George Washington Wired

Dean Howarth, a Physics teacher at Mclean High School, has been bringing students to Mount Vernon for 15 years as part of a program he founded called Project Enlightenment. Students develop an 18th century character and then become a first person interpreter for a day at Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon recently honored Dean for his innovation and creativity, as well as the fact it is not everyday you meet a Physics teacher who is so committed to History!! For this, we think Dean deserves a big Huzzah! (18th century “Cheers!”)

GWW: How do your students prepare for their Mount Vernon visit?
DH: New members start early in the fall, with a goal of finding a character by December. The rest of winter is spent delving into the character and establishing a well-rounded knowledge of Washington’s life and times. Early spring is spent developing presentation skill, and crafting interpretive gateways. We have compiled tons of information and maintain an electronic library (to augment our school’s library). We have portrayed well over 150 different characters (all known to have connections to George Washington), and every year we add a few more.

GWW: Where do the costumes come from?
DH: We used to rent them with student dues, but without a budget per se, we have been earnestly collecting them a couple at a time. Ebay, seamstress moms (which are hard to find), donations, costume shop clearance sales, begging and borrowing, have all been used. Now we are almost self sufficient but the Cultural Affairs Division of Arlington County have helped us out considerably over the years. This has been a Herculean task-outfitting over 60 kids is tough!

GWW: What is the funniest thing that ever happened during a program at Mount Vernon?
DH: Since our costumes are often hand-me-downs and not the best quality they are often held together with safety pins and string. Once Tom Paine’s breeches fell down on the Piazza, and Benjamin Rush split his trousers demonstrating medical procedures. Our young ladies, dressed in 18th century fineries, often draw unwanted attention from dreaded packs of middle school boys on field trips (not paragons of ettiquette). Our project hones quick thinking and ad-lib skills. Once a rude boy was annoying our Nellie Custis with low-brow attempts of showing how cool he was. Nellie quickly replied that he reminded her of Hercules, which he seemed to be pleased with, until she added that Hercules was the name of her grandfather’s most stubborn jackass, which was historically accurate based on her detailed research. The boy sheepishly retreated, and we all gave her three cheers for her formidable verbal coup.

GWW: How many students do you estimate have participated in Project Enlightenment?
DH: Probably between 400-500!

GWW: Do you dress up and participate?
DH: Yes, I do. I played Ebeneezer Kinnersley most recently, an 18th century scientist who traveled the colonies demonstrating electrical machines like those of Dr. Franklin. I have also played astronomers, surveyors, and natural science professors.

The Phoebe Apperson Hearst Learning Center for Teachers opened in the spring of 2007, and since then our Education Center Manager, Diana Cordray, has worked hard to acquire every resource available for teaching about George Washington and the Revolutionary Era. The Learning Center for Teachers is open daily and is a place for teachers to review curriculum kits, books, and DVDs before purchasing, use the scholarly version of the Digital Papers of George Washington for free, and create a Resource Packet of teaching materials about George Washington and Mount Vernon to take back to the classroom. Each month, Diana will review a new teaching resource in order to introduce teachers to the many wonderful materials that can bring Mount Vernon to the classroom. And now for Diana’s review….

The Phoebe Apperson Hearst Learning Center for Teachers is fortunate to have educational materials from Teacher Created Materials. One item that is exceptionally beneficial to classrooms is the Primary Source Readers kit. Winner of the 2005 Golden Lamp Award from the Association of Educational Publishers, each kit contains: 6 copies of 16 content rich 24 page readers; lesson plans for each reader; teacher resource CD; and, 16 overheads. Continue reading Resource of the Month: “Primary Source Readers” »

The tenth year of George Washington Teachers’ Institutes has come to a close, and we are so sorry to see our teachers go! From a one week Institute for Mississippi teachers ten years ago, the George Washington Teachers’ Institutes have grown to four separate Institutes with teachers sponsored from 14 different states. This year, 84 teachers from Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, New York, New Jersey, Oregon, California, Nevada, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Arkansas, Ohio, Florida, and Minnesota, were able to come to Mount Vernon and stay on the Estate grounds. The teachers listened to lectures by some of the best historians in the country, took behind-the-scenes tours of Mount Vernon Estate, went on field trips to Washington, DC or Philadelphia, and were able to cap off their evenings with sunset on George Washington’s own Piazza overlooking the Potomac River.

If you would like to view pictures from this year’s Teachers’ Institutes, or share your own photos that you took at the Institute, please go to www.flickr.com/photos/mountvernon.

The George Washington Teachers’ Institute welcomes Mount Vernon area teachers to the Estate for two days of lectures, workshops, first person performances, and tours every July. The highlight of this year’s program was a discussion between Woody Holton, National Book Award winning author of Unruly Americans and the Origin of the Constitution, and Catherine Allgor, author of A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation, moderated by Emmy award winning journalist, Cokie Roberts. Director of Programs, Nancy Hayward, said, “We are dedicated to providing quality programs for our local teachers, and so we were delighted that over 200 teachers joined us for this special look at the role of the disenfranchised in the Constitution.” We would like to thank all the speakers who joined us for this event, as well as a special thanks to the First Federal Congress Project for co-sponsoring the program. This program is free to all teachers, and can be reserved by emailing education@mountvernon.org each June.

For the full 45 minute video, please email education@mountvernon.org for the YouTube link.