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M I D D L E S C H O O L Trevor Translates: Eighth-Grade Washington, D.C. Trip by Rick Lansdale, Middle School History Teacher & Advisor It's one thing to read about important figures in American history, but it's quite another to mount the four score and seven steps to the statue of Abraham Lincoln in Washington, D.C., and see the Gettysburg Address etched on one side of the memorial and his second inaugural address on the other. Trevor 8th graders visited the capital in early June—to explore the city, witness how the nation has honored its iconic figures, and bond as a class. History teacher Paul Swartz's 7th graders learn about the founding of the nation and its birth as a democracy. Eighth-grade history students continue that path, studying the decades that lead up to the Civil War and the "new birth of freedom" that followed with the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th A mendments. They learn about A merica's growth as an industrial power in the second half of the 19th century, the role that the nation played as an international power in the first half of the 20th century, and its reckoning with itself in the 1960s in its efforts to fulfill Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream of a more equitable society. Although the District of Columbia is not organized on such a neat timeline, we usually start at the Washington Monument to understand the city's layout. If you stand at the monument and face the White House, the Lincoln Memorial and the Reflecting Pool can be seen to your left; the National Mall (with the many Smithsonian museums) appears in front of you, and the Capitol Building rises just a mile away on the right. From the other side of the Washington Monument, you can see the Jefferson Memorial, the FDR Memorial, and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial ringing 26 / TREVOR MAGAZINE WINTER 2025–26

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