Wisdom Shared

“What advice do you have for young people today?”

Written by the students of Mrs. Brown’s Class:

Deep in the midst of a regular school day at the Woodstock Union High School, six veterans of the Ora E. Paul American Legion Post #24 in Woodstock, Vermont, sat with six high school students to share their memories and stories from long ago. Students visited with veterans of World War II, The Vietnam War, and the Korean Conflict. Throughout the school year the students had been reading, writing about, and analyzing the book, Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand. After a deep connection with the content the class found that one of the most important things is remembrance - so they set out to meet and interview these kind men that served our country.

Then, on the 23rd of May, 2018, they hosted veterans and their families to present and read aloud thank you notes and reactions to the interviews. They also created posters made with portraits taken by a Woodstock student and added words of wisdom from these fabulous fighters of the past which will be on display in the school for years to come. The quotes came from answers to our final interview question, “What advice do you have for young people today?” Students of the Structured Writing Class, extend their thanks to their new friends, Specialist 5 Fred Blood, Sergeant Rodney Croft, Chief Warrant Officer 4 James J. Hasson, Ensign Coleman “Bill” Hoyt, Lieutenant Airell B. Jenks, and Sergeant Floyd Van Alstyne.

Students' Driving Question:

"How can we honor our local veterans?"

Students' Answer:

"Laura Hillenbrand honored Louie by listening to him. What if no one had bothered to hear his stories? We could just start by listening, too."

The students developed their plan into several pieces: interviewing veterans; writing thank you notes that highlighted what they learned; creating posters with pull quotes that answered the last interview question, "Finally, what advice do you have for young people today?"; and planning and hosting a gathering of veterans and their families to read letters, present work, and display posters.