Discovery Park brings history to life
OBION COUNTY, Tenn. — Discovery Park of America brought history to the people.
Discovery Park of America decided to celebrate the Fourth of July with a little bit of tea.
Attendees got to sit in and be apart of a town hall meeting with Samuel Adams and Benjamin Franklin.
Nathaniel Newlin who portrayed Franklin says that this is a hands-on way to learn about history.
“Living historians and interactive exhibits. We are not just reading out of a book or reading off of signs. We are bringing children out of the community to a place where they can touch what they are learning,” Newlin said.
One of the interactive ways the park brings the audience back into history is with these boxes. They take these boxes and throw them into the river as did the Boston Tea Party.
John Hall, who portrayed Samuel Adams, says he read about history in books as a kid.
But everything changed when he saw interactive history for the first time.
“It becomes more alive. It is one thing to read about the Boston Tea Party, but another to have an opportunity like this. It just makes a difference in my view,” Hall said.
As a person that learns better by doing, Newlin says learning about american history in this way helps make it easier to understand.
“To learn with our hands. We have to learn by being a part of something. That is one of the beautiful things about Discovery Park is you are a part of it. When you are learning, you are a part of your education,” Newlin said.
Hall says they were grateful for the amount of people that came to be apart of the reenactment.
