Jamaica school kids dig up a time capsule from 1999 and bury a new one

June 11, 4:05 PMQueens Education News ExaminerLorraine Cappuccio

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Yesterday fourth and fifth graders at P.S.80 in Jamaica, Queens assisted in digging up a "time capsule" from 1999 buried in the front courtyard of the school. The capsule was made up of two large soda bottles stuck together  with their bottoms cut off . It contained wet slips of paper flattened in the ten years it was buried in the courtyard. On the slips of paper students had written their predictions for the future. Some of the still legible writings revealed that some children wanted to be lawyers, others, astronauts. It was very exciting for the students to see what the fourth and fifth graders of 1999 had written.

A 19 year old P.S.80 alumna who was a fourth grader 10 years ago returned to the school to see what she and her classmates had buried. She said that she did not see what she had written but " it was nice to remember how we had all these vivid ideas of the future."

Teachers involved in this activity also were excited about it. According to part-time guidance counselor Winsome Christie she was happy about the activity because "it gets kids thinking and shows them that they could impact their future." Another guidance counselor Max Nass hoped that this activity would spread to other schools.

After retrieving the 1999 time capsule thirty -eight present fourth and fifth graders buried a new capsule : a stronger PVC container. In it were the 1999 predictions, 14 items relevant to this decade, including two cell phones and their predictions for 2019. One 9 year old girl predicted that she would be the first African American woman president.

Source: The Daily News (6/11/09)