Teaching Reflection #14

Happy Memorial Day...

One of the most interesting perks of being a teacher is the view. Listening and observing students on a daily basis, teachers get a front row seat as to how students have evolved from the beginning of year to the end. If a teacher has been in the classroom long enough, then that perspective gets wider. In my experience, I've seen students evolve from Pokemon Cards to Minecraft, from I Carly to Pretty Little Liars, from the "Mixed CD" to I-tunes, and from MySpace to Snapchat. Its remarkable to see the interests and motives of the classroom evolve from year to year and sometimes from class to class.   

On this Memorial Day, I was reminded of how the U.S. Military has evolved from its infancy after watching the 1989 film "Glory".  The United States armed services wouldn't allow minorities to enlist throughout the majority of the Civil War, but when they were finally allowed to officially enlist - thanks to the Emancipation Proclamation - the vast majority of the minorities never saw combat. As the United States recovered from Civil War and transitioned itself through WWI and WW2, the U.S. military had enlisted minorities, but these units were segregated. It wasn't until President Truman's executive Order in 1948 that the U.S. Military became desegregated. Today, the U.S. Armed Services allows all race, lifestyles, and genders to enlist, which promotes the ideology of unity and opportunity for all. 

Sometimes it takes time, patience, and grit to socially, culturally, and politically evolve, but within the context of democratic symbolism, its vital for our students to have opportunities to evolve, refine, and process their own policies on education, race, gender, and lifestyle. These opportunities of refinement and process can only happen with history and humanity courses, which provide moments of reflection and appreciation, for its within those classroom moments where true democracy lies.

Whether reflecting on a current, former, or fallen soldier, remembering someone or something keeps American democracy moving and this movement can only occur in the study of our history -
Happy Memorial Day!