Date: Fri 20-Dec-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: DOTTIE

Quick Words:

schools-Kaiser-middle-ages

Full Text:

with cuts: What's In A Name? Sixth Graders Learn More About The Middle Ages

B Y D OROTHY E VANS

Middle schoolers and the Middle Ages just seem to go together.

After all, haven't 13-year-olds always loved playing "Dungeons and Dragons?"

And isn't that the age when they first discover J.R.R. Tolkien's "Ring Series"

about Hobbits and wizards in faraway kingdoms following impossible quests?

Hoping to capitalize upon her students' love for things medieval, Newtown

Middle School teacher Sheila Kolesar recently decided to broaden their

background about the people and culture of that long-ago time.

She asked a local historian, professor Denise Kaiser, to speak to the class

about what life was like during that special period in European history that

fell between 900 AD and 1492.

The students and Prof Kaiser met December 10, during a double period following

lunch, in the Middle School basement classroom area that is affectionately

known as "The Dungeon." The view outside the "Dungeon's" six windows onto a

snowy landscape was not the least bit gloomy, however.

As she introduced the guest speaker, Mrs Kolesar told her students she wanted

them to learn "where historians get their information."

She also informed them that Prof Kaiser was a Newtown resident and the mother

of one of their classmates, Laurence Dworkin, that she reads Latin and was

currently working on a book translation from German into English.

Prof Kaiser wasted no time getting to the heart of the question: How do

historians know about the Middle Ages?

"We can't talk to the people of that time, but we can go to primary sources -

a chronicle, an autobiography or documents of the time," Prof Kaiser told the

students.

Then there are secondary sources, "which might be written records or works of

art from a later time," Prof Kaiser said.

She had brought along several reference books, as examples for the students to

look at, including an art book containing pictures of medieval paintings and

stain glass windows and an original edition of a book published in 1772,

containing John Milton's poem, "Paradise Lost."

"I've had this book a long time and it's very delicate, so please be careful

with it," Prof Kaiser said, as she passed the book around.

Its fragile pages and covers were held together with a rubber band.

They noted it was bound in leather over wood and that the binding was sewn.

Some students even sniffed it, commenting that it smelled "old."

Science and technology can be helpful, too, Prof Kaiser explained, when

archaeologists find artifacts or tools at a site and they can apply carbon-14

dating techniques to any wood that has survived.

What about children in the Middle Ages, the class wanted to know.

"Everyday people didn't have watches or calendars," Prof Kaiser reminded the

students, and they "didn't necessarily even know when they were born."

Then she read aloud a most unusual account written during the 11th century by

Guibert of Nogent, describing his own birth down the "slippery slope" out of

his mother's womb.

Guibert wrote that his relatives described his birthing as an extremely

perilous process that nearly killed both mother and child. He called himself a

breach baby, a "frail little thing," and a most "miserable being."

Prof Kaiser read on from the old account, written nearly a thousand years ago.

"The family prayed to the Virgin Mary and promised that if the child survived,

he would become a priest," Guibert had written. If the baby turned out to be a

girl, or "of the lesser sex," it would be sent to a nunnery, the family

decided.

"Women were thought of as possessions in those days," one student commented in

a scornful tone.

Finally, Prof Kaiser asked the students where they thought medieval people got

their unusual names, like Louis the Fat, Charles the Gaul or Ethelred the

Unready?

"There were only a few basic names you could choose from in those times," Prof

Kaiser explained, like John, Edward, Harold and Hugh.

So, to set you apart, people gave you a second name that described you more

completely, she said. It told the town where you came from or who your father

was. Or, later in life, a second name might be added that described what you

did for a living or what you looked like.

Such as Masterston, Smith, Cooper, Sawyer, Johnson or Miller - many common

names that are still being passed down today.