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Students are a special audience in our tours and programs. Here are three Short Tales about student encounters. Mary Jo Hoag (2007) describes how two dedicated teachers inspired their students with a cemetery tour. Dan Jares (2017) gives us his account of a heartwarming meeting with two former students on a Pilsen tour. Lisa Ciota (Education Guide, 2020) recounts the enthusiasm of students on a Science in Architecture tour.

Cemetery Adventure

by Mary Jo Hoag

I’ve always thought teachers work very hard and go the extra mile for students. Last year I received some real proof.

In the spring of 2023 I gave the first Civil War to Civil Rights Tour of the season at Oak Woods Cemetery. The tour begins at the Confederate Mound, the Civil War era burial place for Confederate prisoners of war in Chicago, and then goes on to visit and talk about some of the greatest Civil Rights activists buried at the cemetery. Ida. B. Wells and Harold Washington are there as well as great athletes like track and field legend Jesse Owens.

On this first tour of the season were two seventh grade teachers from Ohio. I didn’t know it at the time, but they were scoping out things they could do with their students on a field trip to Chicago in the fall. At the end of the tour they stayed back and asked me if I would give their kids this tour. I hesitated a bit because I was afraid the seventh graders might not enjoy a cemetery much, but the teachers said they would be studying the Civil War and its aftermath in the fall so the tour was perfect. And, Jesse Owens!! He grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and attended Ohio State University. Bonus!

And they followed up! In September of last year the tour docents gave a special version of the tour to three teachers and 23 students from a school in the Cleveland suburbs. Of particular interest were Wells, a discussion of the Emmett Till case at the grave of Reverend Louis Henry Ford, and Negro League Baseball great Theodore Radcliffe. But the most in-depth  discussion centered on Owens.

The classes knew a bit about Owens, particularly the 1936 Olympics and his heroics there. But through the in-depth discussion at his grave site they learned more about his youth as part in the Great Migration, his high school and college athletic career, and his victories at the 1936 Olympics. We talked about how he and his wife lived in segregated housing in college, on the road for track meets, and how he returned from the Olympics to face Jim Crow laws at home. Owens was the United States hero in Berlin but still a Black man when he returned home. As we sat around his grave, the youngsters did most of the talking and questioning with teachers and docents adding things here and there.

After the tour, the teachers said this was just what they had hoped for. We all received many thank you cards in the mail! I never expected the moving and lovely experience that took place that day in a cemetery with 23 seventh graders from Ohio. But that’s why we do this—right?

 

Pilsen Reconnections

by Dan Jares

I’m a retired classroom teacher.  A few weeks ago I was giving the Walk Pilsen tour for five. Perhaps a quarter of the way into the tour we stood in front of St. Pius V. on Ashland. Looking diagonally across the street at a mural, we turned around to see the parish priest briefly come out of the church.  I told those on the tour to be sure to look at him, which they did with a questioning look on their faces.  We walked to the end of the block, crossed Cullerton, and looked diagonally across Ashland only to see the priest as a central figure in another mural.  Jeff Zimmerman, the mural artist, uses people from the neighborhood for his work. It was inspiring to see the model cross right in front of his painted image!

As I directed the group’s attention to the oldest mural, right across from where we were standing, a young man with sunglasses came and stood behind the group, listening to what we were saying. Of course I was wondering if I was going to have to tell him that this was a CAC tour.  However, when we finished talking about the mural, he took his sunglasses off, and I immediately recognized him as a former student and T.A. I had while working at Elmhurst College/University.  He now lives in Pilsen and recognized me giving the tour and quickly found a place to park. We said a few words and exchanged contact information while those on the tour listened.  As he left, he said, “Good to see you again Professor.”

As we resumed the tour, a woman picked up on the remark and asked about it.  I explained that I had spent a career teaching at a suburban high school and then transitioned to work at Elmhurst.  She asked, “Which high school”  and I replied, “Addison Trail.”  Her response was, “I graduated from Addison Trail in 1975.  You are Mr. Jares, and you were my Model U.N. advisor!”  I had to admit that while I remembered her name, I had not recognized her; former students are stuck in my memory as they were at age 16 or so. All of this happened within 10 minutes and certainly made for a memorable tour. It is a small world!

 

Dancing in the Streets

by Lisa Ciota

Michael Jordan is the greatest!  I like to show his picture whenever I lead a Science of Architecture tour because no matter how great Michael Jordan was at jump shots, gravity was always going to bring him back down to earth. And gravity is a major force that architects must consider when designing buildings.  Now, talk of Michael Jordan always seems to capture students’ attention, but on this early spring day the students’ enthusiasm defied gravity.

After our 45-minute classroom session, my fellow Education Guides and I divided the kids into small groups to take them outside to see how the science of architecture applies in real life.  My 8 students were still obsessed with Michael Jordan, so to burn off some energy, out on the plaza behind the lecture hall, I showed them more pictures of Jordan, LeBron James, and Steph Curry doing jump shots; I asked the students to demonstrate what these basketball greats were doing.  Well, this revved up them even more.  So, as we walked down Michigan Ave, then Lake Street, the kids were skipping, bouncing, and jumping all along the way.  They see Taco Bell, and they begin to sing the Taco Bell jingle. I say “Hey, I used to work for McDonald’s”, so instead they begin singing the McDonald’s jingle. Next thing you know, we’re doing chasses in front of the State-Lake Theatre.  The enthusiasm was to the moon. By the end of the tour, the parent-chaperones and I were tired, but the kids were energized, so good thing the school had planned for a picnic lunch at Millennium Park where I said good-bye to a memorable group of students.

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