Year four of my teaching career came to an end almost two weeks ago and I finally found the energy to update the site and reflect on my experiences. This school year was, undeniably, the most difficult and exhausting one to date. There were many times where I felt like I was ready to quit. The behavior of most of the students was horrendous and unimaginable. I had one particular Language Arts class filled with ten students whose personalities mixed in one classroom spelled disaster.

The seventh graders, as was unanimously decided by administration and teachers, were the worst behaved grade level at my school. How embarrassing - not for their teachers, but for them, to have earned that reputation…and they still have one more year left at my school. If the eighth graders had had the “honor” of being deemed the worst of the worst, at least they wouldn’t have to worry about the teachers dreading their arrival the following year since they’re all off to high school. The eighth grade teachers I am friends with have informed me several times they are not looking forward to teaching my former students.

At least I have a fresh start in August of 2022 with a (slightly) better behaved group of incoming rising seventh grade students. My best friend Lisa, who taught the sixth graders this past year, but is coming to teach seventh grade history with me this upcoming academic term, has reassured me that their behavior concerns were nowhere near as atrocious as the ones I witnessed with my group of students.

So, silver linings, I suppose. I’m hoping year five - my so-called year of grace - will make up for the dumpster fire that was year four. Year five will have me finally teaching an entire year of ONLY seventh grade history (I’m no longer teaching the split Language Arts and history classes), without (god willing) the interruption of a pandemic and the ineffectiveness of virtual/concurrent learning, and without having to have packed up and moved classrooms or schools. In short, I’m getting a break. I’m receiving some stability. I am looking forward to this year of grace. My friends and family keep wondering what my next move in education will be. My dad is still pushing government service, no surprise there. My one friend who works as a software engineer for a government contractor jokes about me taking classes in computer science so I could do the top-secret work that he does and make a better income. My teacher friends think I could have the role of “librarian” in my future.

Many options. And I’m only thirty. I’ve got time to make my next move. I’m stable and content with fulfilling my year of grace before deciding if I want some change. If I do make a change from middle school, I wouldn’t want it to be super drastic - I think teaching at the high school level is something I could see myself doing next. I’m actually getting the opportunity to teach high school English for summer school, and my other best friend, Cymone, who teaches high school, thinks that I’m going to love it so much that changing my full-time teaching role to the high school will be inevitable.

This year of grace, of course, will continue with me (and Lisa) as co-sponsors of our school’s History Club…which brings me to the focus of today’s (finally) updated post. We received permission in the spring to go on an actual field trip since COVID restrictions had lifted in our school district. Lisa and I, because we had already planned logistics in 2019 for this location for our first ever History Club field trip when we were at our previous school, decided to take the students to Arlington National Cemetery once our standardized testing period had concluded.

We knew the location, we knew what Arlington expected for buses and behavior, we knew it would be no cost to the students, so we definitely knew we could get the trip planned quickly now that the restrictions had lifted. Our principal immediately agreed to our field trip proposal, permission slips were created, a school bus was secured, and we were set to go to Arlington on May 26 - just in time for Memorial Day Weekend.

The students were thrilled to go on a field trip because none of the students in our school had been able to receive this opportunity - it wasn’t a grade level field trip. It was only for the students in the club. Lisa and I knew the smaller group of passionate budding historians in our club were truly going to appreciate the field trip. In fact, some students tried to “join” the History Club at the last minute when they found out we were actually going on a field trip; they were asked to join us next year if they really were interested in being committed members in our club.

I wanted to make the trip a little more memorable for the students, so I reached out to my dear friend, mentor, colleague, and former professor from George Mason, Dr. Kevin Matthews, to see if he would play tour guide and lead the students around Arlington. He had just completed the academic term at Mason, and to my delight, he agreed to meet us for the field trip! Lisa and I were so happy, as the students would get to have a true expert in the historical field accompanying them for the day.

The weather was perfect (there had been the threat of rain), we arrived to the cemetery almost without a hitch (GPS routed us to a restricted entrance so we had to circle around to the visitor’s entrance), we cleared security, and Dr. Matthews met up with us outside the visitor’s center around 10:30 in the morning. That gave us half an hour for him to lead us to the highlight of the trip - the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. None of the students had witnessed this beautiful and solemn event, which always surprises me, as most of them had grown up in the DC Metro area. You’d think they would’ve had the opportunity to at least witness the event once…but oh well. Lisa and I were happy to be the ones to take them for their first time to witness the Changing of the Guard.

This is the Sir John Dill statue from my 2019 field trip to Arlington - unfortunately, the pictures I snapped on from this trip are on my school issued iPad…and I forgot to download them before I turned in the device for the summer…

On our way to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, I knew we were about to pass my favorite location in the cemetery…and it was because of Dr. Matthews that I knew of this location’s existence. Most people simply pass by this large statue of a man on horseback…and don’t care to stop to learn about who he is. Before I took classes with Dr. Matthews in college, I did the same thing whenever I visited Arlington. I asked Dr. Matthews if he would stop and explain the significance of this statue.

