Another year of kids teaching kids ...

Every spring, the home schooled students and their parents in and around Newtown Square prepare for and then host a living history session for the public and private school 4th grade classes at the Paper Mill House and Museum.  The home schooled children research, and then make, their own costumes so they are dressed as 1850's era children.  The write and practice skits that they perform on the living history days.  And then, in six morning and afternoon sessions during the week, they welcome the 21st century students back to the 19th century, and teach them about what life was like living in a mill community in Newtown Township in 1850.  

The Newtown Square Historical Society created the program in the mid-1990’s, but the fact that it has such continued vitality today is due to the enthusiasm with which the annual program has been embraced, and annually revitalized, by the home school community of parents and children.  Like a college sports team, they graduate their seniors each year and must recruit new children into the program, and teach them the history, and how to present it to their peers in an interesting way. 

This year’s programs were held last week at the Paper Mill House.  They were a tremendous success.  A new crop of young people learned their history, learned their lines, and gave their 21st century contemporaries the best history lesson they have had on local history. 

In 2013, the program was recognized and awarded a “History in Pennsylvania” award by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania for excellence and innovation in the field.  The people who participate in this annual program know that it is excellent.  On behalf of the Society, we want to publicly recognize them as well, and let the community know that we have this wonderful program where children teach children about history.