Huntington Freshmen Enjoy Unique Learning Experience

Huntington High School freshmen enjoyed a unique learning experience this week with a visit by world explorer, Denis Belliveau who shared the story of his two year odyssey journey in the early 1990s with his Friend Fran O'Donnell in the footsteps of Marco Polo. A major PBS documentary was made about the historic trek.

“He shared entrancing stories, his journals, paintings, and photos he took, as well as artifacts from the trek,” said Joseph Leavy, Huntington UFSD’s chairman of social studies, 7-12. “These included silk-made clothing from the Asian cities and town he visited of the clothing many Asian peoples wore now and from a period over 700 years ago. He also showed the students money from Asian countries such as Mongolia, China, Iran, and let them touch and see ancient porcelain, camel hair, and yak-hair, and horsehair which was the raw materials used by the Turkish peoples to make clothing and bags. The students paid rapt attention as he shared his encounters from the travels he took through Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Tibet, and China.”

Mr. Belliveau traveled over the Marco Polo path, known as the Silk Road for two years and all the evidence he accumulated proved to the students and teachers that Marco Polo did, in fact, make the journey across Asia that some historians still contest.

“The history and evidence tells us that Polo served Kublai Khan for 17 years and his detailed accounts, written in ‘The Travels of Marco Polo,’ introduced Europeans in the14th century to Asian culture, paper money, silk, and coal, significantly influencing later exploration,” Mr. Leavy said.

Assistant Superintendent Brenden Cusack and Principal Rochelle C. Brown along with many faculty members were in attendance during the presentation. “The ninth grade teachers have follow-up lessons prepared for their students as they continue to study the New York State Social Studies curriculum for grade nine,” Mr. Leavy said.