Naper Settlement knows a lot about history and shares it

A recent article in the USA Weekend magazine noted that students don't know much about history. The author, Kenneth C. Davis, says that we need to bring history to life. That's exactly what we do here at Naper Settlement.

Every day, hundreds of schoolchildren learn about what life was like in the 1800s through hands-on activities and the interpretation of our costumed villagers.

They come away with an appreciation and knowledge of the past. It's also something they remember their entire lives - I meet adults who still fondly recall their trip here as children.

Naper Settlement annually serves more than 35,000 students, who travel here from two-thirds of the state of Illinois. We develop our educational planning in tandem with area teachers and research historians, so our programs meet state learning standards.

These award-winning programs for students in grades K-12 combine crafts, map-making, storytelling, games, open hearth cooking, role-playing, document examination, and first-person interaction with actors portraying historical characters.

Training programs for teachers help area educators utilize the museum's unique interactive "learning laboratory" environment to bring history alive for their students. Our loan programs bring historical artifacts, documents, photographs and authentic reproductions of historical objects to the classroom.

In 2007, the Naperville Heritage Society and Naper Settlement in conjunction with five area school districts and North Central College received close to a $1 million "Teaching American History" federal grant, which will provide training for teachers.

The expected outcome of the three-year project is to increase student achievement by improving the way teachers approach American history.

The goal is to help teachers increase content knowledge and learn new ways to bring American history to life through introducing students to actual historical documents and artifacts.

That is our mission at Naper Settlement - to bring the past to life in an entertaining, engaging, personal and educational way. Just what Mr. Davis called for in his article. Yes, we know a lot about history here at Naper Settlement, and we share it with thousands of people every year.

Peggy Frank is the executive director of Naper Settlement and the Naperville Heritage Society. Naper Settlement, a historic recreation of 19th century Naperville is located off Webster Street and Aurora Avenue, across from the Municipal Center.