By Tyler Dahlgren

The wind howls on top of the hill overlooking the White River where the Red Cloud Agency was established more than 150 years ago, almost like it’s trying to tell a story.

If it is, students at Crawford Public Schools are there to listen. 

When Crawford began overhauling its curriculum through work with the Curriculum Leadership Institute five years ago, under then-superintendent Mo Hanks, they started with Social Studies. 

The district created a Curriculum Coordinating Council, comprised of teachers, board members, administrators and guidance counselors. In that first year, teachers took a deep dive into making sure standards were met, without any gaps or redundancies.  In year two, the curriculum was written and teachers began to gather resources, putting their creativity to the test.

“Being on the CCC gives our teachers the chance to be innovative and to think outside the box,” said first-year Crawford superintendent Keri Homan, who was delighted to carry on the work that began under Hanks. “We want our teachers to have a strong foundation for curriculum, but also materials and resources they can utilize to meet standards. We also know that there are things not in the standards that we feel are important, so we want the teachers, the experts in their fields, to be able to incorporate those things into their lessons.”

Each year, the district has added a new subject area. Social Studies is the furthest along, and watching plans put into practice has been an amazing experience, both for Homan and for Crawford’s students. For their richest resource, they didn’t have to look far.

Fort Robinson State Park is an integral piece of not only Nebraska history, but American history. On these grounds, there’s so much for the students to learn. And in this corner of the state, there’s so many passionate people to learn from.

Enter Moni Hourt, a woman who wears many hats. She’s a local historian, a retired teacher with 35 years of classroom experience, a former journalist and an author. Perhaps more than anything, Hourt is a storyteller. She’s completely Crawford, through and through.

“Moni is a great resource all the way around for our district,” Homan said of Hourt, who still subs for the district and serves as a bridge of sorts between CPS and Fort Robinson, coordinating field trips and working on curriculum alongside educators like Brennann Jackson.

It’s a Tuesday morning in late September, and Jackson’s third grade classroom is humming with excitement. His students are about to make their second pilgrimage to Fort Robinson, where site manager Will Kessen has a scavenger hunt prepared in the History Center.

“Having Fort Robinson, with all its history, right down the road is just really, really cool,” said Jackson, a Valentine native in his second-year teaching after graduating from nearby Chadron State. “The kids get to see both sides of it, explore everything that has happened on the land, and we do a lot of hands-on stuff, too, which they enjoy.”

When a new teacher comes aboard, Homan said, you want them to feel supported. You want them to be equipped with all the resources they need.

“You don’t want them to feel like they’re floundering because they don’t know where to start,” Homan said. “By having strong curriculum with guidelines in place to help them be successful, and to also help them make it their own. The instruction still needs to be their own instruction, but it gives them a good foundation to start from.”

If they’re really lucky, like Jackson was, they’ll have a Moni Hourt to call on. The two make a uniquely effective tandem. Jackson’s young, but he’s wise enough to understand the value of Hourt’s expertise. Hourt, on the other hand, sees a day spent with students as an opportunity to connect the past with the present. 

She knows these kids’ parents and grandparents, and is proud to point out that in Jackson’s class of 14 third-graders there are five fifth-generation homesteaders. When she talks to the kids about community, about how Crawford came to be, she’s weaving the past and the present.

Hourt does it seamlessly, and she appreciates every minute spent with Crawford's next generation.

“Mr. Jackson has been so incredible with this,” Hourt said. “And for a school to step out of their comfort zone and say, ‘We don’t know everything, but let's check with the historians in our area,’ I just think that is such an incredible thing for this district.”

A couple hours spent at Fort Robinson is better than flipping through any history book, said Hourt. No matter how many years she’s been coming here, every visit is an emotional one. She wears her passion for this place on her sleeve, and seeing that passion percolate to eight and nine-year-old students is an invigorating experience in its own right.

“Every time I come out here, I’m a little overwhelmed,” Hourt said. “I’ve interviewed so many people here, heard so many stories that I’ve carried with me for so long.”

Crawford is unique in many ways, and its geographical surroundings are truly one-of-a-kind. These days, they’re starting to see that as more of a strength than a challenge.

“I think people think because we're such a small school that we don't have the resources, but our teachers are able to find ways to reach their students,” Homan said. “We are not a rich, wealthy district, but we still make big impacts.”

Big impacts, and core memories. Around here, they stack those like bales of hay. 

Down the road, Will Kessen straightens chairs where an hour earlier 13 Crawford third-graders sat, wide-eyed and full of wonder. Soon, he’ll have to Windex hundreds of little fingerprints off the museum’s glass display cases. He’ll do it with a smile.

“It’s so, so much fun having the kids up here,” said Kessen. “They ask the most interesting questions, and I just love history, so it’s fun for me to do my best to give them all the answers.” 

The field trip ends up on that hill, where Kessen hands each third-grader a parting souvenir, military patches like the ones soldiers used to don as they stomped across these sprawling grounds. The kids, giddy over the gift, thank him and climb onto the bus, one by one. 

They leave little footprints, and though the wind whips and the time passes, those will never really fade. There’ll be more Crawford Rams coming down the path, and that’s a heartwarming thought for Hourt.

“The kids will ask me sometimes, ‘Why do you have so many wrinkles?’,” Hourt said, with an extra twinkle in her eye. “And I’ll say, ‘Well, that’s where I keep all of my memories.’”

That’s the cool thing about history. It only fades if you let it.

“To Crawford, Fort Robinson is everything,” Hourt said over excited chatter coming from the back of the bus. “It’s how we got our start.”

The bus reaches Crawford, and Jackson takes his class, having worked up quite the appetite, to lunch. Back in his dark classroom, Moni Hourt files all those scavenger hunts from Fort Robinson into a folder.

“It’s amazing to me, to see the kids in awe,” said Hourt. “They’ll learn something, and their mouths will collectively drop. They’re full of curiosity and they’re so engaged.”

She’s shared so many stories with so many people throughout her life.

This might just be the best one yet.