Chapter 4: Student Organization
There is no hiding the fact that the Living History Program is based on living as a participant in an armed conflict of the United States. Since the program will be conducted during the era of an armed conflict, you will want to establish an appropriate student participant unit structure. To give balance to the program, you will want to have both sides of the conflict represented.
Example: You decide to do the American Civil War period in which case you will have some students be Confederate soldiers and others Union soldiers. If you choose the American Revolutionary War, then the students will be either colonial militia and Continentals or British soldiers. The French and Indian War would have students as British and colonials versus French and Indians. The War of 1812 would place the United States Army against the British Army.
Regardless of which era you choose, you will want a balance of participants on each side. This may be a challenge in that no student wants to be a “bad guy,” or everyone wants to be on the side of the more popular students in the class. You will also be dealing with cliques of students which are inherently exclusive in nature.
Example: There is a group of student athletes in the class who like to stick together. They all want to be on the same side. While this may be appropriate from a social aspect, it forebodes ill for your program unless properly handled. As they are competitive students, you assign them positions in the organization which are on the opposite sides but performing the same function. One student is assigned the position of drill master on each side.
You know that your program is to be all inclusive of student participants. This means that both boys and girls are welcome to be members of one of your organizations. There will be no discrimination allowed based on such factors as weight or height. This being an awkward age for pre-teens you want to keep in mind that one of the goals of the program is to help students improve their self-esteem. Throughout the program you will want to keep this in mind.
Example: One of the seventh graders in the program is obviously overweight and very conscious of his condition. He tends to draw unwanted attention from his classmates and tends to hang back in activities. You do not want to single him out as having an unhappy condition, so you make sure that his participation helps him overcome his self-consciousness. You might assign him certain responsibilities which will promote his self-esteem, such as being part of a unit’s color guard but not necessarily the bearer of the unit flag, so as not to cause him to unduly stand out in a formation but still have a significant presence when on parade.
Example: One of the eighth graders is a young girl who is quite a bit taller than the other girls in the program. She is self conscious about her height and tends to slouch. Since it is in her best interest to have good posture and the student participants will be required to stand straight, you seek to put her in a position where height is not a factor or where it has positive significance.
Usually the first soldier on the right side (flank) and in the front row (rank) is the tallest individual in the formation, and this is considered a prestigious location. When she is in formation, she should be encouraged to take that position which will be indicative that her height has “value.”
Having determined in which era you will “live” and taken into consideration the vagaries of the students who will probably participate, you now set about establishing two organizational frameworks. Depending on which period you are going to replicate, you will organize two units which will “oppose” each other during the school year.
Once the students have voted to participate in the program, you divide the class into two equal groups, each representing an opposing army.
Example: You will be doing the American Revolutionary War period. You arbitrarily divide the class into two groups, one representing the British, the other the Americans. You are impartial about who is assigned to each group and choose regardless of gender, color, or ethnicity.
Example: You are studying the French and Indian War period. You have students vote by secret ballot as to whether they want to be on the colonial and British side or the French and Indian side. You count the ballots out of sight of the students as you may have to make arbitrary adjustments if you get too many Indians and not enough Frenchmen or too many colonials and not enough British soldiers.
You now proceed to “organize” the two opposing “regiments.”
Example: You organize a Union Army “regiment” and a Confederate Army “regiment.” In conjunction with your students, you decide to replicate historic regiments which actually fought in the American Civil War. Since your program is being conducted in a school district in up-state New York in the Albany area, you choose a local regiment of volunteers which was recruited during the war in the Albany environs. For a Confederate unit you find that one of your students had a great grandfather who fought in an Alabama regiment which had a distinguished combat record, and you decide that the students will be members of that organization.
Example: Regardless of which military organization you are forming, each regiment is composed of a number of subordinate units called companies. A regiment normally consists of from eight to ten companies. In your Union and Confederate Armies each of these companies is organized the same with student participants whose ranks and titles are described below.
Example: In the French and Indian War, the American Revolutionary War, and the War of 1812, the American companies were organized in the same manner as in the Union and Confederate Armies, but in the British and French armies there were three different types of companies. There was the “line” company which formed the core of the regiment. There was the “light company,” an elite unit, whose members often acted in skirmishes. Finally, there was the “grenadier” company, another elite organization which was composed of specially selected men who wore special headgear and were employed to throw hand grenades as well as fire weapons. All these companies had their own subordinate units called platoons.
Example: You decide to use the basic “line” company as the core organization for each regiment, but you want to add some variations of your own. You decide to have a color company which will have musicians, such as drummers and fifers as well as the color bearers for unit members. You also decide to have a sapper and miner company in which a few students carry spades while others are designated scouts. Regardless of the period of your program, these variations on company organization are legitimate.
