History comes alive!

Hi neighbors. If you have a child or grandchild in the fourth grade you probably heard all about Thursday's History Day.

It was quite a day! I spent most of the morning going from station to station and taking photos.

History Day started six years ago. Spearheaded by the Vernon County Historical Society, coordinated by Terry Ramsey of the Bushwhacker Museum, and brought to life by local volunteers and professionals across the state; the event has become an anticipated learning experience for fourth graders throughout the county.

Each year participation has grown and this year there were approximately 275 students from six different Vernon County schools.

How it works so well is simple, although not simply done. Each class starts at a different one of the nine stations and rotates through each station throughout the day.

These learning stations were positioned with one in the museum, one in the library meeting room, two on the lawn of the old jail and one within the old jail, one in the small park across from the community center and three within the community center.

A tour of the old jail was new this year and seemed to go over very well.

When the heavy iron doors opened with a slow shriek and the tour leader pointed out the confining size of the cells; a new appreciation of the great outdoors became obvious by round eyes and excited chatter.

Even today after years of standing empty, the old jail is an intimidating enclosure.

Not that anyone was actually afraid -- there was way too much to see, do and hear about.

In the few hours of a regular school day, the students scrubbed clothes on a scrub board, did math problems on a slate, learned about 1800s clothing styles, saw how early settlers and Native Americans utilized pelts, skins, bones and various parts of bison, fox, deer, rabbit and other animals native to Vernon County.

The importance of ecology and conservation were emphasized as well as the recognition of the impact on their own lives by the actions and attitudes of the people who lived here in the past.

Maybe the most commented on activities is the bell ringing to signal time to change stations. One of the volunteers walked through the stations ringing an old hand held bell furnished by the museum for the day.

The children were all well behaved and eager to see what the next station offered as the day progressed.

As I waited with other volunteers while students passed us going to their next stop, I listened to the chatter and asked a few questions. Each time the answer was "this is fun!" or "Did you know...?" Talking among themselves comments included, "Did you get to wear the fox fur?" "Aren't you glad you don't have to wear all those clothes?" "Did you see the bird?" "I got to card wool!" "Did you feel the buffalo hide?" Of course as the day progressed the excited chatter was more and more often punctuated with, "When is lunch?" The schools had brought sack lunches with the students and the volunteers transported them at the appropriate time to the park across the street.

Although it is a lot of preparation with scheduling times various state agencies can have their education specialists available, setting up the chairs and tables at each station, hauling in the bales of straw to the park for benches and providing food for the presenters and volunteers; the Vernon County Historical Society and the Bushwhacker Museum have served the county well by providing History Day.

I've always heard nothing teaches like experience. The opportunity to actually do the things their ancestors did with hands-on activities brought history to life for the students.

Too often history is defined by children as learning names and dates.

As Terry Ramsey has often said, history is all about people's life stories.

When these fourth graders read about famous historic figures, they might understand a little more about how they became famous and why lesser known people did what they did, how they thought, how they survived and prospered in a world we no longer see.

Instead of being names on a page in a book, the students will know these were people who daily utilized tools they got to touch Thursday, wore clothing with names they had not heard till Thursday, and interacted with their environment in ways most people today never experience. Hopefully a few lifetime interests in history were sparked along with a desire to know more about those hardy folk who preceded us.

Until the next time folks remember, today is tomorrow's history, as is another successful History Day.

Hats off to those who made both happen.