Tuesday, May 13, 2008 • School is in session today
Instructional day 166 • 11 days left in school year • Calendar
¡Nuevo! Información en Español
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Tuesday, May 13, 2008 • School is in session today |
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¡Nuevo! Información en Español |
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Feature article Students of history want to preserve itArticle and picture by Tammy Lane Students from Squires Elementary and Henry Clay High don’t want to repeat history in school, but they do want to preserve it.  Ricky Coleman, a junior at Henry Clay High School, works on scanning photos for the “Tell Our Stories” project as Squires Elementary fifth-graders Sydney Wade (with camcorder) and Yanyun “Angel” Gao watch over his shoulder. In a joint project entitled “Tell Our Stories,” the kids intend to interview area residents and record their memories of pre-1950 Fayette County schools. They also will scan old photographs and other school-related documents that people offer to share. “I’d listened to stories from elderly people telling what life was like in early schools,” said Karen Brock Guffey, a child guidance specialist at Squires Elementary. But she knew of no compilation of the history of the county’s education system. Now she and Chris Snow, a history teacher at Henry Clay High School, are spearheading just such an effort. “We’re hoping (students) talk to people who went to the same schools and experience how much it’s changed and how much it’s stayed the same,” Snow said. “Tell Our Stories” is both a community service project for the kids and a way to get them more actively engaged in their local history. Cherelle King, a fifth-grader, said she looks forward to hearing people’s stories, “to see how they learned, what kind of clothes they wore, what kind of schools they had.” Gabby Tolson, a junior at Henry Clay High, has a head start. Her grandmother offered up a book titled “Lexington Pictorial Nostalgia,” which was published to commemorate the town’s bicentennial (1775-1975). Gabby said she expects the “Tell Our Stories” project might uncover new details about Lexington’s early schools. “There’s probably going to be things that nobody guessed,” she said. The students plan to put up posters and get the word out for Fayette County residents to come by and share their memories and mementoes from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 23 at the high school. The February date will be the students’ second try at gathering history. In their initial effort on Jan. 19, only two local residents stopped in. “They both were very entertaining,” Guffey said, adding that the children got some practice with the digital equipment. “It was a positive start.” Members of Henry Clay’s history club help the younger students from Squires interview people and tape their stories with a hand-held camcorder. The teenagers also direct the youngsters in scanning photographs and saving them on a laptop computer for the project’s collection. “If we don’t get those memories now, we won’t have them,” Guffey said. The students also plan to investigate other resources, including the University of Kentucky’s library, the Lexington Public Library, the Lexington Historical Museum and the Fayette County Public Schools district office. They already have scanned a few photos of old schools from Internet sites. The Squires Elementary fourth- and fifth-graders, members of K-Kids (a group associated with the Kiwanis Club), are excited about doing a service/learning project as well as working alongside older students. “They jumped right on board,” Guffey said. Snow said the teenagers also benefit, gaining real-world experience in documenting oral histories. That aspect appeals to students like freshman Brittany Daniels, who plans to be an archeologist and teach on the college level. “Everything that can be learned from past lives is interesting,” she said. This summer, Guffey and Snow will evaluate what their students have collected and what they have learned. As for the project’s duration, they are playing it by ear. Ultimately, they hope to win a grant to publish “Tell Our Stories” and perhaps create a photo book online so others can access the information. Guffey is optimistic about the project’s impact on Fayette County students. “Even at the elementary level,” she said, “we should be proud of our history.”
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