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Living and Breathing History: Vermont History Day

photo by Cookie Steponaitis Sloan Miller and Grant Walker share their thoughts on the genius of Leonardo da Vinci with a member of the Ferrisburgh Historical Society.

photo by Cookie Steponaitis ANWSU Assistant Superintendent Carol Spencer, Ashley Mullis and Taylor Towle discuss the impact of Rokeby and other Vermont sites on the revolution known as the Underground Railroad.

photo by Cookie Steponaitis Aaron Rowell, Tommy Lee Hodsden and Phoebe Plank share why Duke Ellington said that jazz music was like “playing scrabble with no vowels,” in their history day performance.

Tuesday April 3, 2012

By Cookie Steponaitis

Come on, come clean, when you were in school, history was not your favorite subject. It was a bunch of dates, names, places and you memorized them for the test and then promptly forgot them, your lunch money and the words from Fridays spelling test. But, what if, history was living, breathing and very much based on your personal interest? Sound promising? It should, because it is the Vermont History Day Competition and on Saturday, March 31st approximately 220 Vermont teens gathered at Spaulding High School to show off their research and interest in topics that all tied to the theme of Revolution, Reaction, and Reform and were as individual as the competitors themselves.

Take the VUHS entries for example. In one place were topics and presentations as eclectic as Duke Ellington and the Jazz Revolution, Ethan Allen and the Vermont Revolution, The Notorious B.I.G., Michael Jordan, Coco Chanel, The Tuskegee Airmen, Howard Hughes, The Battle of Hubbardton, Princess Diana, The Diaries of Ann Frank, John Deere, Farming in Addison County, The career of Muhammad Ali, Anime, Henry Ford and the Model T, Robotics, Eleanor Roosevelt, the USS Hunley, Picasso, the Vermont Railroad and more. Each entry conforms to the requirements of length, time and research set out in the Vermont History Day divisions of website, research paper, documentary, performance and exhibit, but can be an individual or group effort.

On Thursday, March 29th the VUHS competitors held an open house at the VUHS library and were visited by parents, students, school staff and members of the Ferrisburgh Historical Society as well. The conversations were lively and the animation obvious on both sides of the process. Even those who weren’t too sure about this project showed enthusiasm in showcasing their research, their work and their learning. “I had no idea there were so many revolutionary and just plain impressive people in history,” remarked April Ambrose. “When we started looking for topics, there was just this huge amount of possibilities and all were interesting.”

At the Spaulding High School venue where History Day was held, the students each met with a panel of three judges and spent between fifteen minutes and thirty minutes being interviewed about their work. “It really was fun,” remarked Ashley Bodington. “It was more of a conversation than a test and everyone really was interested to see what we had done. I liked it.” While the results were not known at press time, the process was just as valuable as the accolades and state titles handed out on the day. It is about making history come alive, linking generations and letting experiences, wisdom, and learning from the past come through full force into the lives of those living in the present.  Each generation learns and in turn passes that new learning on to the next. As Martin L. King, Jr. concluded, “History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.” But perhaps, it was expressed best by VUHS contestant Julie Grace who stepped out of her interview, grinned and said, “Now that was just plain awesome!” And so, it is…

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