Students act out history
BRUIN — Fourth grader Alyssa Walowen heard an account of the Vietnam War so personal that the storyteller teared up as he spoke of it.
The things she learned about the war went beyond the facts on the display board behind the student during a recent Bruin Elementary School program. They went beyond the notes reminding her what all the pins and medals on the army dress uniform mean.
Alyssa learned her uncle held a friend's hand as he was dying. Her uncle knew 48 people whose names are etched into the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C.
"He told me the No. 1 thing in war is to have a buddy," said Alyssa of Petrolia.
It was only chance that she was assigned the Vietnam War Memorial for a program hosted by the fourth grade classes of Mary Liberto and Carrie Wilson.
The students were paired up and told to research a particular monument or destination in Washington, D.C., on the Internet. Then they chose facts and pictures to print, cut out, and attach to a display board.
After spending a morning decorating the boards, the students practiced short speeches about the monuments and the presidents or people the monuments represent.
The students set up their boards last week on red, white and blue tables in the cafeteria, which had been decorated with red, white and blue balloons.
Bruin students and their parents toured the nation's capital, moving from table to table in the morning. In the afternoon, students from Sugarcreek and Chicora elementary schools took the tour. All three schools are in the Karns City School District.
Alyssa did more than she had to on the project, Wilson said. By visiting her uncle, she learned about the war and the monument.Alyssa said she spent about an hour and a half listening to her uncle talk about his experiences in Vietnam. He showed her pictures of his bunker, of base camp and of his birthday spent there.He explained what the decorations across the chest of the dress uniform signified and how to tell the uniform was for a specialist fifth class from the patch on the arm.Alyssa took notes and brought the uniform and picture to school to use as visual aids in her presentation.Her uncle also told her about the sad moments he had in the places she had highlighted on a map of Vietnam, she said."I said, 'Are you crying?'" Alyssa said. "He said, 'No, there's just water in my eye.'"Her uncle said he had never visited the memorial because it would be too depressing to see the names of his friends, Alyssa said. Alyssa has never been to Washington, either.The number of students who have never visited the capital was part of the reason Liberto decided to organize the project.During the social studies unit on the Mid-Atlantic region, only a small section was devoted to Washington, she said. But, most students were interested in the sights and yet had never seen them.Morgan Deal has never been to the city bearing her character, Martha Washington's, surname, but the Petrolia girl softly told four kindergarten girls how many blocks builders used when constructing the monument to her husband's memory.Morgan, her hair in a classic 18th century curly bun, said she would like to see the 36,491 blocks someday — maybe even this summer.
Kayla Hufnagle of Parker hasn't ever seen the grave site of John F. Kennedy, but that didn't stop her from playing the stately Jackie Kennedy in a pink sweater and pillbox hat. It wasn't exactly Chanel: Kayla's mom made the hat by covering a whipped topping container in pink felt, but Kayla carried the outfit off with a dignified handbag filled with erasers to be given as prizes for trivia questions.Her "husband" was at her side ready to help if the questions from the tourists got too tough.Todd Perry of Bruin played John F. Kennedy for the day. He was prepared with knowledge of trivia such as how long officials had to search to find a propane tank large enough to fuel the eternal flame at the gravesite in Arlington National Cemetery.Abby Wetzel, a few tables over and wearing her father's Army uniform, was prepared to tell tourists about the rest of the cemetery.She memorized dates: 1864, the year Arlington opened. She memorized numbers: 26,000, the number of people buried in the cemetery.When the first kindergartners came into the cafeteria about 9:40 a.m., she was ready. The day before, at practice, she said she was so nervous her face was pale and she had to be sent to the nurse's office.Todd said he was nervous, too, even after the first grade students had started making rounds.He knew exactly what to do if he was asked a question he didn't know the answer to, though."I say 'That would be a good question to ask your teacher,'" Todd said.
