Teachers explore St. Croix history

ACADIA NATIONAL PARK – For teachers in Maine who hope to instill a passion for history in their students, the early European settlements at Jamestown, Va., and Plymouth, Mass., can seem too far away to be relevant.

But the 1604 French settlement at St. Croix Island, which predates both of those, is close enough to home to matter to youngsters across the state.

“It’s exciting,” Kerry Taylor, a fifth grade teacher at Mount Desert Elementary School, said at a Friday morning workshop sponsored by Acadia and St. Croix national parks. “We’re doing a big unit of exploration right now. Hopefully they’ll have the same reaction that I do, that it’s right next door, so they feel connected.”

Taylor and 11 other teachers were at park headquarters to learn about the St. Croix 1604 Interpretive Teaching Trunk, a tool developed by rangers to make history real, and tangible, to Maine’s schoolchildren. The trunk is packed with maps, a beaver pelt, examples of French and Wabanaki footwear and a sampling of the spices explorers hoped to find when they were waylaid by the New World. Friday’s workshop was the first one held outside of Washington County, and attracted teachers from Mount Desert Island, Trenton, Ellsworth, Old Town and Lee.

The story of the ill-fated 1604 settlement has adventure, daring, danger – and even death by scurvy – all of which should make it popular with the state’s youth.

“One teacher gave kids frozen apple cider Popsicles … to drive home the point of how severe the winter was,” Meg Scheid, a ranger at St. Croix Island International Historic Site, said. “Our scientists have proven this to be the first documented case of scurvy in North America.”

The social studies, French and science teachers came together to do some exploration of their own as they brainstormed ways to make the island settlement’s history come alive for their pupils.

Educator Mary Forest of Trenton thought of ways to encourage students to broaden their viewpoint on history as she looked at the settler’s boot and the Wabanaki deerskin slipper.

“It’s a totally different concept of materialism,” Forest said. “You could drive things home by taking a field trip to the Abbe Museum, to show people how the Wabanakis made baskets.”

Carley Hatt, of Pemetic Elementary School in Southwest Harbor, agreed.

“Their relationships with the natural world were very different,” she said. “Instead of just looking at the French settlers’ perspectives, you’re looking at the Wabanaki as well … it’s really an important lesson.”

Teaching materials about St. Croix Island can be downloaded from the Web site www.nps.gov/sacr, Scheid said.

“I am hoping that today has been, for you, a wonderful way to learn about a national park,” she said.