AGOURA HILLS : School Goes Back to the Middle Ages

Several hundred seventh-graders bought homemade jewelry, food and other items the old-fashioned way Friday: They bartered with their own Middle Ages-style wares at the Lindero Canyon Middle School’s seventh annual Olde World Faire.

Every seventh-grader in the school participated in the event--the “culmination of a year of study,” social science teacher Patrick Hill said. Students created their own costumes and, in groups, made crafts and designed booths.

Students hawking everything from perfume, beaded necklaces, Chinese-style kites and pastries to fortunetelling, religious counseling and “medicine” lined the basketball court blacktop.

Unlike the massive Renaissance Pleasure Faire, which was held less than 15 miles away in Las Virgenes Canyon until several years ago, the school’s event took a broad focus on four centuries beginning in the year 1200 in Europe, Asia, Africa the Middle East and the pre-Columbus Americas.

“We wanted to get away from doing just a European, ethnocentric thing,” Hill said. “This way, the kids get to deal with different cultures, many of which were just as interesting during this period.”