'The Kids are Alright' was a 1979 soundtrack by The Who. It's perhaps a sentiment often expressed by practitioners in any field concerned about the future*. Today, I had the honour of serving as a volunteer citizen judge in the King's Town School (KTS) Heritage Fair - and I can assure you - the future of historical interest and preservation are alright!
*Meeting with my clutch of fellow judges in the benevolently-named and well-supplied-with-refreshments Judge's Lounge (aka upstairs English classroom at the school) this concern was expressed by one of us.
Snapping a photo of King's Town School and its similarly-stoned neighbour on Rideau Street (above, with two of my fellow judges walking over just as I was!) we were welcomed and given an introduction to our role as judge, including completing the Judge Interview Assessment Rubric we'd use. With the school subject-themed classrooms (i.e. geography, sports, history, technology) hosting 38 displays by students in grades 5, 7 and 8, we would have two hours to hear presentations, view displays and discuss with the students as many heritage topics as we could in that time! As many as 16 of these displays would proceed to the Kingston Heritage Fair.
My judged presentations included: a student's great-grandfatherly WWII experiences, CFS Shelburne, Paul Anka, a residential school survivor's story, the Avro Arrow, the Canadian Football League, Belgian Immigration to Canada, the history of Canadian currency, Canada and the Great Depression, the Dionne Quintuplets, and Canada in Space. The students' approaches to presentation and display were varied, but those who answered their 'big question' best did so by using unique props, display techniques, bibliography, questioning beyond and placing their topic in national or international context.
I went prepared to learn, and I did learn something during each student's presentation at their display. A recurring theme in their research was what I'd call the un-edited online sources of today and the need to use more than one source. Back in my day (yikes!) we only had books to fall back on, as the Internet was still a gleam in Al Gore's eye. As a teacher's kid, a printed source was usually at hand, and that's what often dictated school projects we did. Frog anatomy! Switzerland! Trains!
Our efforts were well-appreciated by KTS staff, with students presenting judges signed notes of appreciation. (Marc Shaw photos posted to social media - it was great to finally meet this fellow historian as well as Peter Gower I'd previously met).
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