STUDENTS RELIVE A DAY IN 1861... WITHOUT iPODS.

Tinmouth elementary students had a chance to walk in the shoes of townspeople for one day...a day in 1861. The students portrayed and dressed the part of farmers, cooks, and schoolteachers who lived during that time. It was a very busy day, with kids tilling a garden, putting up tents, manning a military outpost to enlist men for the American Civil War, making wooden toys, and preparing food for a community lunch in the old schoolhouse. This was the second year of the school's Living History Day and is a culmination of the school's nine-week curriculum. "We're taking the social science concepts of schooling and identity and comparing it to the present," said teacher Stuart Gerrol, "how time and place define who we are, help them understand humanity and how we work together as a society and as groups." Rachel Baker, 11 years old, summed up the event: "It was hard work, but it was kind of fun. You couldn't go to the store and get an iPod." I hope Apple was listening.