It is simply amazing what is on the Internet. I was looking for one thing – and found something else that brought back memories from the 1980s….
Click here for the St. Petersburg Times article from 1989!
In the 1980’s we devised a project for our World History students, which had them choosing a person from history, then researching (pre-Internet era) through a variety of resources for information concerning the person and the world they lived in. Clothing, religion, weapons, food – there were a whole bunch of categories, and the scrapbook encompassed both written and pictorial material. The project was a 9-week project, and was valuable enough that many former students still have the work they produced and keep it as a source of pride, reminding them what they accomplished. The project actually went county-wide, and eventually built up to where the ‘county winner’ was presented to the Board.
These projects were time-consuming to grade, but they certainly were interesting! Both students – and teacher – learned a lot!
I remember going to our public library one evening about 3 days before the project was due and found the place really hopping – every table had several students at it. I hung around for a while, helped some of the kids find resources, then got ready to go home. As I was getting ready to leave I heard one of the students say that the Xerox machine was broken. As I walked out the door I saw a police car pulling into the library parking lot.
The immediate vision that went through my mind was if possible headlines the next day: “Riot in the library after Xerox machine breaks!”
There was no riot, the police was simply doing the regular rounds, the kids got their work done – and the machine had simply run out of paper, which was quickly replenished.
It used to be that we were digging through the past. Now – with the Internet – we’re clicking through the past!
The picture? One my wife saved from the Chronicle.
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