Making Models of Missions- the Collective CA Experience

Every fourth grader in a California public school has to build a model of a mission in fourth grade.

Why isn’t this recognized as the great collective California experience? It’s something pretty much all of us have in common with each other.

How long has it been going on? Is anyone else disturbed by the fact that you can now get pre-made model kits, along with an entire line of model mission accessories, that are surely marketed pretty much soley towards fourth graders?

What was your mission like? I barely remember mine- but it was styrofoam (but certainly not pre-made) and involved a lot of moss.

Mine was a classic mission, San Juan Capistrano, I think, rendered lovingly in popsicle sticks and Playdoh. With little pipe-cleaner sheep. And moss. Oh, yeah. Lots of moss (to hide the “design flaws”.)

I don’t know whether to be happy or sad about the pre-made models. Obviously, it takes everything away from the experience. Just as obviously, it proves that capitalism works, and that someone saw a demand and filled it.

sigh

Now I feel old…

I used that short tubular macaroni for my structural parts and peeled the skin off of some cardboard (which I then painted red) to create the tiled roof.

If it ain’t from scratch, you should not get any points. Anyone can put together a store bought kit. If you didn’t dumpster dive at four in the morning during a howling blizzard (uphill, both ways!) for your model components, you ain’t sh!t.

Kits are not allowed at my kid’s school, although I always see one or two at open house.

Well, I guess it’s only collective for you public school kids.

Every fourth grader at my school, for a while, did have to make a house (usually an igloo) out of sugarcubes. Though we glued them together, so when you ate it, it was elmer’s-flavored sugar.

Ah-ha!

One of the nearby hobby shops (San Antonio Hobby in Mt. View) has a whole section dedicated to mission building supplies right as you walk in the door. Every time I’ve gone in there I’ve wondered if there was some strange subculture of the already strange model building subculture that obsessively constructed models of California missions, and enough of them to dedicate 15 feet or so of shelf space to their hobby. It’s especially weird because it’s mostly little trees and wall bits, which they also have in the model train section.

Now I understand - they’re trying to lure in the parents of fourth graders.

I made mine out of sugar cubes back in 1969. Eeep!

Heh. I went to a Catholic school–I thought this was something only we were tortured with! My dad is a veterinarian, and when he’d order stuff from drug companies for his pharmacy, the drugs were often shipped in syrofoam-lined boxes, so I just nabbed a bunch of 1/2 inch thick sheets of styrofoam to build the walls from. I remember some of the kids used sugar cubes, and I also remember a fourth-grader’s sense of deep injustice and outrage that some kids’ parents built their missions for them:frowning:
They were way more professional looking than the rest of them, and I always wondered why the hell a parent would do that.

Heh. I went to a Catholic school–I thought this was something only we were tortured with! My dad is a veterinarian, and when he’d order stuff from drug companies for his pharmacy, the drugs were often shipped in syrofoam-lined boxes, so I just nabbed a bunch of 1/2 inch thick sheets of styrofoam to build the walls from. I remember some of the kids used sugar cubes, and I also remember a fourth-grader’s sense of deep injustice and outrage that some kids’ parents built their missions for them! :mad:
They were way more professional looking than the rest of them, and I always wondered why the hell a parent would do that.

Peace,
~mixie

I SWEAR I only submitted that once. Still mad though.

I went to public school, and was in 4th grade in 1983.

Why didn’t I have to build a mission?

:frowning:

I too went to a public school in CA and didn’t have to build a mission. I think i was in 4th grade back in '92 or '93. Why didn’t I have to?

Scotcho

I did it, in 1967.

I believe I did one of the easier ones, like Nuestra Señora de la Soledad. You know, the one that was all in ruins?

Just kidding, of course. Mrs. Parmenter would have never let anyone get away with that. I did the Santa Barbara Mission, my personal favorite of all the missions.

And it’s become a personal goal of mine to visit all 21 missions. There’s only 10 left on my list.

But it’s always got me wondering about the religious aspect of the missions being taught in public schools. Shouldn’t that have been a problem?

I never made a mission. I was in 4th grade in 1969. Could it be that this mission building task is also subject to county. I know of no kids who do it in Imperial County (where I spent the 1st 18 yrs of my life – shudder)

I went to public school but I don’t remember building a mission.

My nieces, however, also in public school, were pretty much told that their folks would have to take them to visit a mission so they could write the report, build the thing, etc.

Has anyone ever built one that showed the bad, ugly, mean side of life on those missions?
Just wondering.

I had California history in 4th grade (1969-70) at a Catholic school, and while I don’t remember building a mission, I distinctly remember asking Sister Armadillo (not her real name, but close enough) why the Indians had to become Catholics if they already had a religion before the missionaries got there.

The funny thing is that, although I was always the one to ask these kinds of questions (and did so in all seriousness), I was given the Religion Award almost every year.

What I forgot to add to my post is an interesting piece of family history. My grandfather went to school at the San Juan Capistrano mission thru the 5th grade. This was in 1890’s. At that time they only taught school in Spanish.

deb – who can trade her family roots in California back to before California was a part of U.S.