~and what is it that they will remember?~
I have learned many things over the course of the last 40+ years in the business of education. One of the best things I have learned is this.
Sometimes, for the sake of the children, you have to think out of the box.
A year ago today on November 10th of 2018, 7 of my 10 second graders from Grandfield, Oklahoma had the chance to do just that when we visited Ft. Sill National Cemetery near the community of Elgin, Oklahoma. This is their story.
Grandfield Elementary in Tillman County, Oklahoma was my school home for two years, beginning in August of 2017 and ending in May of this year. I was most blessed to be assigned to the second grade room there and the opportunity could not have arrived at a better time. 6 weeks before the start of that first year, my beloved sister Sherry passed away after struggling forever it would seem from the effects of COPD. As a lifelong Oklahoma educator, it was Sherry who had been my mentor and she was always there for me, especially for an after school phone call to check in and see how our day went. 7 months later it would be Wes, Sherry's husband of over 40 years, who would pass away as well. Losing them both so quickly came as a shock to all of us. No one figured it would happen that way, yet it did.
In sadness, we all had to move on without them.
When the next group of second grade children walked through the door of our classroom in the fall of 2018, I began to do a little thinking. The sting of my sister's and brother-in-law's recent deaths had eased up a bit although it seemed as if they were always on my mind. I'm not sure how to explain it, but I felt in my heart there was a lesson that they wanted me to teach the kids. It was looming on the horizon for students to learn. I had no real idea what the lesson was supposed to entail but in the weeks that would lie ahead, especially as we moved towards the observance of Veteran's Day in the month of November, I began to see the way to teach the type of thing that I love the most.
~the lessons of life~
Wes had retired from active military service in the Air Force and it was his wish to be buried in the National Cemetery at Ft. Sill. In the freezing cold of a February day in 2018, we left his body there upon the Oklahoma prairie just as he had asked us to. His name would be commemorated upon a plain yet strikingly brilliant piece of polished white stone. Since Veteran's Day of 2018 would be Wes's first one since the interment of his earthly remains at Ft. Sill, perhaps it would be a good time to take a class there to visit. While we were there, maybe they could also be a part of a time honored tradition, one of leaving coins upon the headstones of veterans. It seemed like the perfect combination to teach the solemnity of Veteran's Day as well as give the kids a chance to see what a national cemetery even looked like.
In the early morning hours of that Saturday morning, 7 of my 10 students met me at school to prepare for the journey of just about an hour. The skies were clear and blue with the sun shining brightly, yet a cold north wind blew upon us and it was going to be a chilly day to be outside. We bundled up to prepare to be outdoors for however long it might take us. Miss Lucy, our wonderful bus driver, met us at the door with a huge smile on her face.
Several parents went along to help out on this nontraditional kind of field trip. I was surely grateful for their assistance. One of them loaded a basket that had been filled with pennies, all of them donated by the kids and their families. We actually stopped counting those coins after we made it to the number 5,000. The exact number wasn't important. The important thing was about to happen.
This was my first experience in taking kids this young to a cemetery and I wasn't sure how to explain to them what they could expect to see. Some of it just had to be experienced. I was worried that their tender and young hearts might be troubled as they realized where they were actually heading to. I spoke with them at length in the days before that Saturday morning about the character traits that I would expect to see them exhibit. Those young kids knew that they were stepping onto sacred ground once they left the confines of the bus.
How would they behave?
I need not to have worried.
With bags of pennies in their cold and gloved hands, they slipped out into the section where my brother-in-law Wes is buried. We stopped at his grave first so that I could explain a little bit about him and how proud he was to have been a soldier for all of his life, serving in the United States Air Force. Those kids listened so reverently and I thought afterwards how honored Wes would have felt to have known that young people had stopped by his grave to say "hello" that day. They left a few coins atop of his marker and we paused for just a moment to take our picture "with him".
I need not to have worried about the experience of visiting a cemetery being an upsetting thing to these children. They huddle together like the family that we were as we came to show honor and respect to those who had died.
After a brief moment there, I dispersed them and their bags of pennies out to canvas the graves of each soldier in Wes's community. We had no idea how many graves there would be in all, so to begin with they were to leave one penny atop the gravestone of each veteran they encountered.
Off they went!
All too soon we were finished. It's amazing how a cold Oklahoma wind that cuts right through you can make you work just a little quicker and move along with a bit more of a purpose. They had handfuls of pennies left in their bags. They told me that they knew exactly what to do with the leftovers and quickly they scurried off towards my brother-in-law's grave. By the time I caught up with them, I smiled at what they had done.
Sometimes, for the sake of the children, you have to think out of the box.
A year ago today on November 10th of 2018, 7 of my 10 second graders from Grandfield, Oklahoma had the chance to do just that when we visited Ft. Sill National Cemetery near the community of Elgin, Oklahoma. This is their story.
