As the First State, history has been part of the collective awareness of people in Delaware since Dec. 7, 1787; the day the state became the first of the 13 original colonies to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
Every school kid knows about the Constitution, right?
But understanding the past requires much more than memorizing dates. For National History Day (NHD), students throughout the state are delving deep into history around the world, from the Protestant reformation in the 16th century to the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.
So, how did the Germans react to the Berlin airlift in 1948? What impact did Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play in the Major Leagues, have on society outside baseball? How were people with mental illnesses treated in the late 1800s?
“The point of it all is teaching students to research all sides to an issue,” said Robert Ellenberger, who chairs the history department at the Towle Institute, a Christ-centered home school group based in Hockessin.
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Click for National History Day 2012 Delaware competition slideshow
(photos: Ellen Rendle)"]
National History Day is year-long academic program focused on historical research for 6th to 12th grade students. Started in mid-1970’s in Cleveland, Ohio, NHD is now the nation’s largest program of its kind for school-age children and operates as a self-sustaining non-profit organization. In the First State, the project is administered by the Delaware Historical Society and is open to students in public, parochial and independent schools, as well as home school groups.
“The teachers benefit from having to think like historians,” said Ellen Rendle, curator at the Delaware Historical Society in Wilmington and director of the program. “Students benefit from analysis, problem solving, research and communication.”
There are two levels of competition, for students in grades six through eight, and students in grades nine through 12. The young scholars can work individually or as a team. Projects are divided into five categories: papers; exhibits; 10-minute performances; film documentaries; and websites. Local judging this year took place April 21 at Delaware Technical Community College in Stanton. Top finishers in the state advance to the national competition June 10-14 at National History Day’s home, the University of Maryland at College Park.
Megan Julian, a junior at Padua Academy in Wilmington, placed first in performance at the Delaware state contest. An aspiring actress, Julian portrayed Fanny Kemble, a British-born actress who married Pierce Butler, heir to a Georgia plantation, and defied her husband by establishing a dispensary and nursery for slaves.
“She knew she was against slavery but when she came to America she was struck by the harsh reality of it,” said Julian, 17. “In fact, she felt like a slave because of the way her husband treated her.”
Julian and the other 250-plus students who participated locally learned how much heavy lifting historic research requires. Julian researched Kemble’s journals to write her script.
Visit Senior Division winning individual website by Padua Academy's Natalie Roddy
“They might need to go to the Library of Congress or interview someone at Colonial Williamsburg,” Rendle said. “You can’t just Google.”
To research her first-place paper, Isabel Nilson went to the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston to read letters written by Mercy Otis Warren, a prominent patriot who wrote plays published in newspapers supporting the American Revolution.
“I actually got to hold one of her letters in my hand,” says Nilson, 16, a junior at Padua. “She corresponded with George Washington. She was friends with John and Abigail Adams.”
Each year, the contest has a different theme. For example, one year the theme was innovation. Rendle recalls a group of girls who performed a skit that revolved around a Tupperware demonstration.
“It was a very cool idea about women taking control of their financial destiny by becoming entrepreneurs,” she said.
This year’s theme is “Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History.” Some storylines are ripped from local headlines, such as a project that focuses on the race riots in Wilmington in the late 1960s. Students also have researched Thomas Garrett, a station master on the Underground Railroad in the city’s Quaker Hill neighborhood, and the 89 schools P.S. du Pont founded for black children in the 1920s.
The sphere of interest also is as long ago and far afield as Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation and the Italian astronomer Galileo.
“Sometimes, the students know more about a topic than I do,” Rendle said. “It can be a little intimidating but it’s also very exciting.”
The project was launched in the First State by the Delaware Council of Social Studies, starting with a single teacher, Fran O’Malley at Padua Academy in Wilmington.
Padua has established a proud history in the program, making it to the national competition 10 years in a row.
National History Day: 2012 Delaware Contest Winners
National History Day is a requirement for all eleventh grade students in U.S. history and ninth graders in the Honors sections of World Civilizations. As many as five teachers and the school librarian are actively involved from October through March in guiding students through the process of selecting topics, meeting project milestones, and using primary and secondary research to flesh out their ideas. Seniors who participated as juniors serve as mentors.
“Since the program allows flexibility in the choice of topics as well as the category, we feel that History Day is one of the best academic experiences since students engage in in-depth independent academic work,” said Barbara Markham, who chairs the history department. “Although there is an annual theme, students often tailor their projects to fit individual interests and even family history.”
A team of two students—one who is fascinated with marketing, the other an ascendant computer programmer—took fourth place nationally in 2010 for "The Wish List: Mr. Sears Catalogue," a website about how retailer Richard Sears grew the iconic American retail giant.
In 2011, a student took fifth place in the finals for “The Women's Army Corps,” weaving her grandmother's experience as an army nurse in the larger story of women in the military during World War II.
“We also interviewed past participants and made a promotional video of their experiences. In a recent address to a class at the University of Delaware, we showed that video to student teachers,” Markham said. “We have seen this program truly enhance the academic and personal lives of our students.”
At Towle, the program is a requirement for history students in eighth and tenth grades, as well as students in honors classes.
“We have a tradition of first place finishes in the state and doing very well in the nationals,” Ellenberger said.
Last year, Towle took both first and second place in the performance category. In one project, a student played multiple roles to analyze President Truman’s airlifts of supplies to people in Berlin after the Soviet occupation of the city after World War II.
“She was a reporter at one point in her performance, then a German woman in another,” he said.
This year’s entries included a paper on Dorothea Dix, an advocate for the mentally ill in the 19th century, and Josiah Henson, an escaped slave from Maryland who fled to Canada where he became a noted abolitionist and minister, establishing a settlement and school for other slaves seeking freedom.
Of the 50 Towle students who are participating, the top three in each of the five categories are guaranteed a place in the state competition. Teachers and judges from the Delaware Historical Society evaluated the projects.
In the end, the home school group decided to submit several more projects in addition to the top three finishers, based on comments from the judges.
“They said that the students’ work was of such high quality that we should send them, too,” Ellenberger said.