Example: In order to spread responsible positions around among deserving student participants, you decide to have a total of seven companies in each opposing regiment. Each company has anywhere from five to ten students. You designate four companies as line companies and the other three as the color company, the sapper and miner company, and the light infantry company.
Your regiment will be commanded by a student participant who has both a title (regimental commander) and a rank (normally a colonel but because of the ranking system described below will probably be a lieutenant or ensign). He or she will also have a staff of students who have such titles as second-in-command, adjutant, scribe, drill master, staff musician, chaplain, chief sapper, quartermaster, paymaster, and provost marshal. While they are on the staff for administrative purposes, when they are participating in unit activities, they are also members of a company. (See ANNEX C for titles and responsibilities of each leadership title and ANNEX D for special student titles.)
At the same time you will be establishing what is known as the “chain of command,” which is a military hierarchy. The regimental commander is at the top of the chain of command, and the company commander is the next individual down the chain. The platoon leader comes next followed at the bottom by the soldier. The regimental staff assists the commander and is not in the chain of command.
Example: 1st Company of the Union Army regiment is composed of eight students. One is the company commander, a second is the platoon leader, a third is the regimental paymaster, a fourth is the regimental chaplain, a fifth is the regimental scribe, and the three remaining students are ordinary soldiers.
Example: 2nd Company of the Union Army regiment is composed of six students. One is the company commander and regimental commander, a second is the platoon leader, a third is the provost marshal, the fourth is the assistant quartermaster, and the two remaining students are ordinary soldiers.
Example: The Union Army regiment’s color company consists of five students. One is a color bearer and company commander, a second is a color bearer and platoon leader, a third is a drummer and staff musician, and the two remaining students are fifers.
Example: The sapper and miner company of the Confederate Army regiment is composed of eight students. One is the company commander, one is the platoon leader, one is the regimental adjutant, one is chief sapper, two are riflemen, and two are sappers.
Having decided on the regimental organization and different titles of the student participants in the organizations, you must decide how to initially fill the different positions and establish the chain of command. When your program has been started and after the first ranking session, which is normally after the first or second marking period, you can promote deserving students to positions of responsibility and award appropriate ranks.
But first, you have to select students to fill out the organizations, which you do on an “acting” basis and without ranking the students. The “acting” system at the beginning of the school year ensures that the program begins on a “level playing field.” Once the first ranking session is conducted and merits are used to determine different levels of responsibility, the temporary “acting” system is discarded.
Example: You are just beginning the school year, and you are doing the American Revolutionary War. You do not know the capabilities or interests of your students. At one of the first free, or study hall, periods, you invite all interested students to submit an application for the different positions in the regiment. You then, in conjunction with your teaching team, the
Committee of Safety/King’s Council, interview those students who show the most interest and select them to fill the positions on an “acting” basis, with their performance to be reviewed at the first ranking session at which time they may be confirmed in their positions.
Example: You decide to begin your American Civil War program in the middle of the first marking period instead of at the beginning of the school year. You ask for nominations for student positions of responsibility from the school administrators, teachers, and support staff. You announce the beginning of the program, and the War Department then invites appropriate students to be interviewed for the positions on an “acting” basis. Those students so appointed are then observed up to the time of the first ranking session at which time they are confirmed in their positions or are moved as appropriate within the regiments.
Example: The students in your school who will participate in your program are not involved in gangs or cliques. Soon after the beginning of the school year, you decide to advertise the positions of responsibility initially in an “acting mode” and then have the students “elect” their leaders in the colonial and American armies. This was a common practice in militia units in the American Army until after the Civil War. For the French and British Armies, however, such a system did not exist. In the British Army officer positions were purchased from the Crown. You should, therefore, use an alternate method to appoint students to positions of responsibility if you choose to replicate the British or French Armies. Instead of money a student can “purchase” his or her acting commission by petitioning the King’s Council in a short essay for an “acting” position.
In addition to the military style organization described above, in order to administer the disciplinary aspects of the program and to give students real decision making responsibility, an additional entity is organized to rule on the awarding of disciplinary measures involving demerits. This group is called the Council of Inquiry and is valid for any period your program replicates.
Example: You decide to appoint five of the ranking student participants to the Council to decide on what judgment is to be made in the case of delinquencies involving school demerits. They decide on the proper action to be taken and then make their recommendations to the Committee of Safety/War Department/King’s Council, which directs appropriate execution.
