Missions in miniature: Cultural constructions of California's mission past

Today the fourth grade mission project, whose highlight is the construction of a miniature mission, is one of the most important curricular elements in the fourth grade, and arguably even in the entire elementary school experience. This study analyzes the origins of the educational mission replica, or the practice of replicating the Franciscan missions, as a means to learning the social memory of California.;First, I examine the mission replica as a stage for the dramatization of the mission myth. Literary productions and plays published on the turn of the century about the mission myth were means for the promulgation of a newly-formed California social memory and state identity. Second, I analyze the progressive era phenomenon of public history events as an evolution of the mission replica into active community participation and reproduction of the mission myth. Public history events allowed for the performance and reproduction of the California social memory through experiences such as role play. Finally, I study the various circumstances that brought the mission replica into the classroom, transforming the social memory into a ritualized performative experience that has endured decades of California elementary education. By participating and experiencing the ritualistic construction of the mission replica, fourth grade children engage in a mnemonic practice of social memory.