Our Grand Tour of Virginia sadly came to an end.  As my husband drove west from Monticello, he commented he could just as easily head east. Hmmmm, precisely what I had been thinking.  Apparently, George Washington also thought we should drive east!

We had had a marvelous time touring Washington DC, Mount Vernon, Montpelier and Monticello.   However, our favorite was definitely Colonial Williamsburg.  Engaging with people of yesterday at the living history museum made the pages we had read in books pop-up with technicolor and surround-sound!  

Even though we had a wonderfully memorable time in all of Virginia, we liked Colonial Williamsburg best.  We'd love to live there.  We even talked about working there someday.  Last spring, while I was making curriculum choices, it suddenly occurred to me that I only have 4 years left to teach my daughter and 6 years to teach my son.  I've been heartbroken about that.  All summer I asked myself what in the world would I do when they left for college?  I'm not interested in going back to teach public school.  I don't even want to work in private school.  While we were at Colonial Williamsburg, I realized how much I loved everything that was going on and that it seemed to be a perfect fit for me.  What a classroom! 

The American Revolution is my favorite time in history, because I feel that it is pivotal to all of history before and after.  We've been studying history from Creation to 1800 for the last 2 years, as if through a microscope.  Instead of reading textbooks that make students feel like they are walking across a rickety bridge, with large gaps between the slats. across a huge ravine, we read real books that make the bridge of understanding concrete.  Making connections between historical events, reading the literature of the era, and studying the worldview of the times has put depth to our understanding of each new piece of history we study.  Reading, thinking, discussing, writing, experiencing and portraying events of the past have put light to our feet on the road of understanding. Everything we studied up to the American Revolution foreshadowed the desire of the populace for independence.  Last year, while we studied the Middle Ages, I kept telling my kids that the feudalism in France was keeping the peasants in bondage, while the kings were getting stronger, and this would escalate into the French Revolution.  All year I kept encouraging my kids that their studies would get them ready for Revolutionary City, so that they could engage with the actor/interpreters.  I was thrilled to see that my son "got it" when he asked the Marquis de Lafayette about the Hundred Years' War impacting French and British tensions during the French and Indian War and American Revolution. The focus of my teaching last year had been that the Norman Conquest was the root of British and French tensions.  However my son is an independent spirit, much like fiery Patrick Henry, and had formed his own conclusions, which I admit are valid. (In other words, I did not prompt my son to ask this question!) Even the Marquis agreed with my son, so of course I must concur!  LOL  Teaching comes alive when students (especially my son), are able to independently make connections of the various events that have been taught.  

We have 2 years left to examine the rest of history to the current day before we hit the next rotation of world history at the rhetoric level.  We picked up school this year at 1800 and have been studying John Adams, the Alien and Sedition Acts, the Declaration of the Rights of Man, the Industrial Revolution, Napoleon, the Code Napoleon, and now Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase.  So far with everything we have studied, we have looked back at the primary source documents during the formation of our new country: The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.  Even today, our current events reflect the interpretation, right or wrong, of those documents.  This is what drives me in teaching history.  One simply cannot understand today's history unless they understand the past.       

I met a man at Colonial Williamsburg while we were waiting for Generals Washington and Lafayette to address the troops.  We stood in the shade of the capitol, while he asked me why in the world we were visiting Colonial Williamsburg.  He was from Canada and was married to an American. She and the kids wanted to come and were having a blast, while he stood alone in utter confusion. He had no idea what anyone was talking about.  I tried giving him a synopsis of Colonial Williamsburg history.  Then he asked where we were from. When I told him that we were from Texas, he incredulously asked me why in the world a Texan would be interested in Virginian history.  I smiled and said that Virginia's history is America's history.  He walked off, shaking his head in utter disbelief.  Well, too bad for him.  I hope he loosened up and eventually had a good time.  One does not need to be a history buff to enjoy Colonial Williamsburg. Programs are designed at all ages and interest levels to engage one as they please.  Also, one does not need to be American to enjoy it.  We met visitors from China speaking in Chinese among themselves, yet asking great questions in English.  They were obviously understanding the experience and having a great time.   

I don't know if I would ever have anything to offer the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.  But I can dream, can't I?