Jacob Broom, the fifth signer of the U.S. Constitution, visited Skowhegan Area High School on March 14 (at least someone portraying him did).

“Broom” looked like he came straight from the late 1700s. When he was a Delaware delegate at the Constitutional Convention, he never missed a session, showing his devotion to the cause.

He had come to teach the students about the Constitution. He also wanted the students to know their history. He summarized the events that eventually resulted in the signing of the Constitution.

There was a saying he had as well: “You have to know where you’ve been to know where you want to go.”

What he was saying is if we are a freedom-loving people, then we need to know what happened historically that made us take the drastic actions required to free ourselves from the British Empire.

We think that this sort of thing (having a historical figure visit schools) is something that should happen more often. We think more schools should hold events like this. It would help the students to learn about our history in an interesting way.

We think our nation has strayed from the intentions of our Founding Fathers, and we need to steer ourselves back toward that. If we don’t, then what was the point of creating this new nation?

Rachel and Sydney Paquet

Smithfield