Memorial Day, a day to remember our fallen. What has happened to America that none of our holidays have their intended purpose anymore? Memorial Day, Labor Day, 4th of July, nothing but an excuse to BBQ or travel. Presidents Day, MLK, and Veterans Day just a paid day off or time off from school.
I suppose the career I am trying to start bears some blame. But the government isn’t helping us with diluting existing holidays. We eliminated presidential birthdays and went to a very generic Presidents day. I mean when I was in grade school we spent days on Lincoln (In fairness I was living in Illinois) and Washington around their birthday. We learned about the poppies and why they signified the struggles our fallen faced. I people if they know why the VFW and Legion pass out poppies and am surprised how few adults know the answer to that question.
We owe it to our students to take the time to honor those our holidays honor. Spend a week talking about MLK around MLK day, It should be pretty easy for social studies and ELA teachers to work that into lessons. He was a pretty prolific writer and pivotal figure that can launch many different discussions. Spend some time talking about the fallen on Memorial Day, I mean the literature that has been generated by those who remember is huge and can be found in every culture. Take some time to honor those who served in November. They wrote the biggest check any citizen can write to their society.
Lets make our students curious. Let’s make them explore these holidays so they can never think of them as anything but meaningful.
The Embed Educator 