Students bring history to life

A never-before-seen - a shockingly impossible event - occurred at Sisters Christian Academy last week. Joan of Arc, Madame Curie, Chiang Kai-shek, Mozart, Winston Churchill and even Linda McCartney were all under the same roof at the same time.

For nearly a decade the school has been delighting Sisters folks by bringing history alive during its annual Living History Museum. The project is a big one for the academy's seventh and eighth graders who each choose a historical character to impersonate.

"They choose a character who resonates with them. It's fascinating to see who they pick. It's often not a Christian character," said principal Peggy Miller.

After extensive research each student writes a report about his or her chosen character. Next, the student converts his or her report into a speech, memorizes the speech to performance standards and creates period costuming and a theatrical set appropriate for the character.

History teacher Deborah Halsten told The Nugget that she requires four-minute speeches, but student presentations are always longer.

"Virtually in every single case, the kids refuse to have it only be four minutes because they want to tell a longer story. I actually have some kids here today whose presentations are seven and eight minutes," Halsten said.

This year's seventh grade participants were: Taya Arnone as Joan of Arc; Krizia Buck as Madame Curie; Blake Miller as Chiang Kai-shek; Jessica Miller as Queen Elizabeth I; Becky Weitzman as Queen Marie Antionette; and Nathan Gardner as Mozart.

Eight grade impersonators were: Jessica Higgins as Elie Wiesel; Scout Miller as Linda McCartney; Jessica Raz as Corrie Ten Boom; Jared Schneider as Winston Churchill; and Max Van Diest as Julius Caesar.

According to Halsten, the students choose their characters about two months in advance and take about a month to do their research and report.

The academy's students as sixth graders start doing historical impersonations on a lesser scale. These trial runs provide a foundation for the annual living museum event.

"From kindergarten students start attending this (the Living History Museum), and they look forward to it year after year. They watch these characters and talk about what characters they'll be when they get to do it," said principal Miller.

According to Halsten, this year two impersonations, the depictions of Holocaust survivors Elie Wiesel and Corrie Ten Boom, were especially intense and were only open to adults and older students.

"There was no way to make the material 'palatable' for younger kids and still tell the stories," said Halsten.

Through the project the students gain and in-depth appreciation for the historical character they as individuals study, as well as the characters their classmates study.

Surrounded in an elegant setting appropriate for a queen, seventh grader Becky Weitzman, almost a Marie Antoinette look-alike, spent over six minutes chronicling the life of this fascinating woman who married Louis XVI of France at age 14 and was later guillotined. When asked if she likes the project, she responded with a huge smile.

"We learn presenting in front of people," she said. "It also is a lot of fun. We get to dress up and have a booth."