"Our national parks and equivalent sites are vignettes--both spectacular and subtle--of early America; windows into our history, culture, and society; opportunities to engage in outdoor recreational pursuits--often in or near the great cities where much of our population is concentrated...  The national parks are places where we can reconnect with our heritage.  They comprise a wonderfully diverse group of "classrooms" in which people of all ages--but especially children--can learn about the timeless processes of nature, the evolution of American society, and the importance of stewardship.  The national parks are our legacy to the future." (Parks as Classrooms Guide, National Park Foundation)

Promote public understanding, appreciation, and good stewardship for the nation's cultural and natural resources.

Highlight the continuum of relationships between these resources to help today's students understand how the past relates to the present, and that their actions in the present will influence the future.

Create an interactive, multi-disciplinary natural and cultural information base focusing on the many facets of Middle Georgia's unique heritage, which will stimulate a desire to learn, foster social sensitivity, inspire concern for the region's and the nation's resources, instill a feeling of individual worth, encourage cooperation, and offer hope for the future.

Provide interesting and informative workshops, lesson plans, hands-on cultural/natural materials and games, activity guides, well-planned and  appropriately timed field trips, knowledgeable classroom speakers, videos, traveling exhibits,  computer software, books, and a variety of  learning experiences which effectively illustrate the related themes, help educators fulfill or exceed Georgia's Quality Core Curriculum requirements, and encourage on-going research and publication.

Initiate a heritage education exchange program with the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in Oklahoma, whose people share Middle Georgia's cultural and natural heritage.

Unite the many excellent, but often overlapping, heritage education-related efforts into a partnership of agencies, organizations, businesses, political leaders and individuals whose combined contributions best meet the needs of  Middle Georgia educators, students, the general public, and the nation's cultural and natural resources.    

"In our greed and self-absorption, we have pushed our old ones to a forgotten past and our young ones to an uncertain future.  We must again fuse past to future.  Through an early understanding of the human continuum and condition, youth learns reverence, respect and responsibility, to wonder, to be sensitive, to feel important, and to hope."  (Navajo Musician, Silent Witness Videotape, National Park Foundation)

Educational deficiencies are closely associated with elevated school drop-out rates, teen-age pregnancies, unemployment, neighborhood deterioration, prejudice, crime, and hopelessness.  Statistics for Macon indicate that one-fifth of all families live in poverty, half of all births are to unwed mothers, and more than a third of the city's residents don't have a high school diploma.  An increasing number of murders and other violent crimes are committed by the area's youth  An impartial survey in 1994 startled many Middle Georgians by graphically linking the region's economic concerns to its social and educational problems.  

Many of these problems cannot easily be changed.  However, over the years, dedicated teachers and other special people have found ways to alter the lives of many youngsters by capturing their imaginations, providing crucial goals and discipline, setting good examples, offering encouragement and hope.  As a result, these children become "hooked" on the joys of learning.  They succeed in school and throughout life. What causes such "miracles?"  Can they routinely be replicated?  

How does this relate to heritage education or heritage preservation?  The under-educated are more likely to lack the knowledge, time and incentive to become good stewards of the nation's cultural and natural resources.  Hands-on heritage education can help youth learn about and appreciate their local, regional and national legacy, and it can motive them to become better students.  

The best teachers constantly search for innovative ideas - even commit their own money to obtain supplies and materials.  Some teachers are less creative or simply can't afford out-of-pocket  expenditures.  Others are poorly trained, overwhelmed by bureaucratic demands, or burned-out and unmotivated.  As a result, they may not provide optimal learning environments for their students.  For example, school field trips provide exceptional educational opportunities.  But they often become "holidays" because they are inappropriately timed or teachers and students are inadequately prepared.  

Many local teachers who have utilized the ideas, experiences, information and hands-on activities provided during the "Ocmulgee University" Heritage Education Workshop series are now outspoken advocates of using Middle Georgia's cultural and natural legacy to help create miracles.  Many of these educators say they have seen hands-on heritage-related activities fascinate students who could not be reached by any other method.  They are convinced that its use as an intellectual stimulant in and out of the classroom should be greatly expanded.

