WEST CHESTER TWP.

Excitement was palpable as Freedom Elementary students gathered for the opening of their schools time capsule.

In celebration of Freedoms 25th anniversary, various school activities were held this week catered around the capsules opening. Scavenger hunts, trivia and educational games were among the activities as students learned what it was like to live in 1988.

On Wednesday, 630 students crowded in the gym of the school on Beckett Ridge Boulevard in West Chester Twp. waiting for an event 25 years in the making.

Throughout the assembly, Freedom principal Sabrina Hubert and the five guest speakers stressed that one major difference between 2013 and 1988: technology.

The kids are so use to having electronics that not having them is a foreign concept, she said.

Gasps of horror filled the gym as second-grade teacher Amy Johns explained film reels, overhead projectors and VCRs to the students.

David Tobergte, Freedoms first principal, colored students imaginations with his description of the school building when it first opened. During its first year the floors were made of dirt as the building was not completely finished. Shower curtains were used for bathroom stalls and the kids had to eat lunch in their classrooms.

It was like a campout, but everyone thought it was an adventure, said Tobergte.

Newspaper articles written about Freedom, ribbons from the first field day, letters and drawings from every class, and a signed original copy of the schools song, Let Freedom Ring, were among the containers contents. A cassette recording of students singing the school song was also discovered.

Originally posted here:

Freedom Elementary revisits 1988