Landmarks.

Talley-Jones, Kathy

"Don't step there!" My friend Harrison has a seven-year-old's keen interest in gross things, and I look on the sidewalk for chewing gum, dead worms, or worst of all, dog poop. There's nothing there.

"I don't see anything."

"Cooties," he says. "Taylor threw up there."

"When did he throw up there?" I ask, thinking it might have been that morning. But there aren't any stains on the sidewalk.

"She threw up there the day after Halloween," Harrison gives me the details. It's New Year's, and Taylor's overindulgence was A Long Time Ago by seven-year-old standards, but to Harrison it's still vivid. He points out other landmarks: just where he stood when he saw the bicycle his father brought home for Christmas. A spot where a storm blew down a squirrel's nest. Behind his house where men blew up a big boulder in what had once been a field so they could squeeze in four more houses.

Harrison's personal cognitive map of his neighborhood doesn't include local historical landmarks; he's just reaching the developmental stage where he's grasping the idea of History. When he gets to third grade, however, he will start to study what he has already experienced: the continuity and change of the cultural and physical landscape of California. He'll learn more about his own community of Rocklin, Placer County, and the greater Sacramento area. The California state history and social science standards determine that:

"Students in grade three learn more about our connections to the past and the ways in which particularly local, but also regional and national, government and traditions have developed and left their marks on current society, providing common memories. Emphasis is on the physical and cultural landscape of California, including the study of American Indians, the subsequent arrival of immigrants, and the impact they have had in forming the character of our contemporary society."

Many California counties have excellent online resources developed in conjunction with the California Department of Education. For example, Butte County offers course models for California history and social science. A contribution by teachers in Los Angeles leads third graders through an exploration of their local surroundings that includes the way soil, water, and landforms have affected their city's history. Suggestions for readings, including a resource list of atlases suitable for third-graders, are included as well as class activities that involve creating a map that shows local landforms and landmarks.

Historic Spots in California, reviewed in this issue of California History, provides a guide to and description of statewide sites useful for such a student project and gives the lie to classic student complaints that "nothing ever happened here."

WHY LANDMARKS?

What is a landmark and why do we consider certain places to be more important than others? Why spend time and money to protect them? These are questions that members of the cultural community asked ten years ago in the wake of the Los Angeles riots of 1992 when vast blocks of the city went up in flames. Asked Dr. Mahasti Afshar of the Getty Conservation Institute, "What is the rationale for conservation in a world driven by change, by an astronomical energy to produce, consume, and develop, then destroy the old to make room for the new? What is the value of place and permanence to an increasingly mobile citizenry with mixed ethnic and cultural identities and cross-historical memories? And how should it manage change--preserving the past while helping to create the future?"

The Getty Conservation Institute developed "Teaching Landmarks," a curriculum unit for middle school that led students to identify their own landmarks and those of others in their community, to learn why landmarks are significant, identify how landmarks define the identity of groups, communities, cities, and nations, and document landmarks through photography, memoirs, painting, and other media.

The curriculum's underlying premise is that if students come face-to-face with their landmarks and if they see the built environment as an extension of their cultural history and its outstanding features as an embodiment of their personal and social identities, they will develop a sense of caring for it. These feelings, in turn, will help prevent landmarks from being neglected or abused.

As he explores local history, my young friend Harrison will find that his community is especially rich in Gold Rush landmarks, which has left its legacy in the county's name: Placer County. Harrison, who is very interested in trains, may also find himself intrigued by the town of Rocklin's role as a major terminal for the Central Pacific Railroad in 1864.

Inspired by Ansel Adams's photograph of Fort Ross (see Adam Arenson, "Ansel Adams's Eucalyptus, Fort Ross," pages 10-25), Harrison and I take a camera and see if we can find the terminal. But nothing remains, and the site is as intangible as the spot where Taylor lost her Halloween candy. We'll have to go to nearby Roseville if we want landmarks celebrating the construction of the transcontinental railroad. Meanwhile we take a few pictures of a historical marker and look for ice cream.

"Teaching California" is a column intended to provide resources to teachers, parents, and students for integrating the study of California and its peoples for students in elementary, middle, and high school. California History welcomes feedback about this column and encourages teachers, students, and cultural organizations to share their strategies for teaching California history by contacting Kathy Talley-Jones at ktalley@lmu.edu.

RESOURCES

California Department of Education. California: Statehood and Beyond, Recommended Resources for Kindergarten through Twelfth Grade. http://www. cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/lb/documents/statehoodandbeyond.pdf An addendum created in 2002 http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/lb/ documents/sthdbynd.pdf

Center for History-Social Science Education. California State University, Dominguez Hills, "Exploring the Local Landscape," http://www.history.ctaponline.org/center/hsscm /index. cfm?Page_Key=1149

Fort Ross State Historic Park: Classroom and Home Curriculum. http://www.mcn. org/1/rrparks/fortross/

Getty Conservation Institute. Picture LA: Landmarks of a New Generation. Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute, 1994. (Also. Picture Cape Town, Picture Mumbai, Picture Mexico City.)

Getty Conservation Institute, "Teaching Landmarks." http://www.getty.edu/artsednet/resources/Landmarks/index.html

Kyle, Douglas E. Historic Spots in California (Stanford: Stanford University Press. 2002).

Local History Resources Online, Suitable for Third Graders http://score.rims.k12. ca.us/cgibin/DB_Search/db_search.cgi?s etup_file=resource3_db.setup.cgi[??]include =true[??]grade3=3_3c[??]submit_search=Sub mit+ These+Search+Parameters

Placer County History and Social Science standards http://www.placercoe.k12. ca.us/ archived/pcoe/departments/curriculum/st andards/hss_3nd. PDF

San Bernardino County Schools, Connecting California's Classrooms to the World http://score.rims.k12ca.us/ index.html