A new era in the teaching of national and local history will open in Ann Arbor this week.

Today 200 Skyline High School students and their teachers will be bused downtown to meet community leaders who will guide them on 10 carefully organized local history walking tours. Former Mayor Ingrid Sheldon is among the tour guides.

This is the latest step in the work of the Downtown Ann Arbor Historical Street Exhibit Program. Celebrating the history and life of our downtown, 20 transparent glass frames, artifacts and almost 50 wall plaques are already a part of the downtown streetscape. Appealing to all ages and to residents and visitors alike, these permanent exhibits have brought history out of books and libraries and put it on our public sidewalks.

Exhibit program planners have always hoped to coordinate with the city’s public schools to integrate the program and a downtown historical walking tour into the school curriculum. The opening of Skyline High School last year has made that possible. Principal Sulura Jackson, magnet teacher Patricia Jenkins, and Skyline faculty have worked with twelve members of the Street Exhibit Education Committee over the last two years to develop the current pilot project that will have its first test on today.

Tours are not just about identifying historic places and areas in our community. They are also not just about investigating relationships of people, places and local historic themes. Those things are important. But it is about relating local themes, issues and developments to a national or international scene. It’s about connecting students to racial, ethnic, gender, religious and experiential differences that relate to their own identity. Providing opportunities to develop skills in accessing primary and online resources, as well as interviewing individuals who have a special relationship with local history, are also goals of the new educational program for Skyline.

How do the patterns of downtown Ann Arbor development illustrate broad changes in American life? In architecture? Communications? Business? Banking? Shopping? Ethnic and racial migrations? What is the relation of 19th century railroad consolidator Cornelius Vanderbilt to James B. Ashley, builder of the Ann Arbor-Toledo Railroad?

What new resources made possible the construction on Huron and Main of the Glazier Building, Ann Arbor’s first “skyscraper”? Chelsea stove manufacturer and State Treasurer Frank P. Glazier built it in 1907. He later ended up in prison for embezzlement. Was he an example of a “Robber Baron”? How does the growth of Ann Arbor’s north side “Supply Side of Town,” with its transportation and power developments, illustrate the patterns of national industrialization? These are among the questions that 10 tour guides hope to touch on during their downtown walks.

The Downtown Ann Arbor Historical Street Exhibit Program has already won state and national prizes for its unique contribution to downtown public space. Next year program promoters will seek state and national prizes for innovative education for Skyline High School and the Street Exhibit Program.

Ann Arbor resident Ray Detter is project coordinator for the Downtown Ann Arbor Historical Street Exhibit Program.