Cemeteries can show evidence of great social upheavals such as war, great epidemics and other great natural disasters such as fires. The cemetery will offer mute but stirring testimony that was lived in a vastly different manner in generations gone by. It is true that cemeteries everywhere have general similarities, but at the same time, each is unique in character. Consider colonial cemeteries in the Eastern U.S. with their precise slate stones, listing partial genealogies in dignified columns and compare them to the rowdy Rocky Mountain cemeteries with their fading wooden crosses offering such information as In Memory of Hon. 2nd Territorial Delegate of Congress from Ida.
Cemeteries reflect with accuracy the spirit of people who lived in that place in that time.
However, it is not necessary to examine cemeteries 2000 miles apart to be able to savor the distinctness. Search for the uniqueness that helps to identify the character of the people who lived and who were buried in the cemetery. The laboratory of the science teacher is the science lab. The cemetery study can be adapted to meet the levels of students of differing grade levels. A number of journal articles have shown how teachers and students have used some type of cemetery lesson.