Students learn more about George Washington

By JUSTIN DENNIS

jdennis@vindy.com

AUSTINTOWN

The first U.S. president came “alive” for Austintown Middle School students Monday through a history lesson not seen in any book.

Led by middle-school history teacher Ron Johnson – garbed in a colonial military uniform with a periwinkle commander’s sash – students learned about the life and character of President George Washington through an allegorical painting by local artist Ray Simon.

That painting, titled “Divine Providence,” will appear in the George Washington Presidential Library in Mount Vernon, Va. Austintown Schools Superintendent Vince Colaluca and Johnson are set to travel there Thursday for its unveiling.

Using Google Classroom, Johnson prepared an online teaching module that complements the painting, with attached audio files that explain each of the many symbolic nuances in the 7-foot-tall piece.

“Teachers spend a lot of time doing things out of school,” he said. “This will take a lot of the burden off them. The lesson plans will be ready. They’ll be able to research it. They’ll be able to have assessments for their kids, and they’ll be able to learn a lot more about Washington.”

In the painting, the 6-foot-2-inch Washington sits astride a white horse. Both Washington and fellow Founding Father Thomas Jefferson were renowned horsemen, Johnson said. Behind Washington, a trail of hoof prints leads past a single frond of deep-violet larkspur, the July birth flower, with exactly four blooms, which represents the Fourth of July and America’s independence, he said.

Ahead of Washington, a young girl releases 13 doves, one of which carries in its mouth an olive branch, the symbol of peace, and a ribbon reading “The American Crisis,” which one Austintown student recognized as the series of essays penned by Thomas Paine – the same that Washington recited to his troops when they crossed the Delaware River in December 1776.

“One of [Johnson’s] students said she’s freeing 13 doves, just like we fought for freedom against the British. The 13 doves are 13 colonies,” Simon said. “The students are engaging with the artwork. ... I did not consider [that] as an artist. It was interesting the students are actually going beyond.”

Johnson said the painting meets state and national educational standards on Washington and the American Revolution and, being a visual work, engages students’ brains differently than a book.

“Being able to look at something and see it happen right in front of your eyes ... their minds actually start to work,” he said. “They have imaginations. We have to bring those imaginations alive.”