Facing some difficult history

photos: this year's sixth graders when they were in third grade, paying their respects during a visit to the site of the Great Swamp Massacre
 

Last week, the Narragansett Indian Tribe regained possession of the South County site of the Great Swamp Massacre, a 1675 milestone in King Philip's War.

The site, and the history surrounding it, will be familiar to anyone who went through Gordon's third grade over the past twenty years.

 

The team on the sixth grade newspaper remembered visiting the site years ago, and wrote up these notes for today's paper:

A couple days ago, the Native American massacre site where the class of 2024 took a field trip in third grade was given back to the Native Americans.

Here are some of the memories of this field trip:

We walked like a mile and were quiet which is a rarity in third graders. It was kind of scary knowing people took this route trying to run for their lives. When we got to the site we saw an axe on the memorial and we were all a little bit scared. We had kind of spent all of third grade learning about the Native Americans and their relationship with the pilgrims and other Europeans.

Gordon's third grade curriculum includes a yearlong study of colonial-era New England that uses the theme "what you see depends on where you stand" to help students see history through a range of multiple perspectives.

The Public's Radio's coverage of the land transfer mentions the role that alumni parent Neil Kelly played in the process. Mr. Kelly is known to many as the spouse of former Early Childhood Director Maureen Kelly.