October 2000 Students place 7th in History Day competition
By Sheldon J. Reber, Director of School and Community Relations
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F or two local high school students, their knowledge about Napoléon Bonaparte was somewhat limited. They knew that he was short, wore a two-corner hat, and was seen with his hand tucked into his jacket. That narrow view about one of history's most prominent figures was about to change. After spending hundreds of hours researching the French general and creating a living-history project, the two friends beat 298 local students to win first-place in the Humboldt County History Day competition. They then earned first-place honors out of 1,000 students in the California History Day competitions and were selected as two of 40 contenders for the national finals. Last June, Aaron Batt and Erik Andersen took their award-winning theatrical presentation on Napoléon, "Hero or Tyrant: Shaper of the Western World," to the national finals in College Park, Maryland and placed seventh out of a field of 80 presentations. Batt, a junior at Eureka High School, and Andersen, a sophomore at Arcata High School, have know each other since they attended Maple Creek School and have been involved in History Day projects since the sixth-grade. They credit Maple Creek School teacher Leslie Odelberg with inspiring them to get interested in History Day. The two also won the Humboldt County and California History Day competitions last year and went on to place ninth in the nation with their presentation on Christopher Columbus. In the piece, Batt and Andersen portray various characters from the French Revolution as well as Napoléon. "The French Revolution set the stage for the rise of Napoléon. He was known as a tyrant, but he also promoted nationalism throughout Europe. Our country's constitution is based partly on Napoléonic code," said Batt. "There is so much about him, we let the audience draw their own conclusion." The students found that while conquered territories saw Napoléon as a tyrant, the general was seen as a hero in France for creating the first modern bureaucracy complete with standardized education programs, hospitals, national civil service, the Bank of France, and the Code civil des Français. The Code formalized the liberal ideas and rights won by the French Revolution, simplified French civil law, and became the model for legal codes throughout the world.
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