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Trip to bring history to life
The Los Primeros Structured School history teachers and 59 of their students leave Sunday to visit New York, Washington, D.C, and Gettysburg and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. "It's a wonderful experience for kids this age to see," said Walker, who has acted as a personal tour guide for students since 1992. "You gain so much by being right there where history was made." The 13- and 14-year-olds are learning about the Revolutionary and Civil wars in the classroom. But what they'll see and experience on the trip will add breadth to the historic events that pages in books just can't provide. They'll stand in Valley Forge where George Washington and his barefooted troops did during the winter of 1777. They can visualize the intensity of Robert E. Lee's stand at Gettysburg. In Philadelphia, they'll climb the steps of Independence Hall to see firsthand the crack in the Liberty Bell; and they'll ride the cobblestone streets of the city's old town district as members of the Continental Congress did. When Cheri Angle's daughter Amanda went on the trip six years ago, she came back with rave reviews, especially of Walker. She told her mother that the beauty of the trip was having Walker there to put the events into context and give them meaning. Angle decided then and there she would save enough money so she could accompany her daughter Natalie when she entered eighth grade. Angle will be one of the 21 parents on the trip. "I wasn't going to miss out on this opportunity," Angle said. "I feel like the luckiest mom in the world." The group will wrap up the whirlwind trip with a tour of nearly a dozen sites in New York City. Walker, a former travel agent and a 31-year veteran teacher, said he packs each day with one or more activities to keep the kids from getting bored. The married father of two young children devotes at least 100 hours of his personal time to coordinating the trip. But it's a labor of love for Walker, who said he's rewarded in seeing American citizenship take on a richer meaning for the students. And traveling is itself an enriching experience for the children, he said, because they bunk together and come to appreciate the art of compromise and consideration. "There's education beyond the curricula going on here, and I love that kind of thing for kids," Walker said. "We're lucky that our school board allows us to do this." The seven-day excursion is planned during the school year instead of over the summer so that every eighth-grader has the chance to go, Walker said. By law, field trips taken when school is in session must be made available to all of the students. The school's parent-teacher organization holds fundraisers during the year to give financial help to those who would have a difficult time paying the $2,000 price tag. Walker never tires of the trip he's taken every year for nearly two decades. "Because there are all new things to see when you have an eye to learning," he said. Bernie and Patricia Sentianin had to decide who would accompany their third and youngest child on the journey. Each had gone with their two older daughters when the girls were in eighth grade and both wanted to go this year with Paige. "We sort of had to arm-wrestle for the last one, because it's such a fun trip," Bernie said. "I won." Bernie had walked the battlefield of Gettysburg on a family trip when he was 13, but with Walker fleshing out history with details, he's come to appreciate the "specialness" of what he sees. "History takes on a whole new depth," he said. |
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