Whether through character interpretation, putting on plays or storytelling, it’s Darci Tucker’s mission to bring history to life.
Petal Middle School children recently got a chance to experience that calling when Tucker – founder of American Lives: History Brought to Life, a program designed to help students and museum visitors connect with history – paid a visit to the school Monday costumed as Deborah Sampson, a Massachusetts woman who disguised herself as a man to serve in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.
“I absolutely love the chance to make history exciting for kids, because too often it’s just dead words on a page,” Tucker said. “In my mind, I might be able to take a kid that hates history and have them leave and think, ‘That wasn’t so bad – maybe I would be more interested in reading about that than I thought.’
“I just think in so many schools now, there’s such a focus on math and science, and I understand those are important. But if we don’t understand our history, and we don’t understand the importance of being engaged citizens and being part of the process to try to make it a better country, we’re going to be in trouble.”
Tucker, who held her presentation in the school’s auditorium, told the students the story of how Sampson fought in the war under the name of “Robert Shirtliff” for a year and a half – even removing a bullet from her own leg at one point – before being discovered as a woman and receiving an honorable discharge. She then talked the children through the process of character interpretation, and spent the rest of the day after the presentation meeting with the children in small groups to give ideas and feedback on a project for students to portray their pick of historical character or symbol.
“So the (presentation) was their chance to see a couple of demonstrations of it and talk through the basics,” Tucker said. “Later, we’ll get to the nuts and bolts of it in small groups, where they can tell their stories to each other and refine scripts for the presentations they’re going to do.”
Tucker said she was happy with the students’ input throughout the presentation, with many of the children asking questions and becoming engaged in the lesson.
“They like it every year,” she said. “I think they’re always really nervous, especially those that are portraying symbols.
“But after they’ve seen it done, and gotten a chance to talk it through, they feel a lot better about it. And it’s also such an important thing for them to learn how to speak in public – one of the most important things about this project is that it will give kids confidence to speak in front of an audience.”
Tucker started American Lives: History Brought to Life in 2000 to help students understand American cultures, rights and responsibilities by exploring the lives of their predecessors. The program features Tucker and her husband, Terry Yemm, who are veteran museum educators with more than 50 years of combined experience teaching history at Colonial Williamsburg, a living-history museum in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Tucker travels around the country to offer character interpretation, traditional storytelling, artifact analysis, 18th-century dance lessons and other events.
"It was such an honor and privilege for our students to be able to have Mrs. Darci Tucker, a nationally-renowned professional historical interpreter, as our guest at Petal Middle School,” said Cathy Lee, a U.S. History teacher at the school. “She regularly works for Mount Vernon and Williamsburg as an interpreter, and is so gracious to share her expertise in order to assist our students in preparing for our Traveling Trunk Show, which involves real world skills our students will use the rest of their lives.
“This is an opportunity that no other students in our state will experience.”
For more information on Tucker and the American Lives program, visit www.americanlives.net.