Example: By secret ballot student participants choose five members to act as the Council of Inquiry. Their decisions and actions are monitored by either you or a designated member of the Committee of Safety/War Department/King’s Council.
Example: You decide to do the American Civil War period in which case you will have some students be Confederate soldiers and others Union soldiers. If you choose the American Revolutionary War, then the students will be either colonial militia and Continentals or British soldiers. The French and Indian War would have students as British and colonials versus French and Indians. The War of 1812 would place the United States Army against the British Army.
Regardless of which era you choose, you will want a balance of participants on each side. This may be a challenge in that no student wants to be a “bad guy,” or everyone wants to be on the side of the more popular students in the class. You will also be dealing with cliques of students which are inherently exclusive in nature.
Example: There is a group of student athletes in the class who like to stick together. They all want to be on the same side. While this may be appropriate from a social aspect, it forebodes ill for your program unless properly handled. As they are competitive students, you assign them positions in the organization which are on the opposite sides but performing the same function. One student is assigned the position of drill master on each side.
You know that your program is to be all inclusive of student participants. This means that both boys and girls are welcome to be members of one of your organizations. There will be no discrimination allowed based on such factors as weight or height. This being an awkward age for pre-teens you want to keep in mind that one of the goals of the program is to help students improve their self-esteem. Throughout the program you will want to keep this in mind.
Example: One of the seventh graders in the program is obviously overweight and very conscious of his condition. He tends to draw unwanted attention from his classmates and tends to hang back in activities. You do not want to single him out as having an unhappy condition, so you make sure that his participation helps him overcome his self-consciousness. You might assign him certain responsibilities which will promote his self-esteem, such as being part of a unit’s color guard but not necessarily the bearer of the unit flag, so as not to cause him to unduly stand out in a formation but still have a significant presence when on parade.
Example: One of the eighth graders is a young girl who is quite a bit taller than the other girls in the program. She is self conscious about her height and tends to slouch. Since it is in her best interest to have good posture and the student participants will be required to stand straight, you seek to put her in a position where height is not a factor or where it has positive significance.
Usually the first soldier on the right side (flank) and in the front row (rank) is the tallest individual in the formation, and this is considered a prestigious location. When she is in formation, she should be encouraged to take that position which will be indicative that her height has “value.”
Having determined in which era you will “live” and taken into consideration the vagaries of the students who will probably participate, you now set about establishing two organizational frameworks. Depending on which period you are going to replicate, you will organize two units which will “oppose” each other during the school year.
Once the students have voted to participate in the program, you divide the class into two equal groups, each representing an opposing army.
Example: You will be doing the American Revolutionary War period. You arbitrarily divide the class into two groups, one representing the British, the other the Americans. You are impartial about who is assigned to each group and choose regardless of gender, color, or ethnicity.
Example: You are studying the French and Indian War period. You have students vote by secret ballot as to whether they want to be on the colonial and British side or the French and Indian side. You count the ballots out of sight of the students as you may have to make arbitrary adjustments if you get too many Indians and not enough Frenchmen or too many colonials and not enough British soldiers.
You now proceed to “organize” the two opposing “regiments.”
Example: You organize a Union Army “regiment” and a Confederate Army “regiment.” In conjunction with your students, you decide to replicate historic regiments which actually fought in the American Civil War. Since your program is being conducted in a school district in up-state New York in the Albany area, you choose a local regiment of volunteers which was recruited during the war in the Albany environs. For a Confederate unit you find that one of your students had a great grandfather who fought in an Alabama regiment which had a distinguished combat record, and you decide that the students will be members of that organization.
Example: Regardless of which military organization you are forming, each regiment is composed of a number of subordinate units called companies. A regiment normally consists of from eight to ten companies. In your Union and Confederate Armies each of these companies is organized the same with student participants whose ranks and titles are described below.
Example: In the French and Indian War, the American Revolutionary War, and the War of 1812, the American companies were organized in the same manner as in the Union and Confederate Armies, but in the British and French armies there were three different types of companies. There was the “line” company which formed the core of the regiment. There was the “light company,” an elite unit, whose members often acted in skirmishes. Finally, there was the “grenadier” company, another elite organization which was composed of specially selected men who wore special headgear and were employed to throw hand grenades as well as fire weapons. All these companies had their own subordinate units called platoons.
Example: You decide to use the basic “line” company as the core organization for each regiment, but you want to add some variations of your own. You decide to have a color company which will have musicians, such as drummers and fifers as well as the color bearers for unit members. You also decide to have a sapper and miner company in which a few students carry spades while others are designated scouts. Regardless of the period of your program, these variations on company organization are legitimate.
