Curriculum-Based Education Programs

In this program, students participate in a flannel-board story activity and a walk that helps students compare their lives to the enslaved child, Booker. Students see, touch, and smell life on the mid-19th century Burroughs plantation. While exploring objects and clothing related to Washington and the farm, students understand the very personal meaning of slavery as seen through the eyes of a young boy.

Discussing Washington's determination to secure an education, his commitment to teaching others, and his ascension to national leadership, students learn how education improved Washington's life and how he used it to better the lives of people he touched and influenced. Booker T. Washington's struggle up from slavery is a role model for children today.

How did the debate on slavery and the Civil War affect the slave-holding farms and plantations in the South? How did the slaves and owners react to the creation of the Confederacy and the Civil War?

Students discuss the causes and effects of the war and how people on the home front viewed the war. By comparing and contrasting the experiences of owners and slaves during the Civil War, and subsequent emancipation, students evaluate how these events affected both master and slave living on the Burroughs plantation.

Students explore the Southern plight from the 1880s through the turn of the 20th-century as African Americans struggled, fought, and even died for the right to vote. Students analyze the politics and commercial industries of the South, examine the speeches and papers of Washington and other leaders of the era, and debate the economic and social philosophy of Booker T. Washington. While analyzing, describing, and discussing the climate of the post-Reconstruction South, students discover that drive and determination can change a nation.

This program is designed to compare and contrast Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois, the men and their philosophies. The program also includes an examination of these figures and their effects on the modern Civil Rights movement.

Curriculum-based Education Programs are offered Monday through Friday as weather and staff availability permit. These tours generally last 45 minutes to 1 hour. Reservations are required in advance. To reserve a date for a program, call the park at (540) 721-2094. We suggest that you book your selected date as far in advance as possible. Dates in April, May, and October fill up quickly. We do not accept rain dates; however, every effort is made to reschedule a tour to everyone's convenience. There is no admission fee. The park is open daily from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

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