19th-century map, cannonball used in history lesson.
Normally they’d be at recess, but on Monday afternoon, a class of sprightly fourth graders at Hillcrest Elementary School walked to the front of their classroom, one by one, to hold a nearly 200year-old cannonball found in Alamo Plaza in 1875.
One student stuck her finger in a hole in the bronze relic. Another held the ball in one hand and raised it up and down, exclaiming at how heavy it felt.
It was the end of a Texas history lesson from Land Commissioner George P. Bush, part of his initiative to visit 50 schools across the state. Following a morning stop at Storm Relay Lab Elementary School, Bush presented a lesson to fourth graders at Hillcrest — his 30th visit — centered on a Texas railroad map printed in the 19th century.
“The goal was not only giving a break to a teacher, here early in the season, but learning,” he said. “Visiting with administrators and teachers about their priorities is what public leadership needs to do.”
Bush said his visits reinforce the state government’s commitment to public education this year, marked by the Legislature’s move to boost state funding and reform how it gets distributed.
The commissioner, accompanied by City Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran, their staffs and Hillcrest Principal Santa Lopez, walked into Kaitlin Peavler’s classroom on the second floor of the South Side school, where he was greeted by about 20 fourth graders sitting quietly at their desks. Hillcrest, in the San Antonio Independent School District, serves a majority Hispanic enrollment and offers dual-language instruction.
At the start of the lesson, Bush and his aides handed out dozens of white gloves so the students could act as legitimate historical
against the school district and are calling on the junior high school’s principal and one other official to resign.
The suit alleges the Berry Miller Junior High administrators, who said a design in the black student’s haircut violated the school’s dress code and used a permanent marker to color it in, discriminated against the boy, assaulted him, and violated the Civil Rights Act and Constitution.
“He’s going to remember this for the rest of his life, and it’s his eighthgrade year,” said Angela Washington, the boy’s mother, standing outside Pearland Independent School District’s administrative building Monday.
The parents, who are seeking an unspecified amount in monetary damages, said no one from Pearland ISD has tried to remedy the situation.
In a statement, the school district said it had archivists handling delicate artifacts. In small groups, the students examined an old map outlining the routes of several railroad companies, part of the General Land Office collection.
When Bush asked the class for their observations about the map, students excitedly pointed out the places they recognized, such as New Orleans, Galveston and El Paso.
“Think about for whom this map was made. It’s 1887. There aren’t planes,” he said. Bush also pointed out another indicator of the map’s age: the area north of Texas, now a state called Oklahoma, was marked “Indian Territory.”
At the end of the lesson, Bush drew the students’ attention to the Mexican Army cannonball sitting on Peavler’s desk, most likely used during the Battle of the Alamo.
Her class would be only the fourth to see the restored object up close.
With both hands, Bush grasped the 4½-pound ball from the desk and presented it to the first student, while the rest of the class watched. Bush continued calling up students until each had a chance to touch the relic.
U.S. history has become a fraught subject in recent years, with the state’s curriculum decisions a reliable source of controversy. Bush said his office hopes to make available more documents and maps such as the one presented Monday.
“We’re not ones to be involved in changing history or rewriting history or politicizing history,” Bush said. “We leave that for students and teachers to decide. Based upon the primary sources that we have in our agency, with millions of documents and maps which we use today, we can provide probably more of a direct exposure to history as it was back then.”