What Can Student Learn from a Cemetery?

This summer's amazing learning experience had such an impact on me.  In particular, I was really struck by the cemetery in Oak Ridge, TN on the property of the Department of Energy.  In the fall of 1942, over a thousand families received notice that the United States government was applying eminent domain to take over 59,000 acres of property.  Families were given just a few weeks to pack up their belongings and move off of the land that their family had lived on for generations.  Only in 1945 did the government reveal that this was a part of a huge, secret endeavor to beat the Germans and create an atomic bomb.  Even now, in order to visit the cemeteries on the acquired property, families need to prove they have family there and have an escorted visit.  

After my amazing road trip, I had a goal of writing a minimum of one lesson plan that could be submitted to the Teaching with Historic Places site.  My co-teacher and I spent some time before school started discussing all of the possible places we could do some field research in history, and the ideas of cemeteries came up.  Sometimes, in our pre-planning of the year, ideas sort of run together, one of us coming up with an idea and the other piggy-backing off of it with another expansion on the idea, so I'm not really sure which of us came up with the idea of using the Tiger Flowers and Roselawn cemeteries for our project.  The cemetery is within walking distance of our school, and I'd read an article about how the two cemeteries, located directly next to each other, were segregated.  We went over right away and checked out the site, and right away saw the potential for not only a history project but also application of math and science and, possibly, a social action/service learning project.  When my co-teacher and I visited the site, we noticed right away the difference between the two sites.  One appears significantly better maintained.  

I began working on the project by communicating with the Florida Department of State Bureau of Historic Preservation.  I wanted to know more about the sites.  I was told that the Roselawn Cemetery is recorded at the state inventory of cultural resources, whereas the Tiger Flowers Cemetery has not been recorded yet.

I contacted LuAnn Mimms and Jayme Jamison at the Polk Genealogical Library, and we met for a few hours and discussed a possible trip so the students could learn how to do genealogical research.  We also discussed an extension of the project where our students will eventually choose one person to research independently or with a partner, will create an oral story telling presentation based on their research, and will create a portrait of their researched person to display at the history museum.  

On Tuesday, October 6th, after a short lesson on grave markers and some reminders on how to be respectful at a cemetery, we walked to Roselawn and Tiger Flowers.  The students received this handout detailing four tasks for the day.  Students were assigned to groups recording information in different sections of the cemetery so that they aren't all taking the same information.  They had a goal to record the data from 3-5 families, which will give us the most chances of them having at least one "hit" when it comes to researching later.

When they came back to the school, they held a community meeting, during which they shared observations including the condition of sites, the age of different sites (earliest date of birth vs. latest), and other things they noticed.  

The students were concerned that many of the vault graves at the Tiger Flowers Cemetery had significant time damage, and, in one case at least, had cracked.  They listed their other concerns and questions in their notebooks.  They wanted to know how these people died and were there common causes of death based on

their date of death, why small children died, when people became mothers, why some sites were well maintained whereas others were not.  

Then, they wrote down their personal mission with the project.  Some students wanted to recognize the veterans at the sites.  Others wanted to correct the fact that only one site is registered as a cultural site.  Other students were struck by the idea that people live on as long as their stories live on, and they wanted to tell the stories of the people who were buried at the cemeteries.  Many students were upset that graves might not be well maintained, even to the point of collapsing, and wanted to raise funds or awareness to correct that issue.  The room was abuzz with a very cool energy.  

After they brainstormed possible service projects they were interested in working on, they separated into groups to research the historical context of the lives of the people in "our cemeteries", finding out what was happening during major time periods, what major events occurred during their lifetime, what life was like.

On October 9, the students attended the Cracker Storytelling Festival in Homeland, FL.  As they listed to the story tellers, they paid particular note to which aspects of public storytelling they wanted to emulate, and which they wanted to avoid.  We discussed how they would have to change the style of storytelling because their audience would be different from the audience at the festival.  

On Friday, November 13, the students will begin phase two of the trip.  They will visit the Polk History Museum, sketch different time periods in preparation for their art work, take a tour of the well maintained Oak Hill Cemetery, and work with the research staff in the genealogical library to learn the principles of researching a person's past.  

I'm excited about the potential for this project, and I'm a little daunted, moving forward.  There is a challenge and a blessing in having a long term project with some set deadlines.  I'm also excited that we're developing a partnership with professionals who can show my students that history is not just something in the books.