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Education
Boiling Spring Academy Teaches History Through Immersion
Boiling Spring Academy in Primm Park
An apron-clad schoolmarm presides over the classroom at Boiling Spring Academy‚ where students write on slate boards and study by lantern light.
The academy‚ located on the grounds of Primm Park‚ is an actual schoolhouse that was built in 1832 and restored in 2003.
Third-grade students from six schools in Brentwood spend a day here each year as part of a project that teaches history through immersion.
“We furnish aprons for the girls and suspenders for the boys‚ and they spend a day like they would have in 1845‚” says Linda Lynch‚ community relations director for the city of Brentwood. “They have slates to do their math – it was called ‘ciphering.’ The schoolmarm has a notebook with a schedule of the day’s activities. After lunch‚ they play games they would have played during that time.”
The children are taught lessons in reading‚ history and arithmetic‚ practice their penmanship and participate in recitations and a spelling bee. Girls and boys are seated on opposite sides of the schoolroom and are required to stand when speaking in the classroom.
Prior to spending a day at Boiling Spring Academy‚ the third-graders complete an activity booklet focused on the history of the site and the educational practices of the past.
Primm Park is a 31-acre Brentwood city park at the site of what was once an American Indian village and a burial mound that still stands today.
“The schoolmarm walks the students around the mounds and tells them about that‚ also‚” Lynch says.
She says the students particularly enjoy the historic games and having lunch on the grounds.
“They are such little ladies and gentlemen‚” Lynch adds.
Story by Renee Elder
Photo by Brian McCord
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