The whole sixth grade went on a field trip to George Washington's Mount Vernon today. It's an excellent field trip that for us consists mostly of a self-guided tour of the estate. As such, small groups of students tour the mansion and then roam the lawn and ramble the trails down to the wharf, sixteen-sided barn, gardens, and out buildings, ending up in the education center, which has lots of interesting interactive exhibits.
It's only about a half hour from our school, and some kids have been there before, but others haven't. I tell the former group that I have been there at least 25 times, and every time I learn something new and really cool. Today it was the demonstration on colonial cooking. Who knew that wealthy early Americans refused to eat yellow cornmeal? White? Sure, but yellow corn was animal feed to them. Ptooey!
In that way, Mount Vernon is always a fun and novel experience to me, but maybe not quite as new as it is to some of the kids. "I can't believe George Washington died!" one little girl told me today. "It's just so sad."
It's only about a half hour from our school, and some kids have been there before, but others haven't. I tell the former group that I have been there at least 25 times, and every time I learn something new and really cool. Today it was the demonstration on colonial cooking. Who knew that wealthy early Americans refused to eat yellow cornmeal? White? Sure, but yellow corn was animal feed to them. Ptooey!
In that way, Mount Vernon is always a fun and novel experience to me, but maybe not quite as new as it is to some of the kids. "I can't believe George Washington died!" one little girl told me today. "It's just so sad."
My group was surprised to hear about the yellow cornmeal.
ReplyDeleteYour title left me rereading and realizing I wasn't given those last lines enough of my attention. I was expecting a kid-sick-on-a-field-trip kind of slice (my bad) and when I realized I had missed something, I'm glad I went back. It's funny and quick, and captures a beautiful innocence and moment in time.
ReplyDeleteI have corona virus on the brain and just knew this was going to be a super sad, deep, scary post. I'm so grateful it's not! Thanks for sharing and sorry to hear about George. Ha!
ReplyDeleteKudos to Mount Vernon for making history come alive for these kids. So alive, in fact, that they forgot that Washington is not.
ReplyDeleteI love your ending - kid are so sweet - and you captured a great example of their wide-eyed innocence - yes it IS sad that he died isn't it?
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