At Peters Middle School, Washington Dies Again

Ostensibly, the date is Dec. 14, 1799.

The scene is the home of George Washington in Mount Vernon, Virginia. A team of physicians and servants—and Washington’s wife Martha—crowd around his bed.

Washington is sick.

They bleed him. (A cup fills with Cherikee Red soda.) They apply a wheat-germ cream to reduce throat swelling. (A student spoons CoCo Wheats from a pot.)  They apply a mustard plaster to his chest. (A student squeezes a bottle of French’s Classic Yellow Mustard, drawing a smily face.)

And after all that, Washington still dies.

But there were plenty of laughs at on Friday. And when the bell sounded the end of ninth period at , Vaughn Dailey’s seventh-grade social studies class left the reenactment of George Washington’s death none the sadder.

Student teacher Adam Brado, who played Washington, said he enjoys getting kids to engage with history beyond reading a textbook. And while he would feign death five times by the end of the day, the lesson would endure.

“History actually comes alive in this class,” Brado said, wiping CoCo Wheats from his throat.

Brado, who studies at Duquesne University and has helped teach the class since August, said reenactments such as the one on Friday give students a way to have fun while learning. As a result, he said, they develop a better understanding of the material.

“This is one school where I have kids saying all the time, ‘I love social studies. Social studies is my favorite subject,’” Brado said.

Dailey, who has taught at the school for 34 years and will retire after this school year, said the class has employed similar tactics in the past. They’re the kind of experiences students remember, he said.

“The kids will have something to talk about at the end of the day,” Dailey said.