Friday, May. 16, 2008

Henry Miller Days takes students back in time

Charleston Elementary School third-graders relive pioneer age

With a cowboy hat shielding him from the bright sun Garrett Cotta sat on a curb and attempted to eat a piping hot biscuit fresh out of a Dutch oven.

It's good, he said, but there was one thing missing.

"I like to open them up and spread butter on it," said the 8 year old.

It's easier said than done as Cotta found out since he had to make his own butter with nothing but whipping cream and a mason jar.

Charleston Elementary School students spent Tuesday at Pacheco Park making pioneer biscuits, washing laundry by hand, ironing out some horseshoes and sneaking in a spelling lesson from Mistress Gilardi during Henry Miller Days.

Organized by the school's third-grade teachers as a culmination of their lessons on local and county history -- a requirement in the third grade -- Henry Miller Days was meant to immerse students in the time period of Los Baños' founding father.

"This will give them a better idea of how life (was) like back then," said teacher Mary Ellen Allen.

Allen said she thought the event would give Charleston students a better understanding of where they come from.

Students and chaperones said they definitely learned that it wasn't as easy being a child back in the late 1800s.

"I know some complain how you don't want to go to school," volunteer Rosalie Gilardi told students. "Back then it was a privilege to go to school not everyone was able to."

Gilardi led third-graders in a spelling bee and a lesson on ethics and values. The students were in a different classroom-setting than they are accustomed to. For instance they were segregated by gender and had to stand to answer questions from Mistress Gilardi.

Jonelle Gilardi, 8, said she was enjoying the day as she scrubbed a dish towel on a washboard. Gilardi, who along with the other girls was dressed in a full skirt and bonnet made for them by the Circle of Love, said she wouldn't mind washing all her clothes this way.

"It's more fun," she said until Allen informed them that "children had two sets of clothes, fancy clothes and work clothes. They wore the work clothes all week and Saturday was laundry day."

Gilardi and friends learned through activities that there was always something to do back in Henry Miller's days. The girls helped in the kitchen or looked after their siblings while boys worked side by side their much older and stronger counterparts in the fields, making horseshoes or branding cattle.

There was some down time though as third graders found out while bowling or tin punching.

"This is the coolest form of art I've done," Gage Collodi, 9, said while tapping a nail into a piece of aluminum to complete a heart design.

The students day ended with a tour of the Milliken Museum led by its curator Charles Sawyer who said he was glad to see children having a good time with history.

"It's a great learning experience," he said.