|Photo by Joselyn King| Wheeling Park High School social studies teacher Ryan Stanton prepares for the start of the school year, and also for the first offerings of his adult education course on Wheeling History -- which starts Sept. 7.

WHEELING – Wheeling Park High School social studies teacher Ryan Stanton is accustomed to teaching Wheeling’s history to youths who may know little about the city’s past.

He acknowledges, though, that students in an upcoming adult education history of Wheeling class he is set to teach likely will know more on some topics than he does.

The adult Wheeling history class is set to happen beginning at 10 a.m.on Sept. 7 in the Tech 1 classroom at WPHS. The first session is likely to include a tour of the remodeled WPHS and a focus on the history of Ohio County Schools.

Stanton noted there will be at least seven sessions on the following Saturday mornings, with each having a different topic. The sessions will last about an hour, explained Karin Butyn, communications and public relations director for Ohio County Schools.

All of the sessions will be free, and those wishing to attend do not have to attend all sessions to participate.

Registration isn’t required, but is requested so that organizers know just how many will be attending. Those interested should register at http://www.tinyurl.com/historyofwheeling.

Ohio County Schools has received a $1,000 partnership grant from Wheeling Heritage to offer the same history of Wheeling class. The money will pay for the cost of purchasing copies of the book “Wheeling: Then and Now” by Sean Duffy, programming coordinator at the Ohio County Public Library and the executive director of the Wheeling Academy of Law and Science. Refreshments also will be served during classes.

The school district will compensate Stanton for teaching the adult education course, Butyn added.

Stanton teaches two daily history of Wheeling classes to high school students each year, and he reports a total of about 60 students participate.

“Students like learning about where they live, and they find it interesting,” he said.

The daily course is divided into different themes. Among them are frontier history, transportation history, statehood, industry, and genealogy and how to research your own family history.

There is a discussion of mob history, as well as a discussion about the decline of Wheeling and what happened to the city’s population.

“That’s what I hope to cover with the adult class, too,” Stanton said.

What’s going to be different about the adult class is that there will be no homework or assignments, he continued.

“I’m probably going to open with a theme, and hit the high points,” Stanton explained. “Then there will be a question-and-answer session.”

He suspects the adults who attend likely already have an interest in Wheeling history,

“They probably already know more than I do about some things, especially about what Wheeling used to be like during their lifetime,” Stanton said. “I don’t know about downtown Wheeling when there were a lot of businesses and there was a lot going on.

“A lot of these people in the classes will know. I think it’s going to be kind of cool to get their perspective, and I can use that in the classroom with kids.”

Some of the classes may involve meeting downtown at Heritage Port and doing a walking tour, Stanton said.