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Denise
Egéa-Kuehne
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| The
last two weeks of January 2000, a remarkable event gathered nearly 200
Louisiana teachers of French, Spanish and social studies who set off on
a three-day discovery journey of Louisiana Colonial heritage. This unique
adventure was organized by the LSU French Education Project for Research
and Teacher Education under the direction of Dr. Denise Egéa-Kuehne.
It was made possible by a grant from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities,
and the support of the French Cultural Service in New Orleans, the Embassy
of Spain in Washington DC, and the Communauté Française de
Belgique in Baton Rouge. It took place at two different locations: Baton
Rouge, for the teachers in the southern half of the state, and Monroe,
for the North.
This program, titled "Whose Land Is This? The Secrets of Louisiana Colonial Days, 1762-1802," led participating Louisiana teachers through the exploration of a most fascinating time in Louisiana history, one when the territory was bounced back and forth between France and Spain and back, with secret treaties and divulged secrets. It is also the period during which the Louisiana population grew exponentially and "minority" groups emerged with a specific identity: the Creoles (who saw themselves as the "new world" aristocracy), the Acadians (who started arriving in Louisiana in 1764), the "Blacks" (neither "African" nor "American" yet), the Indians (who had always been there but "invisible"), Los Isleños (who are still trying to affirm their identity and recapture their history). |
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The
announcement of this program immediately elicited the enthusiasm of Louisiana
teachers! Several had participated in the previous year's workshops on
the
founding of Louisiana, (AASLH 2000 National
Award) and knew that they were in for a treat! Encouraged to register
in teams--teacher of French, teacher of Spanish and social studies teacher
from the same school or from neighboring schools--they promptly responded
to the call. This emphasis on interdisciplinarity was only one of the several
special features which made this event unique for the teachers who participated
as well as for the scholars and experts who were invited to present and
work with the teachers.
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| Each minority group was represented by a guest speaker, experts who talked about their special heritage, bringing to the program an abundance of valuable art and artifacts on each culture for display throughout the program. Jolène Adam, Curator/Director of the Acadian Memorial at St. Martinville recalled the deportation of the Acadians from Nova Scotia which occurred during the Louisiana Colonial period, and described how the Acadians who settled in Louisiana quickly re-established themselves. Dr. Frederic Alamel, a French scholar from La Sorbonne in Paris who has been researching the Houma history and heritage through their art spoke about the Houma Indians in Louisiana. He described the Houmas' struggle to survive and to be recognized as a Native American tribe by the Federal Government. While Dr. Allamel was speaking, Ivy Billiot, a Houma Indian artist from Houma, Louisiana, demonstrated his art by carving a wooden cardinal, to be won by one of the participants. The winning number was selected by Mr. Billiot who used the lucky draw of a sarbacane. Mr. Billiot's wood sculptures were exhibited along with the art and artifacts by other Houma artists, depicting the Houma lifestyle and the environment in which they live. Florence Borders, archivist at Southern University in New Orleans, spoke of her own heritage and the Black experience in Colonial Louisiana. Her discussion of the maroons, especially St. Malo, was profoundly moving. Paul Cluse of the St. Martin Parish School Board and Founder of C.R.E.O.L.E. Inc., skillfully explained the various definitions of the term "Creole," and touched everyone when he spoke of what it means for him to be Creole. Los Isleños entertained participants and scholars with a reenactement of their journey to Louisiana, and the singing of traditional "decima." |
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| All
these scholars and experts did not just come to give a talk, but committed
themselves to spending the entire three days with the participants, both
in Baton Rouge and in Monroe. Along with the facilitators
and the FEP staff, they enthusiastically took part in all aspects of the
program and remained available to the teachers throughout, encouraging
questions and conversation among the participants. In order to foster this
kind of exchange, an immersion setting in a hotel with conference facilities
(Holiday Inn Holidome, both in Baton Rouge and in Monroe) was made available
thanks to the LEH grant, and teachers, scholars and experts remained on
site throughout the three days. Thus all these teachers
of French, Spanish and social studies, had access to the scholars and
experts the entire time, regardless of the languages and the groups. In
addition, when sitting at tables to prepare activities or for meals, scholars,
experts, guests and facilitators spread around to sit with the participants--no
head tables. It created a warm atmosphere where the teachers enjoyed personal
interactions with scholars and experts to whom they cannot generally have
access, and an inter-disciplinary collaboration where each could bring
in his or her specific competencies and skills to accomplish a common task.