Through properly directed, in-depth interactions with the area's prehistoric, historic, and environmental resources, teachers and students gain a better understanding of themselves and their role in the cultural and natural continuum. They are exposed to human similarities and differences.  They learn the importance of individual initiative and group cooperation.  They discover the great store of knowledge and wisdom amassed by people in the past and how it may be tapped to make the present and future better. They learn that their lives have been affected by past events and that decisions they make today will affect the future.  Such understanding fosters the development of positive values, encourages social and cultural sensitivity, and promotes community, regional, national, and global environmental awareness, concern, and good stewardship.

Middle Georgians  share an epic 12,000-year legacy with Southeastern Native Americans, especially the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in Oklahoma, the region's indigenous people.  Georgia's Heartland Heritage Education Project will assist educators from both areas, who believe their students will benefit from a well-planned exchange program based on shared interests and mutual present-day concerns.

The Project also encourages community leaders and private citizens to become better informed concerning Middle Georgia's cultural and natural  resources, individually and as a whole.   Such knowledge can lead to greater appreciation for the aesthetic, educational, recreational and economic value of this irreplaceable heritage and promote good stewardship in the community, the region, and across the country.

In preserved lands and hallowed grounds, people find solace in storm-driven times. These refuges of the spirit life us above present urgencies, restore our judgment, and, like beacons, correct our errant courses, both private and public.  (William E. Brown, The George Wright Forum)

Beginning in 1984, a cooperative initiative evolved in Middle Georgia which has crystallized into the Georgia's Heartland Heritage Education Project.  The active partnership now involved in this effort includes the National Park Service (Ocmulgee National Monument), the Ocmulgee National Monument Association, Inc., the Keep Macon-Bibb Beautiful Commission, the Bibb County Board of Education, Robins Air Force Base, Georgia College and State University, Mercer University, and the Muscogee (Creek) people whose ancestors lived in the region.  

The Project has received assistance from the National Park Foundation, the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, Georgia's State Office of Historic Preservation, the Peyton Anderson Foundation, and many other individuals and organizations. Three of the heritage-based interpretive/educational out-growths of this project received national recognition and contributed to the National Park Service's Parks as Classrooms program which began in 1993 under the auspices of the National Park Foundation.

The Ocmulgee National Monument programs which are the core of Georgia's Heartland Heritage Education Project include:

Group Programs, Tours, Information Requests:  Ocmulgee National Monument's Ranger staff annually presents hundreds of programs and tours to thousands of students and members of other organized groups.   They also respond to scores of requests for information concerning the park and related resources.  These inquiries range from providing information/materials for use in school projects to performing in depth research for scholars and writers from across the nation and abroad.  Tours can include the museum, movie "Mysteries of the Mounts," talks, classroom demonstrations, Discovery Lab, the Ceremonial Earthlodge, the mounds, nature trails, etc. Pre- and post- visit information packets can be provided. Requests for theme information or tours may be directed to:

Annual Calendars of Events:  Each year the Ocmulgee National Monument Association sponsors a series of heritage education  programs, including lectures, films, guided walks, Southeastern Native American arts and crafts demonstrations, traveling exhibits, Lantern Light Tours, Children's Summer Workshops, Artifact Identification Days, etc., with a published schedule of events mailed to schools, welcome centers across the state, and to other organizations and individuals upon request.

SEE CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Lantern Light Tours:   Annually, as Ocmulgee National Monument's special contribution to Macon's acclaimed Cherry Blossom Festival during the third week in March, park staff and volunteers conduct Lantern Light Tours.  This is the only regularly scheduled time when the park is open to the public at night.   The tours begin around a bonfire where 1700's candle-lit barn lanterns are distributed among the visitors.  The tours lasts approximately one-hour and cover  about a mile, with stops at major features along the route.  Warm clothing and comfortable walking shoes are in order.

