The Pilot News - Discovering ‘our town’

That notion is what organizers of The Big Read at Culver-Union Township Public Library, as well as instructors at Culver Community High School and former Culver Academies instructor Dr. Charles Bayless are using as a springboard for a host of programs and events over the next two months at the library, the high school, the Academies, and beyond (see accompanying article for a complete list of events).
The Big Read is a program launched nationally by the National Endowment for the Arts towards restoring reading as the center of culture in America. CUTPL is one of a small handful of libraries in Indiana to be awarded The Big Read grant, which has facilitated the many programs offered at the library this fall, all centered around two classic Thornton Wilder works, “Our Town” and “The Bridge of San Luis Rey,” and all intended to involve the community at various levels.
Among many other Wilder-related community activities, students at the high school will perform “Our Town” onstage as directed by CCHS choir director Diane Derrow, according to Polly Thomspon-Wolf, who has helped coordinate the library’s many Big Read-related activities. That performance will take place Friday night, October 30 at 7:30 p.m. with a matinee performance Sunday, Nov. 1. Thompson-Wolf notes CUTPL staff member Cameron Turney also happens to be the stage manager for the high school performance.
“Thornton Wilder isn’t the easiest classic to read,” adds Thompson-Wolf, “but the ideas in it are so welcoming to the Culver community.”
Sue Allen’s tenth grade CCHS students are reading “Our Town” in class, and to prepare the students, Allen took each of her classes to the public library September 1 where Bayless, dressed in attire appropriate to his (fictional) role as the “stage manager” of “Our Town,” chose specific portions of the play and shared them with students, but with a twist: instead of Grover’s Corners, Bayless’ “Our Town” was Culver. He discussed the early years of the community and its various name changes around the turn of the 20th century, the founding of Culver Academies by Henry Harrison Culver, and a host of standout events and individuals in the Culver community past and present, including those associated with the library itself (as well as the Culver Citizen newspaper).
The point, of course, is the applicability of Wilder’s characters to Culver, and indeed to most small American communities. The idea, however, is something Allen is taking in a number of creative directions with students in her classroom.
During the library visit, students were asked to write down a few points which particularly caught their attention; many, Allen says, picked up on the early names of Culver and the founding of the Academies, “so that was their beginning.
“When we went to the library as a class, I think what the students benefited from (was they were) able to see Dr. Bayless in an academic setting beyond high school,” she says, noting some of her discussion with students involved looking at the differences in presentation between a high school classroom and more academic, university-level lecture. “They were all able to preview what it would be like when they go to college,” adds Allen of the presentation by Bayless, who besides his three decades instructing at Culver Academies, also spent many years teaching at Ancilla College, including a stint as the English department chair at both schools.
Allen’s students will also contribute to the library’s essay contest, “Locating Myself in the Universe,” and towards that end, Allen pointed out a passage in “Our Town” which takes an individual’s mailing address from an envelope and expands in beyond a given city and state and into the United States, the continent of North America, the western hemisphere, the earth, the solar system, and the universe
“We broadened out horizons and talked about where we were in the universe,” Allen explains. “Everybody addressed their envelope to their favorite place; that was the first step. The second step was to narrow that back to the little place where we’re at.”
Which is where the time capsule comes in. Allen’s students have already begun work towards filling a “time capsule” to be buried September 11 outside the school, whose themes will be students’ contributions to “our town” via family, school, a hobby or sport, or their community One student, for example, enjoys reading books with her family, and so brought in a book for the capsule. One young man brought in a soccer show. The plan, says Allen, is to unearth the capsule at CCHS’ current sophomores’ 25th class reunion.
Leading up to their visit to the library, Allen and her students shared a lengthy visit to the local history section of the Culver Public Library’s Web site, www.culver.lib.in.us.
Students chose areas of particular interest to them from Culver’s history as listed on the site, and some classes are creating individual brochures about “our town” of Culver and its history, while other classes are compiling a total of three class booklets on topics – so far – ranging from the early Potawatomi Indians in the area, to Culver’s historic churches, to the early years of Culver Academies. Students are expected to extrapolate the information on the Web site into writings in their own words about Culver.
Students, adds Allen, will also complete an observation chart comparing Culver to Grover’s Corners in “Our Town,” as well as taking part in a “scavenger hunt” for information on the Thornton Wilder Society Web site.
The play, says Allen, has already resonated with one of her students, who picked up on “Our Town’s” theme, “You’ve got to have life to love life, and you’ve got to love life to have life.”
“That ties into the essay the students will write,” notes Allen. “We’re trying to contribute to society and give back, and that’s loving life. So that quote right out of the book, you realize that: everybody needs to love life and give back.”
Another application of the play – as well as the students’ efforts in digging into the history and makeup of the Culver community – is the value of the closeness of small communities in general. Allen says she grew up south of Chicago and “fell in love with small towns” when she came here.
“When I see (the students) in their school community and how close they are, how they interact, I think they’ll be able to take that (if they go) into the big city (as adults), that small town inside themselves. I know I grew a lot after I came out here (to this area). They’ll give the community something there, in the city, of that small town outlook.”