Tonight, a group of high school juniors from Mississippi School for Math and Science will have their dress rehearsal for their Tales from the Crypt tour at Friendship Cemetery in Columbus.
The tours begin next week and will mark the 27th year MSMS students have performed as a part of the Columbus Pilgrimage, which begins Thursday.
Over the years, “Tales” has become one of the most popular events of the Pilgrimage, drawing thousands of visitors.
Truth be told, Tales would be a success if not a single visitor turned out to watch students, in period dress, tell the stories of the men, women and children interred in the old cemetery.
The greatest benefits are reserved for the students, whose participation helps them understand not only how to study history, but what it means outside the classroom.
And what these MSMS students are doing can be applied to other academic studies, too. When students see a link between what they are taught in the classroom and how it is applied to the broader world beyond school, it often fuels imaginations and inspires students to think about their own futures and the careers they will pursue.
Suddenly, the tedium of classwork — the rote memorization, the absence of real-life context, the monotonous process of read, memorize and test — come alive for the students. As we have seen in other instances — field trips for career expos, visits to industries and museums — exposure to how academics are linked to careers can forever alter a student’s view of that subject. For many, it’s not what the subject is that sparks their imagination; it’s what they can do with that knowledge.
Of all the academic subjects, history is probably the subject that suffers most this lack of context. For most students, it’s bunch of names and dates to be memorized and regurgitated on a test paper.
To be ignorant of history is like stepping into a theatre halfway through the movie. We cannot adequately understand our present without the context of the past.
These MSMS students are also learning something that seems to be disappearing with astonishing speed — how to do research.
Too often today, research means plugging in a few words in a Google search and calling it a day.
For months now, these students have been doing real research.
That means poring through records at courthouses and libraries. It means relying on their ability to find original sources rather than relying on search engine searches. It means insisting on seeing with their own eyes the original source material.
Learning cannot be confined to a classroom. It must live and breathe in the larger world of ideas and opportunities and possibilities.
It is for that reason that Tales from the Crypt is more than entertainment. It is a reminder of what education should look like.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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