For the past two years, the eighth graders have had the unique opportunity to create monuments in honor of a person or event they felt were deserving. However, a bit of a twist was added to this year’s monument project. Instead of allowing students to choose their subjects, world history teacher Mrs. Anne Franzen provided students (in groups of four or five) an artist whose style they had to incorporate into their art, and provided them with the name of a victim or survivor of the Holocaust on which to base their monument.

As in years past, the students worked with the Center for Creative Education (CCE), a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide art outreach to children and students throughout Palm Beach County. Thanks to Head of Middle School Mr. Charles Hagy, Benjamin has been affiliated with the CCE for the past three years. The CCE helps the history department integrate artwork into its curriculum so students may express themselves in a different way, which is one of the reasons why the history department decided to start this project.

For six weeks, the eighth graders worked to build and perfect their history projects. The students worked diligently on their monuments and, even though it was hard work, they enjoyed the process.

“I love being creative, so building a monument I created is really fun,” said eighth grader Olivia Cornett, whose group made a wine bottle into a monument to represent the life of their Holocaust survivor. “I may not be very good at it, but I like crafts, so this was really fun. [The hardest part about this is] probably settling on one idea. There are so many great ideas that it was so hard to pick one.”

Fellow eighth grader Nick Murphy liked the freedom the assignment afforded, but felt the time crunch. “[I enjoyed it] because it lets us show history through art,” said Murphy. “[I wish we had] a longer amount of time to create these projects, [but I like that] it allowed us to be creative.”

Franzen loves the project because it allows students to explore another aspect of themselves while drawing from a variety of

subject areas.

“[My favorite part of this project is] that students have an opportunity to problem solve, and that students who may have other talents outside the classroom can show leadership in a new way. The first year, my favorite project was Roselle the Dog which was done for Michael Hingson. Last year, I loved the Charlie Hebdo monument because it had so many different layers, physically and emotionally. The monument project is such an amazing part of our curriculum that covers so many subject areas – art and history are the obvious ones, but students use math to calculate dimensions, English with their poems and essays, scientific method, even foreign languages.”

In order for their works to be appreciated, the eighth graders presented them to students, faculty, and guests on Grandest Friends’ Day where they were able to explain their creations and how they made them. It was the perfect culmination for such a monumental event.