By their final rehearsal, the fourth-grade class at Haycock Elementary School in Falls Church had already memorized the words of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
They had already mastered complex and antiquated words such as “consecrate” and “hallow.”
All that was left: perfecting their movements, slowing down their lines and remembering to emphasize the right words.
“Pause right there, that line ‘that all men are created equal.’ Almost every word in that line has to be emphasized, right? Because that’s a very big line,” Eliseo Valerio instructed the class on a Monday morning in January.
“Let's go back, starting with that line again,” he said. “But this time emphasizing those words.”
And so they did. They practiced again and again. They had to get it just right because the following week, the fourth-graders would take the stage to recite Lincoln’s most famous speeches at Ford’s Theatre, the historic landmark in Washington where the 16th president was shot.
When they made it through the end of the speech, Valerio mimicked an applause for the students to practice their bows in the classroom.
“Bow and then maybe a second bow. If you want to add a little flair you can, maybe a third bow,” Valerio instructed. “And now your parents are clapping. The other students are cheering.”
Learning the foundations of U.S. history is a cornerstone of public education across the country. Many children will learn the Gettysburg Address along with other critical speeches scrawled in history textbooks. But for kids in the Washington region, their proximity to the nation’s capital often gives them a closer tie to the country’s most storied landmarks. They take field trips to the Lincoln Memorial and snap prom photos on the National Mall.
Or in this case, they get the chance to participate in the annual Lincoln Oratory Festival. In its 16th year, the program helps local students expand their vocabulary, develop confidence, boost public speaking skills and better understand Lincoln’s impact. Students get to work with Ford’s Theatre’s teaching artists, such as Valerio, who coach them on their performance. More than 300 students from six middle and elementary schools in the region performed this week over the two-day festival.
“This is a program that really embodies theater and history coming together, the arts and history coming together, where students are not only learning about Lincoln’s legacy and learning about his speeches, but are making connections from the past to today, while also building their public speaking skills,” said Ashley Gunter, Ford’s manager of arts education.
To some extent, the allure of the program is the fun of a performance. Kira Crandall, 9, said she loved the parts where they added movements — stomping the stage and punching the air to give extra power to the final lines of the speech.
“Those movements are really fun, because it shows, like, how meaningful the words were in that context,” Kira said.
Connor Van Riper, 9, couldn’t wait for the full performance, because in his opinion “it’s fun to have people watching you, so you can express what the speech means.”
On Tuesday morning, that moment had finally come. The students loaded off the yellow buses and into the front rows at Ford’s Theatre, their feet dangling above the bright red carpet. It was about 10 minutes before the doors opened on the big day, and the students were buzzing with energy.
Hundreds of parents formed a line stretching down the block, to grab a seat in the sold-out balcony. As they started letting parents in, the kids paused their handshake and finger games to crane their necks up to the balcony.
“Oh! I see your mom, I see your mom, I see your mom!” they shouted, eagerly waving their hands at their loved ones.
As the crowd settled in, the kids' bursts of energy waned, and the program began.
Students from elementary schools in Arlington and the District came up one-by-one to perform their speeches, such as Lincoln’s “House Divided” and Frederick Douglass’s “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July.”
Then it was time for Haycock. Kira and Connor’s class, the second-to-last to perform, jumped out of their auditorium seats and headed up to the stage. All dressed in matching white tops and black pants, they stretched in a line with the spotlight finally on them.
“The Gettysburg Address, presented by Ms. Mostoller’s fourth-grade class from Haycock Elementary,” they began.
The students flew through the speech with ease. No one tripped or froze up with stage fright. No one forgot their lines, like Valerio had warned could happen. They emphasized the right points and hit all their movements on cue.
“Of the people” – stomp – “by the people” – stomp – “for the people” – stomp – “shall not perish from the earth!” they finished with grandeur.
Then they bowed, some once, some twice, some even three times, adding in a wrist flick for flair. And their parents clapped and their other students cheered, exactly like they rehearsed at school.