Grandfield Elementary in Tillman County, Oklahoma was my school home for two years, beginning in August of 2017 and ending in May of this year. I was most blessed to be assigned to the second grade room there and the opportunity could not have arrived at a better time. 6 weeks before the start of that first year, my beloved sister Sherry passed away after struggling forever it would seem from the effects of COPD. As a lifelong Oklahoma educator, it was Sherry who had been my mentor and she was always there for me, especially for an after school phone call to check in and see how our day went. 7 months later it would be Wes, Sherry's husband of over 40 years, who would pass away as well. Losing them both so quickly came as a shock to all of us. No one figured it would happen that way, yet it did.
In sadness, we all had to move on without them.
When the next group of second grade children walked through the door of our classroom in the fall of 2018, I began to do a little thinking. The sting of my sister's and brother-in-law's recent deaths had eased up a bit although it seemed as if they were always on my mind. I'm not sure how to explain it, but I felt in my heart there was a lesson that they wanted me to teach the kids. It was looming on the horizon for students to learn. I had no real idea what the lesson was supposed to entail but in the weeks that would lie ahead, especially as we moved towards the observance of Veteran's Day in the month of November, I began to see the way to teach the type of thing that I love the most.
~the lessons of life~
Wes had retired from active military service in the Air Force and it was his wish to be buried in the National Cemetery at Ft. Sill. In the freezing cold of a February day in 2018, we left his body there upon the Oklahoma prairie just as he had asked us to. His name would be commemorated upon a plain yet strikingly brilliant piece of polished white stone. Since Veteran's Day of 2018 would be Wes's first one since the interment of his earthly remains at Ft. Sill, perhaps it would be a good time to take a class there to visit. While we were there, maybe they could also be a part of a time honored tradition, one of leaving coins upon the headstones of veterans. It seemed like the perfect combination to teach the solemnity of Veteran's Day as well as give the kids a chance to see what a national cemetery even looked like.
In the early morning hours of that Saturday morning, 7 of my 10 students met me at school to prepare for the journey of just about an hour. The skies were clear and blue with the sun shining brightly, yet a cold north wind blew upon us and it was going to be a chilly day to be outside. We bundled up to prepare to be outdoors for however long it might take us. Miss Lucy, our wonderful bus driver, met us at the door with a huge smile on her face.
Several parents went along to help out on this nontraditional kind of field trip. I was surely grateful for their assistance. One of them loaded a basket that had been filled with pennies, all of them donated by the kids and their families. We actually stopped counting those coins after we made it to the number 5,000. The exact number wasn't important. The important thing was about to happen.
This was my first experience in taking kids this young to a cemetery and I wasn't sure how to explain to them what they could expect to see. Some of it just had to be experienced. I was worried that their tender and young hearts might be troubled as they realized where they were actually heading to. I spoke with them at length in the days before that Saturday morning about the character traits that I would expect to see them exhibit. Those young kids knew that they were stepping onto sacred ground once they left the confines of the bus.
How would they behave?
I need not to have worried.
With bags of pennies in their cold and gloved hands, they slipped out into the section where my brother-in-law Wes is buried. We stopped at his grave first so that I could explain a little bit about him and how proud he was to have been a soldier for all of his life, serving in the United States Air Force. Those kids listened so reverently and I thought afterwards how honored Wes would have felt to have known that young people had stopped by his grave to say "hello" that day. They left a few coins atop of his marker and we paused for just a moment to take our picture "with him".
After a brief moment there, I dispersed them and their bags of pennies out to canvas the graves of each soldier in Wes's community. We had no idea how many graves there would be in all, so to begin with they were to leave one penny atop the gravestone of each veteran they encountered.
Off they went!
I did so enjoy walking along side of them as they made their way up and down the long rows of headstones. Sometimes you could hear their little voices read names of those who were buried there, doing the math in their heads to determine how old they might have been when they died. Every once in a while I would hear them loudly call out my name as they beseeched me to come quickly to where they were standing. Sometimes they would encounter a grave that already had been visited by someone else as was evidenced by quarters, dimes, and nickels already upon it. Other times it would be to tell me something that really brought a smile to my face.
"Look Mrs. Renfro! We found your name! Another person named Peggy is buried here!"And they were right. It was someone named Peggy.
All too soon we were finished. It's amazing how a cold Oklahoma wind that cuts right through you can make you work just a little quicker and move along with a bit more of a purpose. They had handfuls of pennies left in their bags. They told me that they knew exactly what to do with the leftovers and quickly they scurried off towards my brother-in-law's grave. By the time I caught up with them, I smiled at what they had done.
I'm pretty sure that Wes would have smiled too!
It was the best day over! 7 children and their teacher spent a Saturday together honoring the dead. Our hands were frozen and our noses were bright red before we were finished!
When they are older and think back to their second grade year, I'm sure they won't remember all that much of the particulars of what I taught them about reading and math. That's ok. But I bet they WILL remember the cold November day when they took a journey to deliver pennies on a Saturday morning in Comanche County, Oklahoma.
And if that's what they remember, well as a teacher I will be so proud!
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