SEE CALENDAR OF EVENTS

See Photos  

National Public Lands Day:  In 1984, Macon and five other locations across the nation were chosen to participate in a pilot project seeking to promote a sense of stewardship for the country's publicly owned lands.   This initiative resulted in a partnership between Ocmulgee National Monument and the Keep Macon-Bibb Beautiful Commission.  It involved  students and other organized groups in essay and poster design contests, cleanup projects at the park, and an annual special event to recognize local efforts and promote the projects goals.  The idea quickly spread and an annual National Public Lands Day was proclaimed by Congress.  Macon's contribution was recognized by two national awards from the Secretary of the Interior and numerous state awards.  In 1990, the park combined National Public Lands Day with the Ocmulgee Indian Celebration (see below).

Dr. Charles Fairbanks Memorial Discovery Lab:  This hands-on facility at Ocmulgee National Monument  was developed through community donations of time, funding and materials.  Associated with the Lab are an orientation videotape, a Teacher's Guide containing information pre-visit, on-site, and post-visit educational activities, and orientation sessions for teachers/group leaders who wish to use the facility, which accommodates over 3,000 students annually.  

Considered highly innovative when it opened in 1984, educators and planners from across the Southeast and the nation visited the Lab and used it as a model.  In 1988, the project's creator received the Freeman Tilden Award, the National Park Service's highest commendation for educational excellence.  Currently, discovery-type rooms and hands-on teacher's guides exist at many national, regional, and local parks and museums across the country.  And, in 1998, the Coca Cola Foundation provided $1.2-million to fund "discovery" facilities at 32 additional National Parks units.

The National Park Service has provided funding to rehabilitate the original Discovery Lab. Renovations will be completed during the summer of 2002.

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Ocmulgee Indian Celebration:   In 1990, the Ocmulgee National Monument staff, with support from the Keep Macon Bibb Beautiful Commission, the Bibb County Board of Education, and Ocmulgee Fields, Inc., incorporated the annual National Public Lands into a new, expanded event called the Ocmulgee Indian Celebration.  The Celebration gave  the entire Bibb County fourth grade (some 2,500 students) and the visiting public an opportunity to directly experience the arts/crafts, music, dance, technology, foods, storytelling, technology, and history of Southeastern Native Americans, especially the Muscogee (Creeks) who once inhabited Middle Georgia. Thanks to a $5,000 grant from the National Park Foundation, the Ocmulgee Indian Celebration became an annual event attended each year by as many as 14,000 people.

In 1993, Principal Chief Bill Fife and Second Chief Shelley Crow of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation attended.  By 1998, over 5,400 fourth graders from Middle Georgia counties and Robins Air Force Base took part in the Celebration's School Day activities.

On School Day, personnel, equipment and displays promoting the efforts and contributions of Middle Georgia's heritage-related organizations, Macon's recycling program, law enforcement, fire fighting and emergency response teams are also included in the Celebration.  A growing number of federal, state and local agencies, organizations, and individuals provide equipment and volunteer assistance.  These include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Forest Service, National Guard, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the Bibb County Sheriff's Department, Macon's Police, Fire, Public Works, and Parks/Recreation Departments, Macon-Bibb County Emergency Management Agency, the Macon Coliseum, the Middle Georgia Boy Scout Council, the Order of the Arrow, the Sertoma Club, Winship History-Geography Magnet School, and others.  

The Ocmulgee Indian Celebration honors the heritage of the Southeast's indigenous people, especially the Muscogee (Creek), promotes wise stewardship of the nation's public lands, and salutes local public service agencies. It has won many awards, has been widely acclaimed by educators and Native American groups and, like the Discovery Lab and Teacher's Guide, it has been been widely emulated.

