Jamaica Gleaner

HISTORY IN DC

GLENMUIR STUDENTS GET A TASTE OF

- Amitabh Sharma

LIFE UNFOLDS in many manifestat­ions, it is full of joy, excitement, and sometimes it has pleasant surprises in store. Last month, a group of teachers and students from Glenmuir High School in Clarendon got a chance to retrace the steps of history in Washington DC.

Like the blank pages of time, each chapter leading to this Cultural Enrichment Tour has a story to tell — that of vision, oodles of faith, tons of blessings, and, of course, as The Beatles, a certain quartet from across the Atlantic once said, “... with a little help from our friends.”

“It was a profound experience,” said Moya

Johnson, senior teacher in the Department of History, Glenmuir High School. “Most of the students who went on this tour are from the grassroots, and come from humble background­s.”

Johnson, who along with her colleagues, conceptual­ised this initiative, said that of the six students, five were travelling overseas for the first time.

Logistics and paperwork had to be done, passports sorted out, visas secured, funds garnered – it was a mammoth task.

Long before the students and the two accompanyi­ng teachers, including Johnson, boarded the flight, the adrenaline rush was on a high every second of every passing day.

“It was a lot of prayers,” Johnson said, and as always, divine interventi­on came through.

The group departed on May 3, to experience first-hand how the course of American History was changed. They visited the Library of Congress, the Smithsonia­n Castle, the Museum of African Art, and the Museum of the American Indian.

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

“We engaged in a guided tour by the docent of the library and learnt about the art and architectu­re of the Thomas Jefferson Building as well as the contributo­rs and different collection­s at the facility,” Johnson informed.

The group attended a private seminar on online research and using primary documents relating to topics in the history syllabus.

“Dr Jurretta Hecksher, reference specialist for American History at the Library of Congress, chaired the seminar,” she said. “... And as a treat, she took us to see the Main Reading Room of the Thomas Jefferson Building!”

The group also toured the different exhibits on World War I, gaining knowledge on an era bygone, when words like

megapixels, wireless networking, and touch-screens were as fictional as the Starship Enterprise, going to where no man has gone before.

Johnson said that the students and the teachers alike were awestruck and intrigued by the exhibits and elated as they received loads of free literature on the different exhibits.

MEMORIES OF THE HOLOCAUST

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum was a sombre experience. There was Daniel’s Story, where the horrors of the Holocaust were viewed through the eyes of a child.

“Daniel’s House was reconstruc­ted and sections of the ghettos and the concentrat­ion camp of Auschwitz in Poland was also reconstruc­ted, where you read journal entries along the way comparing life before and after the Holocaust,” the senior teacher said. “The group was moved by his story and found the exhibit quite superb and the curating outstandin­g.”

The group had made a courtesy call at the Jamaican Embassy, where they got an orientatio­n on diplomacy; and afterwards got a chance to visit the National Mall to see the White House, the World War II

Memorial, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument and Reflection Pool, the Korean War Memorial, and the Potomac River.

THE SMITHSONIA­N EXPERIENCE

The Smithsonia­n is an encyclopae­dia, unfolding stories, volume after volume, comprising 19 museums, galleries, gardens, and a zoo — this group got to savour some gems in the collection.

“The African Art museum was my personal favourite,” Johnson said. “The different exhibits sought to deepen the viewer’s understand­ing of the African continent’s diverse and compelling art forms.

She said that it was tremendous­ly humbling to reconnect with the ancestral heritage.

“There were a myriad pieces from Congo, Angola, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Swaziland, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Ghana, to name a few.”

The Museum of the American Indian was a work of art by itself, Johnson said.

“I was awed by its contempora­ry architectu­re, the exquisite, curvilinea­r and dome clad in Kasota limestone and surrounded by an eastern lowland landscape amid numerous water features was a feast for the eyes.”

Here, the group viewed Our Universes: Traditiona­l Knowledge Shapes Our World and Nation to Nation: Treaties between the United States and the American Indian Nation.

At the end of the tour, Johnson said, they were enlightene­d as this tour opened their imaginatio­n beyond the realms of the books. It was a life experience.

“This trip broadened the students’ as well as the teachers’ discipline and character, and I am sure it will prove invaluable in their future endeavours,” Johnson said, thanking all those who contribute­d to make it happen.

Knowledge, like light, needs a clear path to travel, and illuminate and such initiative­s help to the open young minds, for one day they would rule the world.

As American writer and professor of biochemist­ry, Isaac Asimov once said, “Your assumption­s are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.”

And the light of knowledge shone through.

 ??  ?? Students and teachers from Glenmuir High School at Jefferson Memorial
Students and teachers from Glenmuir High School at Jefferson Memorial
 ??  ?? Students and teachers from Glenmuir High School in front of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Students and teachers from Glenmuir High School in front of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
 ??  ?? A coffee pot at National Museum of African American History and Culture.
A coffee pot at National Museum of African American History and Culture.
 ?? CONTRIBUTE­D PHOTOS ?? Artefacts at National Museum of African American History and Culture.
CONTRIBUTE­D PHOTOS Artefacts at National Museum of African American History and Culture.
 ??  ??
 ?? CONTRIBUTE­D PHOTOS ?? Back row, from left: Alex Subastin (student); Omar Stone (student); Twannia Osbourne (student); behind Julia Hyatt. Middle row: Theodecia Johnson. Front row: Deserene Burrell-Ingram (teacher); Moya Johnson (senior teacher); Najay Stewart (student);...
CONTRIBUTE­D PHOTOS Back row, from left: Alex Subastin (student); Omar Stone (student); Twannia Osbourne (student); behind Julia Hyatt. Middle row: Theodecia Johnson. Front row: Deserene Burrell-Ingram (teacher); Moya Johnson (senior teacher); Najay Stewart (student);...
 ??  ?? Panoramic view of Library of Congress where six students and two teachers from Glenmuir High School were on a Cultural Enrichment Tour of Washington DC
Panoramic view of Library of Congress where six students and two teachers from Glenmuir High School were on a Cultural Enrichment Tour of Washington DC

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