I received an email a couple of weeks ago from the part-time school that my oldest son attends. It was a reminder about a special evening presentation that they were going to have, 'a living museum'. At first, I actually ignored the email because I assumed that my son had nothing to do with it. It was a few days later that he asked me to help him get his costume ready for the event. Now, it just happens that we have been studying some ancient history at home: Roman, Greek, and Egyptian. At school, my son's History teacher had asked each student to choose a person from history to study. Hudson chose Emperor Augustus. His first choice was Alexander the Great, but someone else chose him before he had a chance to. So, he settled for his second choice, but someone equally influential and famous. Now, this is the sort of history that kids love to learn. What made this presentation even better was that they had to dress up. You could say that it was going to be a cross between drama and history. The night came. I had to drop Hudson off at the school early so he could help to set up the presentation tables with all of their work. I turned up about an hour earlier with my son, Robert, when everything was ready. We walked into the gymnasium where the event was taking place, and found that it was already packed with people. Everyone was milling around, looking at the presentations, and talking to the students who were all dressed up as different, famous people. There were about twenty students, all loaded with information about the people they were representing, answering questions, and trying to help the parents guess who they were. There were famous inventors, poets, composers, politicians, and royalty. I recognized only about half of the characters; the others I learned about for the first time. It was a great atmosphere, and, I think a great lesson plan for many kinds of classes in school. I can imagine English students doing the same thing, and having to explain who they are. Education doesn't have to be boring after all.

Grammar notes.

Related expressions: to settle for, a cross between ... and .., to mill around.

1. The restaurant didn't have any fresh fish, so I settle for a steak.

2. That dog looks like a cross between a fox and a small bear.

3. The evening was perfect; the square was full of people chatting in cafes, and milling around.