CREC Montessori Magnet Students Place Second At History Day

From CREC Montessori Magnet School: Five students from the Capitol Region Education Council (CREC Montessori Magnet School are celebrating their recent second place finish at the Connecticut State History Day Contest on May 4. The students did a Group Performance on Little Rock 9 entitled “Paying the Price for Education.” They were inspired to explore this topic after learning that their own school resulted from the Sheff vs. O’Neill ruling.

The five students: McKenna Semeraro, Walter Vallecillo, Luis Nunez, Marlon Vallecillo, and Saoirse Noyes won the opportunity to participate with 3,000 other students in the upcoming National History Day Contest, held in June at the University of Maryland. The students have attended the Montessori school since they were three years old.

This team of students has been working since the fall on their project under the guidance of Joseph DePasqua. The students would meet half an hour every day and once a month, when the school had a half day, the five students would stay until 4 pm working on their project. The students paid for the large posters used in the performance by selling drinks to parents attending conferences. Many students leave the Montessori School after fifth grade to attend a middle school; Marlon told Mr. DePasqua that he wanted to stay for sixth grade so he could do Connecticut History Day.

The students had earlier won first place at the Hartford Regional Contest. They took the feedback from the judges who had reviewed their project and over the last two months, stayed after school rewriting their scripts, conducting research, and practicing. They were, says Mr. DePasqua, “1000% better” at the State Contest. Students from the Montessori Magnet School have participated in Connecticut History Day for the past four years; this is the first year a group has qualified for the National Contest.

Although Mr. DePasqua knew a lot about the topic, his students discovered information that was new to him, such as the fact that the Paul McCartney song “Blackbirds” was inspired by the Little Rock 9. Mr. DePasqua teaches Social Studies at the Montessori Magnet School and believes that project-based learning, as exemplified in creating a History Day project is the best way to learn.

Mr. DePasqua is a longtime educator, he worked for 29 years in the Manchester School District, and six years at CREC’s Academy of Aerospace and Engineering Technology School. Now working “part time” with the Montessori school, Mr. DePasqua is inspired to “get kids interested” in school and help students who might not initially be successful in school. He draws on his own experience as a struggling student whose family had little money and credits his parents for stressing the importance of education and a basketball coach’s mentorship that led him to securing a full basketball scholarship to Sacred Heart University.

Connecticut History Day is an affiliate program of National History Day. It is managed by the Connecticut Democracy Center. For more information go to www.historydayct.org.