My kids’ school is big into History Day. History Day is a national competition in which students are given a theme and have to do projects related to that theme. The projects can be things like a paper, a poster, a web site, or a presentation. In our kids’ school, even numbered grades beginning in Grade 4 have to do a history day project. Since our boys are in 6th and 8th grades, my wife (bless her cleverness) figured out that if they did a project together, we would only have to deal with one history day project instead of two. So they and two of their friends decided to do a presentation on the Alamo, a nice fit with the theme this year, “Triumph and Tragedy.” I give them credit (and their moms, too), they did a lot of research, learned about the Alamo and its historical context, and worked up a nice little presentation, where they all dressed up in western clothes, Will as Davy Crockett, Andrew as David Bowie, and their friends as William Travis and the Mexican general Santa Ana.
In part because so few students do presentations, they advanced from their school competition to the Sonoma County competition, which was held on Saturday. And wouldn’t you know it … they did very, very well and were selected to go on to the state competition, which is held, of all places, in Long Beach. So in late April, it will be down to Long Beach for the whole family. This will combine two of my least favorite things — History Day itself, and Southern California. I have visions of hours of smog choked freeways, and a hotel full of nervous 4th, 6th, and 8th grade students and their parents.
Triumph and tragedy indeed.
But seriously, I’m proud of the kids. They worked hard and it took guts to get up in front of every one and perform.
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