SEE CALENDAR OF EVENTS

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Winship History-Geography Magnet School:  Macon's history-geography magnet school has been honored as a Georgia School of Excellence. Winship School has proven that hands-on, heritage-related activities appeal to children's natural curiosity about themselves, other people and the natural world around them. Each  student at Winship is viewed as a unique individual in a school-as-family atmosphere.  Utilizing Georgia's Fall Line region as a laboratory, teachers encourage cross-disciplinary, community-based inquiry and discovery which points outward to a better understanding of the nation, the earth and the universe.  Teachers at Winship are among the most enthusiastic supporters of the Georgia's Heartland Heritage Education Project.         

Windows to a Distant Past: The Archeology of Robins Air Force Base Exhibit:   In 1994, after a number of archeological sites were discovered during surveys at Robins Air Force Base, a major archeology-based exhibit area was added to the the base's Museum of Aviation.  After contacting Ocmulgee National Monument for assistance, the base's Office of Environmental Management joined the heritage education partnership.  The Museum's exhibit features life-sized dioramas depicting many aspects of Middle Georgia's prehistory and early history.  Computer technology and a Discovery Room provide additional educational opportunities.  Information specific to Robins Air Force Base was added to Ocmulgee National Monument's Discovery Lab Teachers' Guide and it is now used at the Museum of Aviation.

"Ocmulgee University Teachers Workshops:"  In July 1994, Robins Air Force Base funded, and the staff of Ocmulgee National Monument in cooperation with the Bibb County Board of Education planned and conducted, a heritage education workshop for 4th grade teachers.  Assistance was provided by the U. S. Bureau of Land Management's Anasazi Heritage Education Project, Delores, CO, the National Park Service's Southeast Regional Office and Archeological Services Division, the Ocmulgee National Monument Association, the Keep Macon-Bibb Beautiful Commission, the Cherokee Heritage Museum, Cherokee, NC, and other organizations.  Though the workshop took place during Macon's Great Flood of '94, the teachers who attended gave it rave reviews (see attached agenda and teacher comments).  

Two Ocmulgee University Workshops were conducted June and August 1995, one during the summer of 1996, and another in 1997.  The latter week-long workshop was videotaped in its entirety, thanks to funding from Robins AFB.  In 1998, the workshop became a cooperative effort between Ocmulgee National Monument and Georgia College and State University, which gave five hours academic credit to the 70 participants.

Muscogee (Creek) Nation Ambassador Project:  In October 1994, Robins Air Force Base funded a second project, coordinated by Ocmulgee National Monument staff, which brought Muscogee (Creek) Nation Council members and educators from Oklahoma to tour Middle Georgia and speak to students in area schools.  As part of this project, Principal Chief Bill Fife returned to Middle Georgia and met with General Hallin.  Chief Fife expressed great interested in an educational exchange program between Middle Georgia and his people.  He noted that if the people of Middle Georgia learned more about Creek traditions and culture, the knowledge would help dispel many present-day myths, stereotypes, and misconceptions about Native Americans.  And by learning more about their ancient homeland, many of his people would feel a sense of healing and Muscogee (Creek) students would take more pride in their heritage.

Since that time, two Muscogee (Creek) Nation's Historic Preservation Officers have visited Ocmulgee National Monument frequently, along with other "Ambassadors," who made presentations at the Ocmulgee University Workshops.  In 1997, Principal Chief, Perry Beaver, and Second Chief George Almerigi visited Ocmulgee National Monument; and, in 1998, leaders from the Muscogee (Creek) Independent Tribal Towns also visited.

Georgia Archeological Resources Protection Videotape and Traveling Exhibit:  This project, using funds provided by Robins Air Force Base and designed by Ocmulgee National Monument, was completed in March 1995.  The exhibit and videotape are available for loan to schools and other organizations.  Copies of the videotape are available for purchase.  

Georgia Archeology Awareness Week:   Ocmulgee National Monument annually schedules special programs the first week of May as part of this statewide effort to encourage support for archeology and cultural resources preservation/protection.

