Brought my two KIA Purple Hearts to school the other day. Very interesting experience.

[Garandomatic]

I teach 9th grade world history and 10th grade US history, and had planned to do this since picking up the two hearts I own from forum members over the past year. One belonged to a 1st AD fellow that died of wounds at Anzio, and the other was on the first B-29 to be rammed by a Japanese plane. This was for the 10th grade kids. I have three classes that are very different. Two are special ed inclusion classes, one very quiet and almost docile for the most part, the other far more chatty and wild at times. They've got their clowns, the docile class is a little harder working, but the chatty class seems to learn a little quicker. Third class is "normal," I guess you'd say, but I have done thins long enough to know that your best kids could be in any of the classes, regardless of label or classification.

 

Anyways, I set the stage, told the kids that I wanted them quiet for what I was going to do, which is no small feat, but they were, for the most part. Also told them to handle the boxes from underneath, and not to touch the medals, but look as long as they want, pass them around for the other kids, and half the room researched one man, the other half had the other. I flipped the medals name-up for this, and a few asked me to turn it around so they could see the front, and they did a good job. I gave them suggested sites, told them how to search google more effectively, and they did a good job. There were 2 or 3 sites that told the B-29 man's story, and they were pretty impressed by that. The 1st AD man was more difficult, and all I could expect from the kids that were looking into him was unit info, and where they were when he was hit. The paper closed with questions that had them seek out total US casualties, casualties for our state, etc. just to establish the "price" of it all.

 

After they had went as far as I could expect, I told everybody the story of each man. I read them the details of the 1st AD fellow from documents that came with it, and talked about Anzio for a little bit. All in all, I think the medals had a big impact. One girl was shocked that a family would cut them loose, and I said that these guys never had kids, and a lot of families aren't interested in what a great-great uncle that they never met had done. I guess what hit me, and made me post about it, because I don't really start many posts about what I do or what I collect, is that I was able to get three classes of kids to show respect to those medals, and I really think I made most of them care for a little bit. Now if I could find a way to do that every day...

[Garandomatic]

Ought to point out that I had planned to make a plexi-glass frame for each heart so that handling would not be an issue, but WWII came up on us almost as quick as the flu that knocked me out for three days this week, but I don't think one kid disobeyed and fingered up those hearts. A colleague always seems to have issues with kids messing with his things, and I really never do at all.

[scottplen]

Good job !

[sundance]

Good work. I'd love to think all history teachers did this kind of thing but get the sense that that is not the case.

[MWalsh]

Nice work. Its far less of an abstract concept to young people when they can hold the actual history in their hands, versus reading about it or hearing about it.

 

Well played.

[CNY Militaria]

Glad to hear it went so well! About ten years ago I used to bring items into a local school and teach 8th graders about military history, all while allowing them to handle (some) of the items. Many teachers remarked that during the two hour blocks, many of their class clowns or noisy classes actually paid attention. It's a great experience!

[MAW]

Those should be confiscated immediately, because no average citizen should be able to own them. You cannot possibly have the capacity to appreciate what they represent. {sarcasm!!}.

 

Seriously....good job!

[bobgee]

Excellent job! Congrats! bobgee

[dhcoleterracina]

A wonderful way to keep their memory alive. Thanks

[John Conway]

I am a guest speaker for a 6th grade Social Studies class once a year. I never cease to be amazed at the respect and attention the kids have for the presentation and the artifacts I share. The questions they ask always impress me and and their open minded approach to what I have to share is often insightful. The teacher is quite good to work with and encourages the kids to remember that "history is in the telling" meaning there are many different positions and viewpoints to be considered when we look back on history. I take a variety of objects from both sides of the conflict and encourage the kids to look at them and even try on uniforms and headgear. I try to represent a wide variety of participants; men, women and a variety of ethnicities. I was even able to bring a Medal of Honor recipient with me one time and he was a big hit. I find I often learn as much or more from the experience as the kids do and I always receive a large envelope of hand written thank you messages in the mail a few days after the presentation. I save these in a binder because, to me, they are as much a part of my collection as the things I show these kids. I'll never forget one student's note thanked me for sharing what I have and added "my grandpa has a lot of that stuff, I'll try to get you something". Each year the experience is a strong reminder of the price paid for our freedoms and the young people the freedom earned is intended to serve. The real value of what we collect can be measured in many ways. Monetary aspects of our hobby are highly over rated.

[Medalman90]

Well done!

 

 

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[Brian Dentino]

First off, let me thank you for being a teacher and a mentor to our kids! Secondly, kudos to you for making and taking the time to teach them about something as important as the sacrifice and history of our Nations finest. Whether it be WWI-WWII-Korea-Vietnam-Civil War-GWOT-etc our kids get little to no exposure to the sacrifice and cost of our freedom/history. I know this because I have 3 kids (15, and 12 yr old twins) and I see what they are taught. Mine know our history because of my hobby, but I also know that many are not really taught on such events and have little understanding of how these times effect and have influenced our current times. I want to thank you sir, from the bottom of my heart, for taking the responsibility and trust of being a teacher of our children and educating and forming them into our future society!