Thursday, May 4, 2023

Teaching Towamensing Township history

Yesterday a group of 6th graders walked from the Towamensing School next door to the Towamensing Township municipal building for a class on local history.  I taught the class.  I divided the township’s history into four eras:  a very long prehistory era illustrated with Devonian fossils, a Lenape Indian era illustrated with a collection of points, a Pennsylvania Dutch agricultural era that lasted from about 1790 to 1970 and illustrated with some old farm tools, and the exurban era we are in now.


I’ve done this presentation for the last ten years.  The kids are attentive, polite, and an interested audience.  It’s a fun class.  I spent my teaching career with college students, but I think I could have been a 6th grade teacher as well.  I’m not so sure about high school students, though.  I think perhaps they know everything already.

No comments:

Post a Comment