Students at Burgettstown Area Elementary learn about oratory through Lincoln project
“Red leather, yellow leather.”
It’s highly improbable that Abraham Lincoln ever uttered that tongue twister while he was warming up to deliver a speech that we now revere for its timeless eloquence and impact. But students in Lucas Rendulic’s fourth-grade class at Burgettstown Area Elementary Center ran through that locution on a recent afternoon before they each recited passages from the Gettysburg Address.
They are participating in the Lincoln Online Oratory Project, a national initiative hatched by Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. Designed to familiarize young people with the Great Emancipator and introduce the basics of public speaking, Rendulic’s students have recorded one of Lincoln’s speeches, and it is being shared on the Ford’s Theatre YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/fordstheatre. They will also be sharing their thoughts on Lincoln and participating in the project during a “virtual festival” on the Twitter account of Ford’s Theatre on Monday, the 154th anniversary of Lincoln’s death.
A history and Civil War buff who got married on Gettysburg’s battlefield, Rendulic applied last year for his students to participate in the Lincoln Online Oratory Project and was among 12 classrooms in 12 states accepted. They’ve participated in online sessions with public speaking and drama teacher Heidi Fortune, where they’ve talked through Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, taking different approaches and considering the meaning of Lincoln’s words.
“Public speaking is a lost art,” Rendulic said. “I’ve learned a lot, and the kids have learned a lot about how they’re supposed to stand and talk to people.”
Rendulic teaches English and social studies at Burgettstown Area Elementary Center, and he points out that the Lincoln Online Oratory Project covers areas related to English, language arts and social studies in Pennsylvania’s education standards.
Fortune, who lives in the Washington, D.C., area, said the other Lincoln speeches the project works with are the “House Divided” speech Lincoln delivered two years before he was elected president in 1860, and the speech he gave at Independence Hall just days before his presidency began.
Public speaking is “something we need to continue teaching,” Fortune said. “It’s a really important skill.”
Rendulic believes his students “learned a lot about themselves and what it takes to deliver an effective speech in front of a crowd.”
He added, “More importantly, however, the positive, valuable feedback I received from the students makes me want to pursue the project again next year.”