Pickett’s Charge. Going from site to site, our guide, a
professor of Civil War history, quizzed our students on many aspects of the war,
including important names, places and dates.
As the students dismounted the bus to
explore Little Round Top, our guide pulled me aside and asked about our
school. He was curious about our
students. “Why is it that they can have
such an understanding and knowledge about this place?” he asked. I outlined our curriculum and our approach to
learning. I explained that we give our
students the time and space to learn and delve deeply into our
understandings. I told him about our
theme studies approach and how we encourage independent research and projects
so that our students will come away from each theme as learners, curious to
continue their exploration of the theme and all that it contains.
When the students were back on the bus
and we were headed back to the visitor center, our guide complimented our
students, saying that he was very impressed with them and that he had included
many aspects of his talk that he would have saved for college or high school
students. He was genuinely
impressed. I was, too. Our students were attentive, participatory,
and anxious to ask thoughtful, provoking questions. In every way our students displayed
excellence. I am very proud of them and
teachers like Mr. Fletcher, whose passion for history excites students and arms
them with understandings that demonstrate its importance.
“Excellence encourages one about
life generally; it shows the spiritual wealth of the world.” - George Eliot
Cheers,
Steve
