‘Revolutionary Girl Dreaming’ reminds girls today about their amazing predecessors | Opinion

On a cloudy, chilly Saturday last month, 20 girls gathered at the Lexington History Museum, not just to learn about history, but to make history.

These girls, grades 5 - 12, were the first cohort to participate in a new workshop called Revolutionary Girl Dreaming.

Revolutionary Girl Dreaming was inspired by the upcoming 250th anniversary of America’s founding. Serving as regent of the Lexington Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, I wanted to do something very special.

I kept returning to the Lexington Chapter’s unique responsibility to explore the history of girls and women in our community.

The Lexington Chapter was formed in 1891 by a group of formidable women. In its first five years, the Chapter built an Indiana limestone monument to honor the courage of the women of Bryan Station. Chapter minutes from back then show that they considered including ONLY the names of the women who saved the fort, expressing their conviction that women should never be minimized when the history of our community was told.

I wanted to bring that history forward and offer girls a moving way to pay tribute to the efforts of girls and women in shaping Central Kentucky.

I joined forces with Why We Write, Inc., a highly successful writing workshop model for students based on stories, readers theater, art, songs, notebooks with information and example sheets, and a low student-teacher ratio for guidance, help, and encouragement.

Why We Write is headed by Jacqueline Hamilton, an English professor at Eastern Kentucky University and performer of Alice Lloyd for the Kentucky Chautauqua series at the Kentucky Humanities Council. Jaqueline and I planned our workshop.

Dr. Mandy Higgins, executive director of The Lexington History Museum, enthusiastically joined us, providing the facility and historical items.

The girls were surveyed to discover what they knew about the American Revolution. Contrary to the stereotype that young people don’t know or care about history, they knew plenty, from the Stamp Act to the quartering of soldiers to the Battle of Yorktown.

But they did not know that a woman signed the Declaration of Independence. They did not know that women of Bryan Station saved the fort and that one woman living there, Jemima Suggett Johnson, pulled a flaming arrow out of her son’s cradle, a son who went on to become a U.S. Vice President.

Jacqueline placed historical documents on the walls and invited the girls to use sticky notes to thank their ancestors.

To Mary Katherine Goddard: “You are very brave. I don’t think I would have had the same confidence you did if I was in your situation.”

To Philis Wheatley: “If you had been born today you would have been much more famous.”

The girls interacted with Simonetta Cochis, who performed Madame Mentelle by the Kentucky Humanities Council. The girls toured “Among Women: 130 Years of the Woman’s Club of Central Kentucky”, an exhibit currently on display and underwritten by the Woman’s Club of Central Kentucky.

Spearheading this collaboration has been the opportunity of a lifetime.

Younger generation girls must develop a fundamental understanding of civics and women’s history. They must not be left to believe the false narrative that the roles of women and girls were confined to supporting and admiring men. In all areas, among all people, we must strive to tell the complete, complex, and compelling story of our nation.

When I talked with the girls, I urged them to think about what we know about our Revolutionary women, what we don’t know, and why their stories were not recorded. I challenged them to dream life back into those untold stories and imagine how those values shape the world they want to make for themselves.

Revolutionary Girl Dreaming is supported by the Kentucky Historical Society’s America250-KY grant program, the Kentucky Foundation for Women, Inc. and the Lexington Chapter, NSDAR. Thanks to the Woman’s Club of Central Kentucky and Why We Write, Inc.

For information on upcoming workshops, please email jacqueline@whywrite.org.

Judy Owens is Regent of the Lexington Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution.