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Native American Studies Brought Center Stage at The Grammar School
December, 2008 - One of the great things about The Grammar School is its “all-school meetings”. Once a week, every week throughout the year, all of the students, faculty and staff come together in the school’s auditorium/gym to hear Head of School Steve Lorenz or other staff and faculty make important announcements, to watch a particular grade do a performance, to entertain and support each other in variety shows, to listen to the results of experiments conducted by a particular class, or to be entertained and educated by visiting artists, poets, or other people of significance. A recent all-school meeting was no exception when everyone was treated by a visit from Roger Longtoe, a Native American of the El-Nu Abenaki tribe. Mr. Longtoe came dressed in traditional clothes and spoke of the many ways in which the Abenaki people took care of themselves.
Among his many “props”, Mr. Longtoe brought a moose skin. He told the children how hides were cleaned and tanned and invited one of the students, who asked how heavy it was, to come on stage where he draped it around her shoulders. She learned that it was quite substantial. One impression he made on the children was when he told them that if they lay on the hides facedown, sometimes they end up with hair in their mouths. Mr. Longtoe also told about the importance of “wampum”, noting that it is really not Indian money as it is sometimes called, but that it was used for trading. This was a practice that spanned many years in our early history when people traded products they grew or produced for others in exchange for the things they needed.
At The Grammar School, Native American study begins in kindergarten as part of that grade’s multicultural explorations. Formal Native American study begins in earnest in the 1st grade when students study such topics as food, shelter, clothing, geography, customs, traditions and legends to gain an understanding of how people meet their basic needs and develop culture. The 1st grade study of Native American culture culminates in a visit to the Mashantucket Pequot Museum in Connecticut. Second graders follow an historical thread by learning about the first European settlers in New England, beginning with the Pilgrims in the 1600s and transitioning to 18th and 19th century colonialism. The 2nd grade children visit the Deerfield Museum in Massachusetts and spend a morning with a school marm in an old one-room schoolhouse. Third grade social studies curriculum picks up where the 2nd grade leaves off by studying New England history through a unit on families and farms in the mid-19th century. Off-site study includes farming for ice in the winter and a visit to the Stonewall Farm in New Hampshire. In all these lower grades, study is enhanced through storytelling, music, dance, history and literature.
The Grammar School is grateful too Mr. Longtoe for visiting and making “history come alive” before the eyes of its students.