Example: In order to spread responsible positions around among deserving student participants, you decide to have a total of seven companies in each opposing regiment. Each company has anywhere from five to ten students. You designate four companies as line companies and the other three as the color company, the sapper and miner company, and the light infantry company.
Your regiment will be commanded by a student participant who has both a title (regimental commander) and a rank (normally a colonel but because of the ranking system described below will probably be a lieutenant or ensign). He or she will also have a staff of students who have such titles as second-in-command, adjutant, scribe, drill master, staff musician, chaplain, chief sapper, quartermaster, paymaster, and provost marshal. While they are on the staff for administrative purposes, when they are participating in unit activities, they are also members of a company. (See ANNEX C for titles and responsibilities of each leadership title and ANNEX D for special student titles.)
At the same time you will be establishing what is known as the “chain of command,” which is a military hierarchy. The regimental commander is at the top of the chain of command, and the company commander is the next individual down the chain. The platoon leader comes next followed at the bottom by the soldier. The regimental staff assists the commander and is not in the chain of command.
Example: 1st Company of the Union Army regiment is composed of eight students. One is the company commander, a second is the platoon leader, a third is the regimental paymaster, a fourth is the regimental chaplain, a fifth is the regimental scribe, and the three remaining students are ordinary soldiers.
Example: 2nd Company of the Union Army regiment is composed of six students. One is the company commander and regimental commander, a second is the platoon leader, a third is the provost marshal, the fourth is the assistant quartermaster, and the two remaining students are ordinary soldiers.
Example: The Union Army regiment’s color company consists of five students. One is a color bearer and company commander, a second is a color bearer and platoon leader, a third is a drummer and staff musician, and the two remaining students are fifers.
Example: The sapper and miner company of the Confederate Army regiment is composed of eight students. One is the company commander, one is the platoon leader, one is the regimental adjutant, one is chief sapper, two are riflemen, and two are sappers.
Having decided on the regimental organization and different titles of the student participants in the organizations, you must decide how to initially fill the different positions and establish the chain of command. When your program has been started and after the first ranking session, which is normally after the first or second marking period, you can promote deserving students to positions of responsibility and award appropriate ranks.
But first, you have to select students to fill out the organizations, which you do on an “acting” basis and without ranking the students. The “acting” system at the beginning of the school year ensures that the program begins on a “level playing field.” Once the first ranking session is conducted and merits are used to determine different levels of responsibility, the temporary “acting” system is discarded.
Example: You are just beginning the school year, and you are doing the American Revolutionary War. You do not know the capabilities or interests of your students. At one of the first free, or study hall, periods, you invite all interested students to submit an application for the different positions in the regiment. You then, in conjunction with your teaching team, the
Committee of Safety/King’s Council, interview those students who show the most interest and select them to fill the positions on an “acting” basis, with their performance to be reviewed at the first ranking session at which time they may be confirmed in their positions.
Example: You decide to begin your American Civil War program in the middle of the first marking period instead of at the beginning of the school year. You ask for nominations for student positions of responsibility from the school administrators, teachers, and support staff. You announce the beginning of the program, and the War Department then invites appropriate students to be interviewed for the positions on an “acting” basis. Those students so appointed are then observed up to the time of the first ranking session at which time they are confirmed in their positions or are moved as appropriate within the regiments.
Example: The students in your school who will participate in your program are not involved in gangs or cliques. Soon after the beginning of the school year, you decide to advertise the positions of responsibility initially in an “acting mode” and then have the students “elect” their leaders in the colonial and American armies. This was a common practice in militia units in the American Army until after the Civil War. For the French and British Armies, however, such a system did not exist. In the British Army officer positions were purchased from the Crown. You should, therefore, use an alternate method to appoint students to positions of responsibility if you choose to replicate the British or French Armies. Instead of money a student can “purchase” his or her acting commission by petitioning the King’s Council in a short essay for an “acting” position.
In addition to the military style organization described above, in order to administer the disciplinary aspects of the program and to give students real decision making responsibility, an additional entity is organized to rule on the awarding of disciplinary measures involving demerits. This group is called the Council of Inquiry and is valid for any period your program replicates.
Example: You decide to appoint five of the ranking student participants to the Council to decide on what judgment is to be made in the case of delinquencies involving school demerits. They decide on the proper action to be taken and then make their recommendations to the Committee of Safety/War Department/King’s Council, which directs appropriate execution.
Example: By secret ballot student participants choose five members to act as the Council of Inquiry. Their decisions and actions are monitored by either you or a designated member of the Committee of Safety/War Department/King’s Council.