Should teachers indoctrinate or educate?

As another school year comes to a close, I realize how much I will miss (most!) of my students. Being a teacher has wonderful intrinsic benefits, the best of which is the relationship that we build with our students. But I am deeply troubled by the knowledge that there are teachers, certainly some on my own campus, that use their power and position as a teacher to indoctrinate students to their own political and/or religious viewpoints. One such teacher at BHS has a reputation of freely speaking about his own views and blasting any student brave enough to speak in defense of a contrary position. Some have even reported that they are graded lower on assignments because of their own views or beliefs. If this is true (yes, students have been known to exaggerate) then this behavior by the teacher is, in my opinion, an actionable offense. It is one thing to speak of one's own beliefs if it is relative to the subject at hand and is clearly stated as one's point of view. It is quite another to enforce a belief system in class and bully students into conforming to it.

D-Day Remembered

June 6th always makes me deeply ponder the events of that day in 1944. Having visited the beaches of Normandy and the beautiful lands of Northern France on three occasions, I can appreciate the grounds unto which our allied forces landed 64 years ago. Being there without the guns of war raging naturally fails to provide one with the true sense of what happened on that day, but seeing the terrain and viewing the surf adds dimension to the visions that one conjures up about the events of that day. The deep shell craters of Pointe du Hoc testify to the violence of the day. The mostly submerged remnants of the Mulberry Harbor at Arromanches testify to the ingenuity of the allied planners who sought to overcome the logistical obstacles of not possessing a secured port. Towns and villages such as St. Mere Eglise and Port en Bessin contain visual clues of the fighting that took place, whether the evidence be once destroyed but now rebuilt structures or abandoned Axis defense positions that now house the ghosts of soldiers frightened but determined in the face of the greatest amphibious assault in warfare up to that time. For the few who were there on that day, my romantic musings of Normandy mean little when compared to the overwhelming visual stimuli that bombarded them on June 6, 1944.

I have had the opportunity and honor to accompany a small band of American students to visit Normandy on three separate occassions (2004, 2005, and 2007). Admittedly, there was a mix of interest in what happened there. Some of the students were fully engaged and eager to learn more throughout the 10-day visit. Others were more focused upon the shallow, temporary thrill of a trip to Europe. While the former were hanging on every detail available from guides and museum exhibits, the latter took cat naps to make up for the lost sleep sacrificed during the prior night as they conjured up ways to entertain themselves in ways no doubt contrary to the rules.

Perhaps the great equalizer for most of the students as the visit to the American Cemetary. Even the least interested in the true message of the trip had to come to grips with the magnitude of over 9,000 graves of Americans killed during the Normandy campaign. This immaculately manicured piece of hallowed ground has a powerful effect upon those who cast eyes upon it. It is for this reason that our benefactor, the late Mr. George Billingsly of Bella Vista, Arkansas established an endowment to provide eight students and two faculty sponsors from Bentonville High School in Bentonville, Arkansas an annual opportunity to travel to France to see the sites of the last true global war. He did not want Hollywood to dictate what would become the memories of that war. Even if only eight individuals at a time, he wanted some of our youth to have first-hand views of the sites of a truly great struggle, the outcome of which provided them with freedoms that we usually take for granted today. This generous gift has resulted in the planting of seeds. Eight seeds are sown each year. Some will germinate and grow, flowering into the passing of the story to others. This is how we keep the story alive. Although our veterans of the struggle pass on daily, we still have chances to speak to them, to learn, and to honor them. No matter how humble or mundane their contribution may have been at Normandy or anywhere else in the conflict known here as World War Two, we as a people must remember their deeds and enjoy the benefits that they sacrificed time, youth or life to provide.

Photographs property of David Chapman