SOMS 6th Graders Report for Training at Fort Pew

It isn't every day that a Social Studies teacher will let her classes run around the halls of South Orange Middle School. But on Friday, Caroline Pew's sixth grade classes engaged in simulation training to be deployed to Germany for the start of World War I.

Since Pew believes in a hands-on approach to teaching history, she does not have students use textbooks in her class. So when it was time to learn about WWI, instead of saying "turn to page 52," she welcomed students outside of her classroom -- known for the day as Fort Pew -- with "Welcome to boot camp! My name is General Pew!"

Students were then assigned to positions of either soldiers or the coveted role of sergeants and ordered to run around the second floor to get themselves in shape before battling in Europe. Further preparations included learning several French words, just in case they're separated in Europe. Soldiers and sergeants learned teamwork by making a structure out of straws. They also created dog tags for purposes of identification.

Jared Kofsky is an 11-year-old student in the SO-M school district who is a local history buff and train historian. At age 9, he was an award recipient in the Celebrate South Orange poetry contest. He has given speeches about trains and local history at SOPL and before the South Orange Historical Preservation Society.