1 July I have had some amazing experiences as a teacher, but none so moving as today. For the past 6 months, Taylor and her 14 other Normandy student scholars have studied the lives of ordinary men who did extraordinary things on D-Day. They have poured through archives, researched in libraries, and talked to relatives to understand just who these men were. They poured over battle reports and other primary source documents at the National Archives, and this week they walked the beaches where the men took their last breath. Today, Taylor and her companions honored these men with personal eulogies that moved everyone present. As we went from grave to grave in the Normandy Cemetery (you might remember it from the opening of Saving Private Ryan), each student shared the story of how a not just how a man died, but how he lived and the legacy he leaves for us. The Normandy Institute was created to create a link between generations: to help them see these men not as names and faces in history books, but as young men just like them who gave ‘the last full measure’ so that we can live in freedom. As I watched each student give their eulogy, I was reminded just why I love being a teacher and what great people teenagers are. I will forever remember this day and Taylors moving words about LT Leroy E. Jacobson. Thought of the Day: In great deeds, something abides. On great fields, something stays. Forms change and pass; bodies disappear; but spirits linger, to consecrate ground for the vision-place of souls. And reverent men and women from afar, and generations that know us not and that we know not of, heart-drawn to see where and by whom great things were suffered and done for them, shall come to this deathless field, to ponder and dream; and lo! the shadow of a mighty presence shall wrap them in its bosom, and the power of the vision pass into their souls.” Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Gettysburg, PA, October 3, 1888.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Jul 2014 22:34:24 +0000
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