|
"We HAVE to see the Elgin Marbles."
"Imagine a 13-year-old saying that," said teacher Jane Livziey, recalling her trip though England and France with colleague, Beverly Fitzsousa, and 18 middle school students from Renbrook.
It was mid-June, and they were at that point exploring the British Museum, eyeing the classical collections with an interest not found among many teens their age. Then again, these were Renbrook seventh, eighth and ninth grade students. Most had studied various Greek and Roman themes since sixth grade and the classic play they had researched, written and produced.
The British Museum was one of many stops on their English itinerary. Students also took walking tours of Westminster and Whitehall, Trafalgar Square, Downing Street and Buckingham Palace.
Other highlights included visits to the infamous Tour of London, lively Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square. Students saw King Lear at Shakespeare's Globe Theater, traveling the next day to Windsor and Stonehenge before taking the overnight ferry to France.
The Renbrook group arrived in France on June 17 at the city of St. Malo, once a haven for pirates and privateers. During the next several days, they traveled to Mont St. Michel, Fougeres, Villandry, the Loire Valley and Chartres, en route to Paris where they would stay from June 21 to 23. Among the 18 teens on this trip, 12 were French students, happy to practice their skills in real life.
The theme of the journey was the interconnectedness of French and English history and literature. The strategy was experiential, giving students the chance to explore and discover the common threads in both cultures.
Sometimes those threads pulled from places astonishingly close to home.
Renbrook, for example: It was Renbrook alumna, Dorothy Walker Stapleton '62 who arranged an insider's tour and special visit to the U.S. ambassador's residence in Paris. Mrs. Stapleton is married to Craig Roberts Stapleton, the U.S. Ambassador to France. The regal residence has been her home for the past several years (http://france.usembassy.gov/ambassador.html)
Called away on a last-minute official assignment, Mrs. Stapleton asked her assistant Elise Lyons to introduce the students to embassy life and the world (and work) of diplomacy.
Guided by Ms. Lyons, students toured the residency and met members of the staff. In conversations along the way, they learned about careers in government service, and the benefit of learning a second, even third language well. It was often language skills, they were told, that help advance you to the next level.
"Seeing the connection between language learning and life was an important experience for our students," said Jane Livziey. "And I think it will motivate the students to work for mastery of other languages."
New Britain, for example. While touring the ambassadorial residency in Paris, Elise Lyons directed the students' interest to the many paintings on the walls. These were part of an exhibit made possible by the Art in Embassies Program, she said, adding that the program's goal was to promote American art and its artists at embassies around the world.
At the time of Renbrook's visit, the exhibit featured art from across the U.S.A. Among these, amazingly, were several from the New Britain Museum of American Art. After traveling more than 3,000 miles, from Connecticut to France, Renbrook students met up with works of art that had made the same trip.
In time both would return to Connecticut. As will, in time, Ambassador Stapleton and his wife Dorothy, whose hometown is also in the nutmeg state. |