Students dress up as current, historical figures to debate war issues

Published 12:00 am Saturday, March 8, 2003

Friday morning, Beverly Loos had an interesting group of people in her classroom. Figure skater Michelle Kwan, comedian Drew Carey, daredevil Evel Knievel and even Gene Simmons from the band KISS showed up.

But these stars weren’t the real deal, so to speak. They were her dressed up students.

&uot;This is my favorite project,&uot; Loos said. For five years she has had her students dress up, and get into the character of famous people whose autobiographies they have read.

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The students get six weeks to read and study their character, but they aren’t allowed to use the Internet.

She calls the event &uot;Famous Faces/The Great Debate.&uot;

The characters debate on current event topics and have to incorporate the personality of their character into their thinking about the debate.

Loos’ fifth and sixth grade students are involved in the event.

They take their assignment seriously.

Jordan Holland, who dressed as Evel Knievel, had the white, blue and red striped suit on, and even wore a helmet.

On the other side of the room Brittany Osmundson, a sixth-grader, was fully suited in ice hockey goalie pads. She was star NHL goaltender Patrick Roy.

&uot;I couldn’t find any books about Krissy Wendell,&uot; she said. Wendell is a star for the U.S. women’s hockey team.

The students give a two minute speech on their character and then they debate in groups. This year’s topic was whether or not women should fight in wars.

&uot;Why not let both go to war?&uot; Elizabeth Lucas, who played Michelle Kwan, said to her group. She argued that men and women are equally capable. Jennifer Register, who played Helen Keller, disagreed.&uot;Someone needs to stay home and take care of the households and businesses,&uot; Register said.

For many students, finding the way their individual would react to the question wasn’t so clear. For Raul Gaytan, a sixth-grader who played Joseph Braille, the choice had to be based on speculation about personality.

Braille was a blind man who had invented the Braille dictionary, a reading tool for the blind.

&uot;I don’t think he believed in war,&uot; he said.

Gaytan picked Braille because he’d read about him previously.

&uot;I chose him because he invented a special way for blind people to read,&uot; he said. &uot;He wanted to live his life to the fullest, regardless of his disability.&uot;

Casey Lind, a sixth-grader, dressed up as Seiji Ozawa, the musical director for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

&uot;I like music, so I just looked through books on music and he seemed interesting,&uot; Lind said.

His teacher, and most adults he told weren’t familiar with Ozawa.

Lind says they should be.

&uot;He was one of the world’s youngest composers,&uot; he said. &uot;That’s pretty interesting.&uot;

Loos says she has learned about many people she didn’t know before through the project.

So does Loos take part?

&uot;Of course,&uot; she said. &uot;I’m Georgia O’Keefe.&uot;