Teaching With Historic Places Teachers Workshop:  Sponsored by the National Park Service and coordinated by the Trust for Historic Preservation, this workshop brought some 80 educators from across the state to Macon on April 28-29, 1995.  The workshop took place at the Hay House, a National Register listed historic landmark, with field sessions conducted at the Ocmulgee National Monument and the Pleasant Hill Historic District.  As a result, the Trust for Historic Preservation and the Hay House wish to participate in the Georgia's Historic Heartland Heritage Education Partnership and information, including lesson plans, compiled during this workshop will be incorporated into the Project.

The Muscogee (Creek) Nation Today Traveling Exhibit:  As part of this project, Robins Air Force Base has funded the creation of two new exhibits which will focus on the Muscogee (Creek) people since their removal from the Southeast.  The exhibits will be designed and produced by the Nation's Cultural Affairs/Historic Preservation Office.  One will be shipped for use in Middle Georgia, the other will be loaned to schools in Oklahoma.  

Earthday/March for Parks:  In 1997, Ocmulgee National Monument was asked by the Keep Macon-Bibb Beautiful Commission to host an Earthday event for Middle Georgia.  Park staff planned and coordinated the event, which was held in conjunction with a March for the Park sponsored by the Friends of Ocmulgee Old Fields.  A number of federal, state and local agencies, organizations, educational institutions, school clubs, and area attractions involved with protecting, preserving, and promoting the Middle Georgia's cultural and natural resources participated and over 1,500 people attended.  The event was so successful that it was expanded in 1998 with over 70 group participants and 3,000 visitors. It is now an annual event.  

SEE CALENDAR OF EVENTS

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Character Education Initiative:  Beginning with the 1998 school-year, Georgia House Bill 393 required the State Board of Education to develop a comprehensive character education program for grades K-12 that local boards of education may implement at any time for any grade level.  The character curriculum focuses on the student's development of the following traits:

       Cheerfulness     Creativity         Loyalty                       Respect for the Environment

       Citizenship        Diligence          Patriotism                   Self-Control

       Cleanliness        Fairness           Patience                     Self-Respect

       Compassion      Generosity       Perseverance              Sportsmanship                  

       Cooperation      Honesty           Punctuality                  Tolerance        

       Courtesy           Kindness          Respect for Others     Virtue                        

Many teachers, who have participated in the "Ocmulgee University" Heritage Education Workshops, believe the Georgia's Heartland Heritage Education Project provides an ideal way to present and reinforce these values.  Consequently, park staff has been invited to serve on the local committee which will introduce the state's mandated Character Education to Middle Georgia classrooms.

Georgia's Heartland Heritage Guidebook/Curriculum Supplement, and Videotape:  Park staff, area teachers, and university interns have produced a draft Georgia's Heartland Heritage Guide (and curriculum supplement), focusing on the cultural and natural resources of Ocmulgee National Monument and Middle Georgia.  Volume One of this guidebook consists of three sections: Part I - The Place; Part II - The People, and Part III - How Do We know?  Volume Two is a loose-leaf binder of hands-on activities keyed to Georgia's Quality Core Curriculum teaching requirements.  The seventeen-tape set of videos recorded during the 1997 Ocmulgee University Teachers Workshop will be edited into a training film which will reinforce the written materials.  

When the publication and video are finished and packaged, they will replace the original Teacher's Guide.  Copies will be placed in every public school library in Middle Georgia, made available to Muscogee (Creek) educators in Oklahoma, and offered as a sales item in the park's Museum Shop.

1999 National Park Foundation Grant:  Ocmulgree National Monument received a $19,500 grant from the National Park Foundation to further the Georgia's Heartland Heritage Education Project.  This grant will supplement funding provided by Robins Air Force Base and Middle Georgia's Peyton Anderson Foundation earmarked for completion of the following:

The Future:  Ocmulgee National Monument's staff is proud to have been at the forefront of hands-on heritage education, including the highly successful National Park Foundation "Parks as Classrooms" initiative.  Georgia's Heartland Heritage Education Project coordinators will continue to seek innovative ideas and strive for excellence in the future.

Phone:       478-752-8257

e:mail        Sylvia_Flowers@nps.gov