As a former History Teacher December 7th was always a day when no matter where we were in the history book, we had to stop and talk about Pearl Harbor and World War II.
Like most history teachers,( or at least most history teachers who coached) I loved teaching about wars. I suppose because wars are easy to teach about since so much material is available. Anyway, I always felt that I did a good job teaching about Pearl Harbor and World War II...until now...
Looking back (with almost 25 years of hind sight) I realize how lousy a job I was really doing. If only I had opened my eyes to the wealth of living, breathing resources that we had available to us.....resources that unfortunately, we are losing every single day.
A couple of weeks ago we had a gentleman, who was actually on a ship at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, come to the school to speak to our students !! What a treasure he was....I hope our students realize how lucky they were to hear about this historical event from an eye witness.
I've also have the pleasure to belong to the local Lion's Club with a gentleman who not only fought in World War II but spent time in a German prison camp...again, a wonderful man who even with everything he's been through continues to give back to his community....Thanks Bill.
Today, my daughter sent me a copy of a story that appeared in the Sioux Falls newspaper about several gentleman from South Dakota who fought in World War II...the main interviewee is a man named Harold Thune who I had the pleasure of teaching with for a couple of years back in the early 1980's before he retired. Harold's is an amazing story...as he left a basketball scholarship at the University of Minnesota to join the war effort and went on to shoot down four enemy planes in a single day. He also happens to be the father of a U.S. Senator. If only I had been smart enough to use all of my available resources back then.....how much richer my students learning would have been if I had only utilized Mr. Thune in my history class...Harold thanks for your service to this country...it's an honor to know you!!
Hope that you enjoy the story:
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