Great Salt Bay Community School seventh graders learn about the legacy of Frances Perkins during a visit to the Frances Perkins Homestead in Newcastle. (Photo courtesy Great Salt Bay Community School)
For the third year in a row, Great Salt Bay Community School students partnered with the Frances Perkins Center in Newcastle for a meaningful art and history collaboration.
Since the students’ last visit, the Frances Perkins Homestead has been officially designated a national monument, making this year’s trip a special one, even as the recent government shutdown required a few creative adjustments.
In art class, Coreysha Stone’s seventh graders are beginning their social justice collage portrait unit with a study of Frances Perkins, the first woman to serve as U.S. secretary of labor. Perkins’ groundbreaking work transformed American life through her advocacy for Social Security, child labor laws, minimum wage standards, welfare programs, unemployment insurance, and fire safety, among other social reforms.
In previous years, students have toured the Perkins family home, walking through historic rooms, viewing Perkins’ typewriter, exploring the kitchen to learn about early cooking practices, and examining tools and agricultural implements from the turn of the century.
Although this year’s experience looked a little different, students continued to engage deeply with Perkins’ legacy, connecting her lifelong commitment to social justice with their own creative expression in art.
Due to the government shutdown, visitors were not able to enter the national monument buildings. Instead, students’ learning experience took place entirely outdoors. Education Coordinator Mary Reid and volunteers Erica Crane and Edie Tierny organized large informational panels outside the barn and led students on a guided walk through the wooded trail, where they learned about the landscape, the original garrison site, and the brick-making history of the Perkins family.
Students also participated in sketching activities inspired by their surroundings.
“It is so phenomenal that this incredible woman has roots right here in Midcoast Maine, has changed the lives of so many Americans to this day, and is still unknown to so many,” said Stone. “She is a champion, and it is important for students to learn about her work and her legacy.”
