Group tour! Last night I spent some time with some very curious fourth graders from southern Ohio. You know you're in for an interesting evening when the tour leader tells you that they just spent 9 hours on the bus without stopping very much. That sends shivers up my spine! First thing you do there is walk the group a little ways to let them stretch there legs and burn a little of their pent up energy! These kids were in good spirits and the weather held for us. All in all it was a nice night for a walk.
As enthusiastic as these kids were, it always blows my mind as to why you would take your students on a three day field trip to a historic site that you don't teach about before you come. There was only one kid in the group that had been to Gettysburg before and most of these kids knew nothing about the Civil War. It got to the point where the "Civil War buff" parent had to answer all the questions. I had to break it down to basic concepts for these kids to set up the human interest stories. "Where would you take wounded men?" "Why there?" I think these kids got it for the most part. I love the look on the kids' faces when you make them actually think while they're on a field trip!
Another thing that blows my mind is how many young kids have a cell phone. When it was time to take pictures of a building, more phones came out than cameras! Crazy.
From tours gone by...I remember one time I had a reenactor in my group. That particular night he was in his Confederate uniform. After the tour he came up and tipped me with the gold Sacagewa dollars. He made the comment that since he was up North, his Confederate money was no good. It was a neat exchange and the few people that were still hanging around got a kick out of it! I talked to this guy for awhile and he told me a story that Mark published in one of his latter books.
Sleep well,
"Rick Saunders"
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