Governor Makes Iowa History at Jackson Elementary
Jackson student Owyn Bucklin speaks at a press conference with Governor Branstad about the importance of teaching Iowa history.
Governor Branstad holds weekly press conferences and chose Jackson Elementary as the site for this week’s on Tuesday morning. He wanted a school setting to announce an increased emphasis on teaching Iowa history in Iowa schools. Maybe Hoover High School would have made sense since its namesake, unlike Andrew Jackson, was born and raised in Iowa. But the governor had good reason to be where he was.
Chris Branstad, Iowa’s first lady, volunteers at Jackson. Last spring she met a then 2nd grader who, despite his relatively short personal history, struck her as a historian with a particular interest in Iowa’s past, not unlike her husband’s.
And so this summer when details were being arranged for today’s announcement of recommendations by the Iowa History Advisory Council on ways to improve Iowa history education in schools statewide, Owyn Bucklin was invited to speak.
Owyn agreed and prepared a brief speech. He probably would have preferred to go first and get it over with. He’d never spoken in front of a gym full of dignitaries and photographers, not to mention all of the 3rd and 4th graders at Jackson. But instead he waited in the wings while others primed the pump.
Principal Cindy Wissler noted that the event was a little bit of history in the making (“This is the first time we’ve hosted a press conference.”). Stefanie Wager from the Iowa Department of Education explained the rationale behind the IHAC’s recommendations. Historian Tom Morain gave the students a glimpse of the kinds of exciting learning tools they can expect to use in coming years. Mary Cownie, who heads the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, disclosed a grant from the Library of Congress that will enable Iowa students to access primary artifacts and documents to animate their research about Iowa’s past. And the governor himself delivered a quick primer about the design and adoption of Iowa’s state flag.
Only then, finally, was it Owyn’s turn to literally step up, on a stool, to the podium for the keynote address.
He talked about how regular visits to the Iowa State Historical Building at the base of capitol hill downtown have fueled his own curiosity about local history. Decked out in a bright blue USA t-shirt and sporting the serious countenance of a scholar, he was poised and to-the-point, concluding by saying “I think that’s all I need to say on this Tuesday morning.”
Minutes later, having absorbed a rousing ovation from those assembled, he was back in the ranks, marching off to class. Someone asked him how he’d felt, fidgeting in anticipation of his turn at the mic. Like he needed to go to the bathroom, he said. That’s paraphrasing. He didn’t look like that was the case, he was told.
Let the record show that on September 6, 2016 the longest-serving governor in American history, the honorable Terry Branstad of Iowa, came to Jackson Elementary School in Des Moines and was on the undercard of speakers beneath the honorable Owyn Bucklin, a 3rd grader for all of eight days.
