When the Present Meets the Past Continued from page 2
magazines as manuals for teaching “living history.” He developed a Foxfire-inspired curricular unit around the fictional town of “Lick Skillet,” Missouri — a service-learning model where high school students would learn a pioneer skill, such as rope making, candle dipping, or leathercraft and then teach it to an elementary school student. Hank was also instrumental in training various organizations in this methodology, including educators at TCS, the St. Louis Public Schools, and later, the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Dana Brown Overnight Center. Early on, TCS’ own Jan Phillips and other TCS faculty were influenced by both Foxfire and Hank’s work, and TCS has long had “living history” as a component of its program. Students make maple syrup using traditional methods, make cordage, construct teepees, weave, and do beadwork in a variety of classes. In the early 90s, Jan brought in Foxfire staff for a training experience, continuing a long tradition TCS has of connecting with renowned experts in the broader Experiential Education community as part of our commitment to lifelong learning. Like Foxfire’s program today, TCS uses 21st-century methods, like podcasting during Seventh Grade Urban Theme, to capture the stories of people in our community.
TCS and Foxfire Today This fall, TCS students experienced Foxfire’s open-air living history museum! They wandered through a village of 30+ reclaimed Appalachian buildings that the center has collected over time, usually by disassembling and reassembling them on-site, often built with student labor, and financed by the proceeds from their magazine. We saw a blacksmith’s shop, a church, and a weaver’s shop. Students met and asked questions of a local weaver who explained the traditional craft from the raw material coming off the plant (or animal) to the finished product. Also illuminating was how the center was innovatively using digital technology to enhance and update how it captures the knowledge of the past. Students used the Foxfire app to connect the place to people. At one site, students could listen to oral histories about traditional home life as they roamed through a traditional Appalachian homestead. In the old church, they could hear the echo of hymns as they sat on benches, imagining the community that once used it. They immediately recognized tools in the woodshed that they had used themselves at TCS, including draw knives, rope makers, saws, and other tools. Foxfire has increasingly addressed the complexities and human tragedy associated with the history of white settlement in the area. Students saw the “Zuraw wagon,” the last remaining actual wagon involved in the Cherokee removal in the 1830s, which led to a rich discussion, led by Carol Fitzsimmons, Fifth Grade Teacher, on how to look at history from multiple points of view and not shy away from controversy and complexity in our understanding of the past. Our witness to Foxfire’s continued commitment to preserving the past using modern technology and methodologies to explain a complex but rich history was both affirming and instructive to TCS faculty. For the students, having the opportunity to connect places to actual voices from the past was a unique and enriching way to gain a deeper understanding of the human elements of this region, in addition to the natural history that TCS has been exploring for years. It was a truly fantastic day!
At Home at The College School By Stephanie Dents, Board of Trustees Chair, Current & Alumni Parent
The Dents Family Originally published in The St. Louis American, October 7-13, 2021 For close to 20 years now, my family has been involved with The College School — an independent/private, experiential Pre-K-8 school in Webster Groves. When our oldest son, who is now 22, was approaching kindergarten age, we had planned to send him to public school. My husband, Jemal, and I are both products of the public school system. Jemal was raised in Texas, and I was raised in Webster Groves. We had settled in Webster fully intending to take advantage of the strong public school system. At the kindergarten open house, someone told us about The College School, and we decided to take the tour. I remember visiting for the first time and thinking about how different it was. When we visited it was clear that experiences, collaboration, and reflection were cornerstones of the learning model. The children were not at desks all day and they took trips to visit a local river to learn about the environment and apply science and math. They were involved in hands-on projects and discussed how they applied to real life. We heard stories and saw pictures of trips all over the metropolitan area and camping trips to other parts of the country. We thought to ourselves, “I wished I could have attended a school like this when I was a kid.” As our son marveled at the magical loft in the Kindergarten room, his excitement and how the teachers interacted with him made it clear that The College School Continued on page 5
Spring 2022 | Page 3
