Shaping history: students step up as documentarians

MILLERTON, N.Y. — High school history teachers Rhonan Mokriski and Peter Vermilyea demonstrated how they “let students lead” in studying history at The Moviehouse in Millerton Thursday, March 27.

The demonstration took the form of two documentary films made by students at Salisbury School and Housatonic Valley Regional High School, plus one from Yale University’s Beinecke Library.

“Coloring Our Past” from Salisbury School follows the story of the Cesar family, Black residents of Salisbury and Sharon. It also shows how the students conducted research, including field trips to the places the family lived and worked, and an interview with a descendant.

“Faces of Adversity” from HVRHS deals with the story of how two Black girls came to the high school for the 1958-59 school year.

The girls were from Little Rock, Arkansas, which was the epicenter of the fight over school desegregation.

The documentary uses a mix of archival footage and a contemporary interview with one of the Little Rock students.

From Yale came Michael Morand’s “What Could Have Been,” about an 1831 proposal to establish what would today be called an Historically Black College or University, or HBCU, in New Haven.

Supported by abolitionists and prominent citizens, the proposal was nonetheless soundly defeated at a town meeting. Many of the opponents were also prominent citizens.

Morand was scheduled to attend the screening but was unable to make it. Salisbury School’s Mokriski and Vermilyea from HVRHS spoke after the films were shown, highlighting how the tactic of letting students take control of such projects yields considerable results.

“This is students getting their hands dirty as historians,” said Vermilyea.

The teachers noted how the students took advantage of modern technology to get access to source material.

“It’s a game-changer,” Vermilyea said.

Mokriski added “We can use this as a template.”

HVRHS students Tess Marks and Elinor Wolgemuth, both seniors from Salisbury, presented at the America 250 conference “Shaping a Commemoration Rooted in Belonging,” held at the University of Connecticut on March 21. Marks and Wolgemuth were members of a panel discussion entitled “Students as Historians: A Community-based Approach to History,” along with Mokriski, Vermilyea, and Charlie Champalimaud, owner and operator of Troutbeck in Amenia. The students spoke about how student projects presented at last year’s Troutbeck Symposium could serve as a model for the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of American independence.

This year’s Troutbeck Symposium runs from April 30 to May 2. The student-led forum includes students from 14 regional and independent schools who will “listen, present, and discuss findings of their research projects uncovering little-known local histories that tie to our national fabric,” according to the Troutbeck website.