Students Engage in Life Lessons on History Day

— Middle school, junior high and high school students across the country whet their curiosity, do their research, pour out their creativity and prepare to speak publicly about significant events in history as part of the National History Day competition. The 2013 theme is “Turning Points in History: People, Ideas, Events.”

“National History Day makes history come alive for America’s youth by engaging them in the discovery of the historic, cultural and social experiences of the past,” reads the National History Day website.

A project on the Battle of Gettysburg marked Landon’s first foray into extended research, said the eighth-grader at Central Junior High in Springdale. “I learned how to research using books and topics.” Students also gain experience using primary sources, secondary sources and bibliographies.

Central held its fair last month, as did many other schools in Northwest Arkansas. Winners advance to compete in the regional history fair March 2 at NorthWest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville. From there, winners will compete in state and national events.

Covering everything from the printing press to Elvis Presley, students in the Central junior group division created trifold displays highlighting facts of their topics. Judges questioned to determine just how much the students learned and how their research related to the national theme.

The examples of students’ work below are incomplete. They represent just a moment in time with judges and in no way encompass all student knowledge.

w Five hundred set sail Dec. 20, 1606, from British soil and landed the following April in the New World, a girl named Kennedy explained. The Jamestown colony in Virginia became the first permanent English settlement.

Colonists came to rely on John Smith as their leader. But the colony’s future seemed to be failure as settlers fell to disease and laziness.

“They didn’t work,” Kennedy explained. “So Smith set the rule: ‘He who does not work will not eat.’ That’s from the Bible, from 2 Thessalonians.”

w “How would your school be different today without Brown vs. the Board of Education?” judges asked one student about her project. The landmark court case ended segregation in schools.

Teenager Lauren had to think — she could not fathom a world without difference and seemed disturbed by the thought.

“Our diversity makes us the school we are,” she said with pride and passion. “Everyone is treated the same.”

w The Beatles came on to the American scene in a tumultuous time, Noi explained. The country was embroiled in the controversial Vietnam War, and a social revolution was under way as young people yearned for a different way of life. Ed Sullivan in 1964 introduced Americans to Britain’s “Fab Four,” their long hair, rock music and screaming fans.

“America was changing,” Noi said. “The music was a comfort to them. It was a means to them to let their feelings out. The lyrics speak for them.”

Partner Leslie credited herself as a big fan of the Beatles, but not a fanatic. Judges were impressed she knew the Beatles had two drummers. She was able to name Ringo Starr but couldn’t recall Pete Best’s name.

w Ashton and Rachel considered women living under the rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan after reading “Reading Lolita in Tehran” by Azar Nafisi. The harsh Taliban rule began spreading throughout the country in the 1990s.

“We assumed the Taliban was always in control,” Ashton said, but their backdrop showed photographs of women dressed very stylishly in the 1960s.

Rachel said she would not like living under the Taliban rule because “you have no freedom,” she said. “Women can’t go to school. I like being educated. I like learning new things. You could go to prison for going to school. You can’t go outside without a male or you get shot. (Women) have to stay inside and probably take care of children.”

These young teens, who have begun pushing for their own independence, expressed anger that the Taliban banned items like music and painted fingernails “for no reason.”

“Women have no effect on anything that happens to them,” Rachel continued.

In front of their project board, the girls laid a burqa, head-to-toe clothing required of Afghan women. The mother of one of the girls knew a co-worker from Afghanistan. “We were going to interview her, but she was not comfortable talking about it,” Rachel said.

Judges agreed that the woman’s fear and silence stands as one of the strongest primary sources there can be.

LAURINDA JOENKS IS A FORMER REPORTER AND EDITOR AT THE MORNING NEWS WHO HAS LIVED IN SPRINGDALE SINCE 1990.

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