In Baton Rouge as well as in Monroe, the most successful event was the Saturday night theme banquet. A large room was sumptuously decorated with posters and the art and artifacts brought by the presenters. Each small round table had a centerpiece of flowers and the three flags of Colonial France, Spain, and England. Special menus were adorning each place setting, announcing a Diplomatic Menu in the three languages. All participants, scholars, experts and facilitators walked in dressed in period costumes. We were delighted to welcome and honor several distinguished guests, representatives of our sponsor organizations and of main teachers associations. They included Monsieur Bernard Maizeret, Consul Général de France et Madame Marie-Jeanne Maizeret; Madame Eliane De Pues-Levaque, Représentante Permanente de la Communauté Française de Belgique en Louisiane, and Monsieur Freddy De Pues; Dr. Robert C. Lafayette, Chair of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, LSU, and Mrs. Sue LaHaye; Dr. Margaret Marshall, President of the Louisiana Foreign Language Teachers Association (LFLTA), and Los Isleños. The Spanish Embassy located in Washington DC was represented by Dr. Montserrat DeJuan. Unfortunately, no representative of LEH could attend. All tables being equal, our guests sat among the participants, and joined us in the singing of traditional Colonial tunes, in English, in French and in Spanish, and even the famously "forbidden" French revolutionary songs were belted out with gusto. |
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| By coffee time, everyone was ready and eager for the performance to begin. It opened with Los Isleños from St. Bernard Parish who recounted the odyssey of Los Isleños from the Canary Islands to Louisiana. They also performed a characteristic artistic creation of Los Isleños people, their version of a hispanic poem form they call the "decima." Followed the Colonial period skits, songs and dances prepared by the teachers and in which the scholars enthusiastically took part. The evening ended on a high note with more songs, accompanied in Monroe by some expert guitar playing. |
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| The carefully planned balance between theory and practice, subject-content and creativity, intense work and "play," paid off in spades. The work the participants accomplished during these three days was remarkable, for its intensity, and for its quality. Our Saturday night guests could not believe that these teachers could learn so much in such a short time, and could produce such rich and skillful performances in what amounted to a few hours of preparation. They would be even more impressed at seeing the amount and quality of the activities these teachers created and which were collected in a post-conference packet prepared by the French Education Project team under the direction of Dr. Egéa-Kuehne. This packet was mailed to all the participants the last week of February, in time for them to use it in the preparation of their special Colonial Louisiana Day in March. The teachers also declared having enjoyed the informal, fun approach to learning and creating activities while they appreciated the intensity of the program: "So much information acquired in a short time and in a fun way." |
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Assistant Project Director |
Attaché Pédagogique |
Project Director |
Progam Coordinator |
Research Assistant |
| This Colonial Louisiana Day was implemented in several schools sometime during the month of March. The French Education Project received several invitations to such celebration days, and reports from several schools and parishes. For example, Alexandra Georges-Lamotte at Evangeline Elementary in Lafayette taught a unit on the Acadian deportation to her French immersion students. In this unit, the students illustrated the deportation, and they published their work on their class website. Albany Upper Elementary School in Livingston Parish celebrated a French Club and Colonial Day with singing, Cajun dancing, French and Spanish cooking, and Colonial costumes. Besides Dr. Egéa-Kuehne, Ann Valkeneers, and Bernard Dubernet from the LSU French Education Project, their celebration was attended by several guests including Elizabeth Rosemberg, French Linguistic Attaché from the French General Consulate in New Orleans, David Cheramie, Director of CODOFIL, and other groups, state and parish officials. |
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| Preparing such a program involves a tremendous amount of work. However, the teachers' evaluations show that the investment of effort, time and money is well worth it, as testify these few quotes: "This program was valuable because I learned more about the history of our state and I was able to brainstorm how I will implement this in my class and in my school." "It opened my eyes to the impact I can have on my students by including history activities in my teaching." "Absolutely valuable to have a presentation at the same time about all the cultures that have contributed to Louisiana. It helps put things into perspective." "We are going to be using what we have learned when we go back to our school. It will definitely spark an interest in all our students." " I am thrilled to have been a part of a conference that has included representatives of the various major streams that have contributed to our present day Louisiana culture." "I particularly liked that the speakers spent the weekend and interacted." "Thank you for 'firing me up' about Louisiana history." "Thank you for an unforgettable weekend--so full of information that not only will it make me a better teacher, but also a better person as well." We can all look forward to the celebration of the Louisiana Purchase in 2003 with the offer of another set of conferences and workshops to our Louisiana teachers. |
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Louisiana Cession, 1803 Thure de Thulstrup, c. 1903 Louisiana Historical Society |
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