"We the people ..."
Fifty eighth-graders from Springdale's four junior highs recited the preamble to the U.S. Constitution for their parents Tuesday night at Southwest Junior High School -- parents who for two months helped them memorize those pivotal words.
Students will repeat the preamble Dec. 12 in the Assembly Room of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, where the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776 by 56 delegates. These students leave Springdale on a charter bus Friday for the East Coast and a nine-day immersion in American history, sponsored by the Five Mile Children's Foundation.
"We're going to blow the park rangers out and anyone else who happens to be there," said Dean Alexander, a retired Springdale teacher who has been taking kids on the trip for 20 years. "It's the longest-lasting Constitution any country ever had in history."
These Springdale students -- who will be joined by eighth-graders in schools from Berryville, Okla., Kansas, Kentucky and New York -- were chosen for the honor based on essays written shortly after school started last fall. Since October, the students gathered each week for lessons and homework on American history covering the founding of the Jamestown Colony in 1607 in Virginia to the Civil War battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania more than two centuries later. In fact, the trip covers the geography of states between these two sites, including Washington and Baltimore.
"Early American history is the focus of this whole trip," Alexander told the parents.
"This is the best opportunity they've ever had. They know stuff before they see it. They know why they're seeing it. They see it. They touch it. They feel it. They smell it.
"It's the trip of a lifetime. They learn and have a wonderful experience. They get to see how this country started and why it's as good as it is."
But just what have these students learned? During their study session Tuesday night, these students had this to share:
• Ailla Lokebol, Southwest: "Mount Vernon was George Washington's home. But Washington didn't really live there most of the time because he was in the military (and served as president from Philadelphia). He was a good leader. His wife, Martha Washington, mostly watched over the house. It was a big house."
• Hope Hanson, Central: "The economy of America was based on tobacco. If John Rolfe had not figured out tobacco, the colony of Jamestown would not have succeeded."
• Sojas Wagle, Southwest: "The Godspeed, the Discovery and the Susan Constance were ships that brought the first colonists to Jamestown."
• Callen Cleveland, Central: "Fort McHenry was in a little bay (in Baltimore). They were more prepared for the (Revolutionary) war, even though Philadelphia had a stronger fort. (Fort McHenry) was set up in a star."
• Kaitlynn Davis, George: "We'll see the soldiers buried in Arlington (National) Cemetery. It's interesting to see what the burials looked like from back then."
• Allison Higgins, School of Innovation: "George Washington planned Washington, D.C. I'm excited to go see it."
• Olivia Carter, Southwest: "The Powhatan Indians sided with the French in the French and Indian War. At one point, (they sided with) whoever was nicer to them. And there were agreements about who gets what land."
• Braden Dickard, Central : "George Washington was 100 percent neat ... ("obsessive-compulsive," the student's mother provided). But when they messed up his house and (placed the cupola off-center), he gave in and said OK."
• Mason McConnell, Southwest: "George Mason insisted on and wrote the Bill of Rights. My name is Mason, and I wore a shirt (to class) that said, 'Mason is the man.' Without the Bill of Rights, the U.S. would probably collapse. And Peyton Randolph (of Virginia) probably would have been the first president if he had not died."
• Raegan Couch, Central: "The Declaration of Independence signers were dying and losing their property because they had signed it. Things turned out bad for them. I thought things turned out good for them."
Central student Rylee Loftin said the experience has been an education.
"I know I didn't know anything," Loftin said. "I thought Christopher Columbus and George Washington started something and wrote the Declaration of Independence. I didn't know about the settlement, the colonies. I had no background knowledge. Now I know about people besides George Washington -- the Powhatan Indians, who fought against the colonists, and the signers of the Declaration of Independence. I've memorized the Preamble of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights."
NW News on 12/04/2014