Children, Teacher Wax Enthusiastic Over History Project

“Hillary Clinton” stood with her back toward the cafeteria wall, her ruby red lipstick slightly smeared outside the line of her lower lip.

“My husband is Bill Clinton, president of the United States,” she recited mechanically. “People call me the first lady. During the years 1965 to 1969 I attended Wellesley College. I was a very serious student.”

Actually, this wasn’t really Hillary Clinton, but Emma Poytress, a third-grader at Junipero Serra Elementary School who wore a black suit and carried a briefcase to portray the first lady.

Emma was one of more than 30 third-graders in teacher Cathy Donahue’s class taking part Wednesday in a “living wax museum” project.

There’s no wax involved, but students are required to dress up and speak like the historic figures of their choice.

Such famous figures as Dorothy Hamill, Harry Houdini and Queen Elizabeth I stood frozen near the walls of the school cafeteria waiting for students to come by and push buttons reading, “Please press heart to activate.”

“Do you have to say this forever?” one curious student asked Emma, who had given the Hillary Clinton speech about 30 times when a stream of students from the rest of the school trooped into the cafeteria to get their “live” history lesson.

“Yes,” Emma answered. “Oh,” the student said solemnly.

Donahue conceived of the project four years ago, modeling it after one that a teacher in the Ojai Unified School District started. It was a way to get students interested in history by bringing the characters they read about to life, at the same time teaching the children speaking skills.

“They talk about their figure, using gestures, and they pick someone they think important,” Donahue said. “Facts aren’t as important as what their [character] contributed.” Students have researched their character since the beginning of October and spent days writing and memorizing the famous person’s speech.

“We like to be them,” said third-grader Julia Hazard, dressed in a black and gold dress as Queen Elizabeth I. “It’s not just like reading a book about them, and you get to get the cool costumes. The best part is like, I got my hair done,” she said pointing to the curly coif under her crown.

Julia originally planned to portray actor Tom Hanks, but said she couldn’t find enough written material on him. “I like him,” she said. “He talks funny.”

“He tawks lak this,” she said in a Forest Gump drawl, before breaking out in giggles.

Parents dubbed the project a smashing success. Some parents, such as Melissa Wantz, say the influence the project has on their children doesn’t die after they complete Donahue’s class.

“He can tell you anything about Roosevelt even to this day,” Wantz said of her son, who took part in the project last year as President Theodore Roosevelt. “He’s got books about him. He loves Teddy Roosevelt. He wants to go to Harvard just like Teddy Roosevelt.”