Two of the classrooms in the literature hall were transported to the early 1900s on Feb. 5. The students in Honors American Studies were earlier assigned what is known as the tea party assignment.

For the assignment, students drew a piece of paper with the name of a 1900s reformer written on it out of a bowl. Whatever reformer the students drew was the person they were to become at a “tea party” hosted by President McKinley. Students were to give a speech as their person and discuss the pressing issues of that time period such as immigration, labor unions, and freedom of press.

“The historical figure I had to become was Margaret Sanger,” sophomore McKenna Harrington said. “Margaret was a birth control activist and popularized birth control.”

Students were required to give a speech as their historical figure, they also listened to other speeches. Students were given assigned seats based on who their historical figure disliked so they could debate the issues at hand.

“I learned more about the opposing views of different historical people,” Harrington said. “The tea party was a lot of fun, although I was not expecting it to be because of what was assigned.”

The teachers of this class still wanted their students to have fun while allowing them a more interactive way to obtain the information they were studying.

“Our primary goal is for students to have a better, more diverse understanding of political, social and economic issues that spanned from the Gilded Age through the turn of the century,” literature teacher Heather Mulligan said. “An understanding of Progressive issues and reform movements will serve them well as citizens, as well as potential AP testers.”