Story and photos by Martin Wilbur
Teaching young children history in classrooms has always been a challenge.

At Crompond Elementary School last week, fourth-grade students had a chance to live history—even if what they were recreating occurred more than 200 years ago.

Last Thursday, the entire grade and much of the school's staff participated in a Revolutionary War encampment, where students and teachers dressed as British redcoats or colonial army soldiers and spent a day as though they were part of the United States' initial struggle.

They marched out of the school building in uniform, drilled, followed their commanders' orders and carried canteens, food and wooden muskets for most of the day.

"You really get to live it and live it out," said fourth-grader Matthew Daru. "I think it's pretty hard."

The encampment was made possible through an $1,800 grant from the state's Living History Foundation. It is closely based on the model created in 1969 by retired Blue Mountain Middle School teacher Joseph Ryan.

After Ryan retired about five years ago, a group of parents committed to continuing and expanding living history programs helped create the nonprofit organization.

With state funding, at the behest of Governor Pataki and the Legislature, approaching $500,000 since its inception, students across the state, including those at Crompond, benefit from the grants that train teachers and provide replica, uniforms, tents and period cooking utensils for the school groups.

Last week the school prepared for its encampment by completing research on the subject matter.

Principal Joel Feldman, dressed as George Washington, discovered a speech the general had made to his men and addressed the student troops with a portion of the remarks.

The response has been so positive since the school staged its initial encampment last year that before the school year ends next month, the fifth grade will be participating in a day for their studies on the Civil War, Feldman said.

"We feel very strongly that having the children actually live the experience is a very successful way of teaching the curriculum," said Feldman.

Physical education teacher Jeannette Martino, playing the part of a Continental Army officer, said youngsters may not realize that Yorktown is rich in American history, particularly from the Revolutionary period.

"There's so much history here that we're also trying to encourage the children to learn history if they can experience it here," said Martino, who mentioned some of the famous events locally like the battle near the Presbyterian Church on Route 202.

"We're so fortunate that we have history here and we have reminders of it on a daily basis."

Ryan, who attended Crompond's encampment dressed in uniform and giving encouragement to the students in the American army, was selected to serve on the Living History Foundation's Board of Directors.

He said that the foundation introduces living history to faculty by providing training courses to teachers. Having been equipped with some of the tools and techniques to teach history, they can then enhance outings with their own ideas.

During his years at Blue Mountain, many of Ryan's students fell in love with history because of the Living History program, including Crompond Library Media Specialist Mark Creiner.

Creiner was a seventh-grade student of Ryan who said those experiences were some of the best he had in school.

"I can say firsthand as someone who did it, it's fantastic," said Creiner, dressed as a regiment leader for the British. "It never actually left me."

Now Creiner and other Crompond teachers are trying to inspire their students with the same love of history. Early returns show that the school has been successful.

Fourth-grader Danielle Viverito said there this is a more exciting way to learn.

"I like this so much better because we actually get to dress up and stuff and in the classroom reading from the textbooks is really boring," she said.

Student Andrew Redihan said he learned Britain's resources could have overwhelmed the colonies they persevered.

"The American side didn't give up when we were losing badly and they kept on fighting and George Washington gave them really good plans to beat the British," said Redihan.

Ryan said living history opens a student's eyes to subject matter that can often be perceived as dull.

Meeting Creiner and a couple of parents who were former students of Ryan's who were as excited as he was with last week's encampment shows how the value of Living History.

"You never know how it will affect one child and where that will lead," Ryan said.