A day-long seminar aimed at bringing local public school students and museums together was held at Sweet Briar College on Friday, May 5. Titled "Teaching with Historic Sites: New Opportunities for Educators," the program offered representatives from area historic organizations the chance to pitch their offerings to local educators.

In a letter to prospective seminar panelists, Sweet Briar Museum director Christian Carr wrote "It is our hope that by giving [educators] an idea of what we as historic organizations have to offer, we can then gain a better idea of what sorts of educational programs they could utilize for the benefit of their students."

Because museums are sometimes small and short-staffed — making visits by large school groups problematic — Carr envisions an arrangement where "representatives from small museums would be able to coordinate their educational programs and offer them to school groups here at Sweet Briar College, where we have the space and support staff to assist with such an endeavor."

Seminar panelists included Carr; Keith Egloff, Virginia Department of Historic Resources; Cheryl Stallings, Legacy Museum of African-American History; Holly Wilhelm, Amherst County Historical Museum; Erin Hughey-Commers, Oakland, a historic house in Nelson County; Lynn Rainville, archaeologist, Sweet Briar College, and Rebecca Massie Lane, Pannell Art Gallery, Sweet Briar College.

The program also featured remarks by Ben Cline of the 24th District, Virginia House of Delegates, who is on the board at the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton, Va. He said with energy costs rising, among other reasons, "It becomes important for us to look in our own backyard" for places to learn about history.

Jim Percoco, an award-winning history teacher and author from Springfield, Va., also addressed the attendees. Among other things, he spoke of the importance of historic places. "Place captures us in a way that no classroom can," he said, adding that he tells his students "History happened out there. Not in these four walls."

When he walks into a classroom, Percoco said he takes three men with him — George Washington, Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln.

Washington, he said, taught him not to take himself too seriously. King's Riverside Church address reminds him that "we're all caught in this together." From Lincoln — about whom he is writing a book called "My Summer with Lincoln" — he learned the "importance of editing; how editing is so vital to the writing process."

"All of these men grew and they were growing the day they died," he said.