Worksheets are a fairly new invention. They provide a quick way to determine watch a large number of students have gained from a subject. They do not teach anything and they do not provide an accurate gauge of what a student has really learned.
A couple of months ago Cowboy and I stopped at Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield We spent several hours exploring the park and talking with the volunteers and rangers and looking at exhibits. Truth be told, Cowboy outlasted me in the Civil War Museum. Standard practice is to take information about
Wilson’s Creek and put together a worksheet that will serve as proof that he understands what he was exposed to and expected to learn.
The biggest problem with this is that the worksheet will determine only what I (or the person creating the worksheet) feel is important and what an adult gains from the experience and not what he, as a child, gains from the experience.
Here is what would be expected from a standard worksheet:
-Date
-Location
-Names of important people
-Significance of the battle
-5-10 vocabulary words
For a historical record these things are important and yes I believe that this information should be maintained. However for a child this information has little meaning and children who have to force themselves to learn bland facts lose out on the joy of learning about a significant event in their cultural history. If a child knows there will be a worksheet related to the visit they will focus on memorizing things they think will be on the worksheet so that they can receive a good grade and pass rather then on the whole experience. The child then has to focus on what they are scheduled to learn next and generally the information is not retained.
If the child wants to learn more about the subject then they have do so on their own. For younger children this presents a problem because they may not have learned how to navigate the library or the interlibrary loan program to find books on the subject. For some children reading is so painful and difficult that they are unable to read for pleasure after a struggling through what is required. I hesitate to even mention the internet due to all the inaccurate information that is available online on so many subjects. Navigating through websites that do not provide accurate information is a difficult skill that people of all ages struggle with.
Now let’s look at what Cowboy gained from the experience of visiting
Wilson’s Creek. He did complete the Junior Ranger program but I did not place any expectations on him and what he should learn from the trip. I will break it down by what we talked about and how long after the trip it took place.
-Dinner that evening we talked about the family who lived near by and what they did during the battle.
-The next day he Cowboy called grandma and told her about visiting
Wilson’s Creek and he explained what happened when and who was there. By this time he had forgotten the general’s name (names are very hard for him and he struggles with the names of children he has known for years).
-A week after returning home from our trip Cowboy recreated the battlefield using moon dough. He used an eraser to mark where the Ray house was located and used the back of a pen to make marks where the soldiers were.
-2 weeks after he decides that he wants to reenact the battle with his friends for his birthday. He planned out which friend will play what part and decided on a suitable location.
-6 weeks later I take him to Hobby Lobby to buy supplies to create a lasting model of the battle field. Cowboy spent an hour a day for 4 days working on the model.
-7 weeks later cowboy decided he wanted to write (or in his case, dictate) a story that is “based on the civil war but is made up”, in other words, his first piece of historical fiction.
-On going: Cowboy still talks about the Battle of Wilson’s Creek and wants to visit more battlefields and learn more about American History.
Which do you want for your child?
It was a fitting trip and one I had meant to make last October when Cowboy decided he wanted to be Harry S. Truman for Halloween. We had talked about Harry Truman and on our trips through 
