Making History: Young Chautauqua Program Brings AZ History to Life
An article on innovative humanities education in Arizona.
In front of a sizeable audience of parents, teachers and fellow students in the Desert Spirit Elementary School library, the ARTspace Ensemble struts its historical stuff. One sixth grader, Josette Chavez Ramirez, plays Arizona pioneer rancher Eulalia Borne, the first women in the state to get fed up with working in dresses and opt for a pair of Levi’s instead. Other historical figures studied and presented by the students include Annie Oakley, a Navajo Code Talker, surrealist artist Max Ernst, and the territorial historian and poet Sharlot Hall.
The performance, aptly titled Footprints, is the culmination of a four month long program put on through the collaborative efforts of the Arizona Humanities Council, Childsplay, the professional theatre company for young audiences, and ARTspace Afterschool Initiatives, and funded through the City of Phoenix Office of Arts and 21st Century Community Learning Centers.
“This is ground breaking for us,” says Arizona Humanities Council Executive Director Herb Paine, “to show the practical utility of humanities, to marry research and performance and discover how the past informs the present.”
When the program kicked off in January, Teaching Artists Kate Haas and Kristin Hailstone, of Childsplay, sought to begin instilling in the fifth and sixth graders the teamwork and trust of a true theater ensemble. They played a name game in which students stood in a circle and went around stating their name and associating it with a physical gesture. Many of the students hardly spoke out loud and their actions-a foot tap or a hand wave--were extremely muted.
‘Theater pushes you out of your comfort zone,” says Haas. Hailstone agrees. “They learned to come out of their shells, to trust each other. Hailstone recalls how one student, who played Laura Murphy, one of Arizona’s first business women, wouldn’t even take her hands out of her pocket when they started, much less perform in front of an audience.
Another area the students needed a break through in was historical research. Desert Spirit Elementary, in the Glendale School District, serves an economically challenged population, with over 80% of its students receiving free or reduced lunch. Very few of these kids have regular access to computers and the Internet.
In addition, according to Tamara Yazzie, who coordinates the afterschool program, “Social studies has taken a back seat to reading and writing,” because of the focus on AIMS testing. As a result, “kids had to do more basic research because they didn’t have background knowledge,” she explains.
Technology teacher Todd Parent was called upon to help guide them in their online research. “The kids were unsure at first, then they really got into it,” he says. “They would come in to school early to do their research.”
Three dimensional learning
What generated this level of interest? For Josette Chavez Ramirez, it was making history more personal. “It’s based on one person, it makes history more real to get to know how they felt, what they did,” she says.
In addition to researching their characters lives and times, the students also wrote journal entries for them. This helped make the stories more immediate, as well as aiding the students in developing a voice for their character.
Parent observed how the program made “learning real, not just two dimensional, but three dimensional. They started identifying with the character they were researching, and took pride in their achievements.”
Jorge Palomera was engaged by the dramatization of his character, Frank Luke, Arizona’s WWI flying ace, for whom Luke Air Force Base is named. “I’m going to act like I’m really there,” he said, while working on his part. “I’m going to have to feel like I have honor, courage.”
Palomera wasn’t anxious about memorizing his lines. “If I forget the script, I’m going to improvise, make it better in a different way, so I’m not worried.”
Trish Black, Childsplay Director of Education, sees a bright future for this program model. “I love the combination of history and character development,” she says. “And any level of kids can participate, at any level of speaking.”
Another way the program added a sense of dimension and depth to history was to take the kids out of their school environment on a field trip to the Phoenix Museum of History.
“It was the most valuable research experience they could have,” says Hass, “to see and touch objects from history gave them more of a grasp of history, of how different the world was back then.”
The students also went to the local library to access further research resources. “These kids don’t get to see much of the arts,” says Tamara Yazzie, “these are experiences outside of the norm for them, which their parents can’t really offer.”
In addition to taking the students out to touch history, the program also brought history in. Scholar and performer Jody Drake made an appearance as Sharlot Hall, the Arizona historian and poet who arrived in Arizona as a child in the 1880s. Drake arrived in character, wearing a brown gingham dress, straw hat and a fringed leather pouch attached to her belt. Following the performance form known as Chautauqua, in which historical figures are brought to life through dramatic monologue, Drake (as Sharlot Hall) proceeded to recite poems and share observations about her life in Arizona in the territorial days.
Afterwards, students had the opportunity to inquire about such topics as her childhood on a ranch near Prescott, her Prairie dress and the materials used in clothing then, and about the interaction between pioneers and the native Indians.
The performance included elements of historical detail, comedy and social consciousness regarding the role of women. It served as an example to the students of the presentation they could make, combining drama, history, communication and confidence. As Drake playing Sharlot Hall advised them: “There are three rules to doing this: 1) breathe deeply 2) love yourself 3) tell the truth quickly.”
Drake should know. She has performed for Governors Hull and Napolitano, and retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. She has been nominated for the Governor’s Award six times, and was named one of the ten 2007 Arizona Culture Keeper award winners.
The fun factor
While the stakes are serious—gaining a historical perspective, developing 21st Century Skills like innovation and collaboration, and building personal confidence, among others. Clearly fun was a major factor as well.
In one acting exercise conducted some weeks earlier, known as the Janitor Game, the students stood frozen in place, like statutes in a museum, while one student, acted like the janitor cleaning up after hours. As soon as he turned his back, the students moved freely, then froze when the janitor came to face them again. Anyone the janitor spotted moving was out. The kids, clearly more trusting and adventurous than when they began the program, had a good time. Later, in the performance itself, they would use these same skills to play saguaros who become animated into people, then turn back into saguaros.
It’s an appropriate metaphor for the program as a whole, in which the students’ imagination and passion for history is stimulated to life. As one participant, Haley Gilmore, puts it: “It’s fun. You don’t even feel like you are learning, but you actually are. You wonder what it would be like in Arizona back then, you get to replace yourself with them.”
Kaci Shoemaker, who was developing the character of legendary rancher Pete Kitchen, agrees: ‘It’s really good way to learn history, like stepping into somebody else’s shoes.”
Gilmore, thought about this for a moment, then added “I would go nuts without video games.”
The awareness of making a difference.
All too often, history is taught as something that happens to you but is made by others. By walking in the shoes of their historical figures, these students saw their characters as human and accessible, rather than distant figures in text books. The program took this vital realization even further by inviting the students to share how they wanted to impact history themselves.
Temporarily stepping out character, each student proclaimed what difference they wanted to make. One student wanted to be a clothes designer, another wanted to be a news reporter. One wanted to be an inventor, another an adventurer and another wanted to recycle and help the environment. In the midst of so much history, there was no shortage of vision for the future. As KeJuan Washington put it: “I want to let people know that if you have a dream, live it.”