A few months back in my US History class (sophomores), I was showing the film Saving Private Ryan. In the middle of the first sequence, which depicts Omaha Beach, I saw one of my students turn to another student, shake her head, and put her hands over her eyes. I was standing near both of them and noticed she was crying. Knowing that I was in an "enduring understanding" moment, I kneeled down next to her and whispered,
"Do you understand the sacrifice they made?"
She nodded.
"You honor them and all the others that have died in service to this nation by never forgetting" I added.
She won't.
So should we all.
1 comment:
Well, that's one post of your that I agree with wholeheartedly. Better than the story of my father's high school teacher, after a good degree of prodding by the class to talk about his war experiences, describing how on Guadalcanal a mortar blast blew his best friend's helmet off, even though they were in foxholes. He grabbed the helmet to toss it back to him, but it still had it his friend's head strapped inside it. A girl vomited in class. The teacher, a former Marine, was told never to talk about his experiences no matter how much students tried to chisel them out of him.
People who don't know, simply don't know. Period. End of story.
Post a Comment