THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 20, 1994 TAG: 9410190122
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines
IN MOST MIDDLE school U.S. history textbooks, Jedediah Hotchkiss is just a footnote, if he gets mentioned at all. But students willing to dig deeper would discover that the talented map-maker played a pivotal role in prolonging the Civil War.
For Maury High freshmen Frank Scully III and Jake Shaffer, both 14, historical detective work on Hotchkiss won them national recognition and a $1,000 prize.
The two classmates, while eighth-graders at Blair Middle, collaborated on a research project that in June won a first-place prize in the National History Day competition at the University of Maryland. They competed in the junior group project category.
They became the first Norfolk students to win top honors on the national level in this competition, school administrators said. It was the third time in as many years that the talented students had reached the nationals, another local record.
Both Jake and Frank have goals. Jake has his eyes on the life of an adventurer. He hopes to write for a publication like National Geographic or Smithsonian magazine.
Frank wants to be a professional musician. He plays guitar, clarinet and violin and performs in the Maury concert orchestra. Jake plays bass in the orchestra.
Norfolk students taking honors classes are required to do an independent research project. It's optional whether students enter the National History Day contest, which is open to sixth- through 12th-graders.
Jake and Frank, who say they enjoy competition and like winning even more, have always gone the extra mile to compete.
In sixth grade, they teamed up on a project to explore the vanishing culture of Eskimos. They won first in the state but didn't place after advancing to the nationals.
They went their separate ways in seventh grade. Jake examined the Vietnam Memorial and ``what it communicates to us.''
``It made us more aware of the casualties of war and how wars are horribly bloody and how some wars just aren't necessary,'' Jake said.
Frank, a Civil War buff, focused on the effect of war correspondents. He discovered that many of them, under pressure from editors to produce copy, made up accounts of battles.
Frank won first in the state and placed eighth nationally. Jake finished second in the state but didn't place in the nationals.
Joining forces again in eighth grade, Jake and Frank picked Hotchkiss to fulfill the contest theme of ``Geography in History: People, Places and Time.'' Frank learned about Hotchkiss after receiving a book about him from his grandmother. The book's bibliography launched their search.
They spent hours over a 10-month period combing libraries and preparing a three-panel board to display their findings.
Frank's dad, Frank Scully Jr., chairman of Old Dominion University's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, opened an inside route to ODU's library, where they perused official Civil War records.
Hotchkiss' detailed maps of Virginia's Shenandoah Valley proved invaluable to Stonewall Jackson and other Confederate generals.
``With Hotchkiss' maps, the commanders were able to utilize the land to their advantage,'' Jake said. ``We feel he helped prolong the Civil War.''
Historians today routinely use his maps and journal to clarify historical records and events, Jake said.
``History is as exciting as a sport, or it can be,'' said Paula Williams, an eighth-grade civics teacher at Blair.
``We talk about involving kids in learning and empowering them to be masters of their learning - this is a classic example of that,'' said Gloria P. Hagens, senior coordinator of social studies for Norfolk public schools.
The Scully-Shaffer team is already at work on a project for this year's National History Day, about blacks and baseball. They'll be competing now in the senior division, making them eligible to win scholarships, trips and other prizes. That's a motivator, but there are other reasons Frank and Jake apply themselves in school.
``You've got to make good grades to keep your options open, to get into college and then a job,'' Frank said. ``It's not just the here and now. You have to take a longer view.''
``School is something you have to do, so why not do well in it?'' Jake said.
It also doesn't hurt to have parents who are educators or interested in learning. Frank's mother, Mary Scully, is a freelance writer. Jake's father, George Shaffer, is a teacher at Booker T. Washington High School and his mother, Janice, is an English teacher at Blair. MEMO: Making The Grade highlights outstanding students, teachers and
administrators in Norfolk schools. To nominate candidates for future
articles, contact education reporter Jon Glass at 490-7204. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
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[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
by CNB