Roots that run deep

Highlands Elementary students got a personalized history lesson this week when they brought their families to the Naperville school for Grandparents Day.

"We wanted the two generations to be able to connect and share some family history," Principal Susan Stuckey said, "and give children the opportunity to show their pride in their school by giving school tours and showing them all the different learning places."

Roughly 450 students and grandparents turned out for the event.

"I think it's fun because you get to show your grandparents what you do in school," fifth-grader Lauren Willson said.

One of their first stops was the front lobby where a large world map was hanging on the wall. Grandparents stopped and placed stickers on the city where they were born.

They also took a tour of the school, including the library resource center, where they had their picture taken as a keepsake.

In a fifth-grade classroom, Jane Wendt of Clarendon Hills and her grandson, James, read aloud the poems students had written.

"It's been very nice, very interesting. I like this part best to be honest with you," Jane said of the tour, "because then I'm part of what he's doing."

Families also got a lesson about Naperville's history from Marcia Mackenbrock and Sharon Weber, authors of "Postmark Naperville: An A to Z History" and "Dig It: Privy Artifacts A to Z."

The women told students about Naperville's founding fathers and described what school was like for students at the city's first school, Naper Academy, built in 1852.

Students in those days had no electricity or running water, they said. They traveled by horse and wrote with quills dipped in ink. Some days if they couldn't make it back home, they would stay at the school overnight.

"We take so much of what we have for granted," Weber said. "As we walk through our buildings you need to take a different look at those today."

Students also took a closer look at their own history as they filled out a family tree with their grandparents' assistance.

Second-grader Katherine Raquel learned she was the fourth generation of females in her family to have the middle name Elizabeth.

Her grandparents traveled two hours from near Freeport to be part of the event.

"It's been wonderful," grandmother Gwynne French said as she toured the music room. "I'm happy to be here and happy to see the enthusiasm in my granddaughter's school."