Students Study History on “Immigration Day”
A young baker and his pregnant wife, both in their early 20s, stood nervously before “Judge Walts” as they waited to learn if they would be permitted to enter the United States. Just behind them in line waited a middle-aged teacher, a family of German chocolatiers, and an elderly priest from a country more than a thousand miles away. All of these immigrants were anxious to be processed after completing their application and medical examination, and now the final decision lay in the hands of the judge as he interviewed them about their desire to enter the country.
This Ellis Island scenario was just one of many activities that more than 360 Benton Middle School sixth graders participated in as part of the school’s fourth-annual Immigration Day. In addition to dressing as their ancestors may have done in the early 1900s and being processed as immigrants by Benton teachers and Superintendent of Schools Steve Walts, these students spent the day playing sports that are popular in different European nations, watching movies about immigrating to this country, and designing passports and postcards that described what someone coming into the U.S. might have experienced more than 100 years ago.
Not all of the student “immigrants” had an easy time when they went through “ Ellis Island.” A few were assigned medical problems such as head lice, mental illness, or even tuberculosis, and they had to pass medical tests with their infirmities before being sent to see the immigration judge. Some students even admitted to being nervous as they went before Judge Walts for an interview, and a few confessed that they had resorted to lying as they were desperate to be allowed into the country.
“These students learned how difficult it was in the past to get into America,” says Janet Devaney, history teacher and coordinator for the school’s Immigration Day. “After comparing current immigration issues with the ones from the early 1900s, they have gained a greater understanding of people’s desire to come to America and of the difficulty of getting into the country.”
2/17/06
