Wagon train rolls out life's lessons from the Old West
A student wagon train is expected to arrive in Oregon today after crossing four states on a 10-week odyssey on the Oregon Trail.
By ELISABETH DYER
Published March 19, 2004
WEST SHORE PALMS - Aaron Wise sold three of his chickens for seven bucks in January. He needed the money for wood to build a wagon, for oxen to pull it, and for about 10 pairs of shoes, for he would be walking most of the 2,000-mile journey from Independence, Mo., to Willamette Valley, Ore.
During the past 10 weeks, the fourth-grader at Beach Park School stepped into the life of a pioneer headed west on the Oregon Trail.
"I'm 25, married, and have a daughter and a niece," said Aaron, who has been at the school since he was 3.
The school's 65 students, ages 3 to 13, had grouped into eight "families," each headed by a middle-schooler. Although they never left the school, they have crossed the country in their imaginations.
They bought "supplies" from teachers and found bargains came from haggling in Spanish with teacher Felisa Insignares. They braved hazards of the trip such as a near-miss with cholera-infected water. They built scale-model wagons with Popsicle sticks.
After 10 weeks of study, the students' wagon train is expected to arrive in Oregon today. They have crossed Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming and Idaho. The year is 1852. But these facts won't be on a test, school director Ann Winkler said.
"When I think of teaching these children about history, I want them to walk away with an overall sense of what it was like," Winkler said.
Each year this Montessori school delves into two historic periods. Much of what the students learned about the Oregon Trail came from reading diaries kept by real settlers during their trips.
Before "jumping off" as it was called, the students talked about the free land they would get from the government when they reached Oregon. They thought they would have more opportunities and maybe even strike gold.
They talked of packing their wagons with flour, bacon and coffee that even their children would drink along the journey.
A few weeks back, the students even sampled cornmeal mush.
"It's actually pretty good," Aaron said. (When sweetened with honey, brown sugar or maple syrup.)
Aaron and his friend Alex shot a buffalo with a shotgun along the way. Even so, at one point, the children in his family were starving.
"The most exciting thing was crossing the rivers," Aaron said. Each family had linked hands and crossed the school's playground, which doubled as the Blue River. They laid down a path of brown construction paper, one at a time, and followed the leader like a family of ducks. It was one of the first experiences with the trials of the trip.
"It was windy," Aaron said. "and if the paper blew away, we lost stuff, like sugar."
Last Friday, they celebrated the upcoming end of their journey with two performances for parents. They performed two musicals that described the American Indians' Trail of Tears and the allure of the Gold Rush.
Parents viewed the students' handiwork including two full-sized quilts crafted by the children and a pie safe, a four-foot wooden chest that kept food free from insects yet let it breathe through holes punched in tin panels. The children tapped landscape scenes into the 12 panels. These items will be auctioned in April.
Throughout the three old buildings of the school campus, colorful paintings by children adorn tiles and walls. Pots of herbs are drying. Classrooms group a couple of ages together, in Montessori style.
In June, administrators hope to move the school to a new, larger site on the southeast corner of Cypress Street and MacDill Avenue.
Ann and Dick Winkler have run the school for 17 years, after coming from Washington, D.C., where their two daughters had been in a Montessori school.
Maria Montessori founded the program in the early 1900s. She believed world peace could be attained through teaching children to respect others and solve problems. She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times.
At Beach Park School, the student-to-teacher ratio is about 6 or 7 to 1. While preschool is taught purely through the Montessori program, older students learn through a combination of Montessori and traditional methods, to prepare graduates to compete in public and private high schools.
The school is accredited by the Florida Council of Independent Schools and Florida Kindergarten Council.
Montessori focuses on respect for children's independence and encouraging them to learn naturally as they are ready.
"Internal control is what we try to develop in a child," Dick Winkler said. "We don't use rewards. We teach them to have a love of learning."
Follow the wagon train adventure online at http://beachpark.usf.edu/new/oregon.htm or stop by the school's Open House from 9 to 11 a.m. April 6 for a tour. Call 289-3747 for more information.