And it felt like I was back in college, in some poorly ventilated lecture hall, taking notes, as I listened to Dr. Matthews, for the second time, discuss the man who was the subject of this statue: Sir John Dill.

A British field officer during World War II.

So why the hell is he buried in an American cemetery?

That’s what I thought when Dr. Matthews started the story, so now, I share the story with you:

During World War II, the American Army and Navy worked closely with the British Army, Navy and Royal Air Force (RAF). They had to get over any past tensions and disagreements (Revolutionary War, here’s looking at you), come together, and form a semblance of a working friendship if they wanted to win the war. The officers from the American and British armed forces formed a combined joint chiefs of staff. Sir John Dill was the British representative of the chiefs of staff…and he got along famously with General George C. Marshall. They worked well together and were situated in Washington D.C. during the war.

Dill, unfortunately, became ill and died while on American soil. As a testament to their friendship, and as a symbol of the success of the Anglo-American “special relationship” that had been forged between the two nations, Marshall asked Dill’s widow if she wanted him to be given the honor of being buried at Arlington.

She agreed.

The statue was not commissioned simply to honor Dill’s achievements; it serves as Dill’s final resting place - a British soldier, buried amongst American men who, despite their differences in culture and birthplace, had one wonderfully bittersweet thing in common.

They sacrificed and risked their livelihoods to defend their country.

I remember being awestruck by the story of Dill and Marshall when Dr. Matthews told it to our history class. It was one of those stories that will always remind me of how fascinating and surprising history can be…one of those stories that inspired me to want to teach history to my own students.

So, of course, the Dill story is now one of those anecdotes I try to “hook” my students with whenever we discuss World War II. I had weaved it into my lessons when we finally made it to the World War II unit, but I told Dr. Matthews that morning at Arlington that I wanted the History Club students to have the honor of having him tell the story.

The club members, unsurprisingly, were just as awestruck as I was that day, long ago, listening to it as a college undergraduate one beautiful spring afternoon, forced to be in class, stuck in a stuffy lecture hall.

Dr. Matthews finished the story. I asked to get a group photo of all of us surrounding the statue. We then moved on to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

“Thank you,” I told Dr. Matthews as we led the students away from Dill. “I’ll always love that story, and now, they’ll always remember it…since they heard it from you.”

“I’m glad they know the story now too.”

In awe at the Changing of the Guard ceremony…

At the top of the hour, the Honor Guard began the process to start the Changing of the Guard. We reminded the students that they needed to be quiet and respectful during the ceremony. We told them prior to our arrival at the tomb that they needed to count the steps the Honor Guard took, and try to count how many seconds they looked out into the horizon.

(For those of you who don’t know - 21 steps and 21 seconds to represent the highest symbolic honor: the 21 gun salute).

Once the ceremony was over, we debriefed, and most of the students were able to guess “21” but they didn’t know what it symbolized. Dr. Matthews gave them a brief lesson about how the number represents the 21 gun salute. He then explained to them how the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier came to be at Arlington. He told them that after the death and devastation most European countries experienced during World War I, they wanted to honor those who did not return home by creating sites of remembrance.

Great Britain and France provided closure to their citizens after such a horrific war with the decision for each country to select the remains of an “Unknown Soldier.” Great Britain buried its Unknown Soldier inside Westminster Abbey in London at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior while France buried its Unknown Soldier at the base of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Both of their soldiers were buried on 11 November 1920, exactly two years after the armistice. The United States followed suit one year later on 11 November 1921.

The students were solemn and reflective the entire ceremony.

This tradition continued at Arlington by interring an unknown soldier’s remains from future conflicts; there is one for World War II and Korea. There had been an Unknown Soldier for Vietnam, but in 1998, thanks to DNA testing, the remains were identified and that soldier, Air Force 1st Lieutenant Michael Joseph Blassie, was reinterred in St. Louis, Missouri, per the wishes of his family. The Vietnam crypt to this day remains empty.

Once Dr. Matthews finished his spiel on the history of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, we detoured to the nearby memorial for the sailors who perished in the explosion of the USS Maine, which sparked the splendid little Spanish-American War of 1898. I gave my students a quick verbal “pop quiz” on the Spanish-American War, since that was part of our history curriculum, much to Dr. Matthews’s amusement - to my relief, they were able to remember that the war was not actually fought in Spain or America, but in Cuba, what yellow journalism was, that most soldiers during the war died because of tropical diseases, and the famous battle cry of “Remember the Maine, to Hell with Spain!”

We had a lunch break; the kids were already getting tired and cranky, and according to my cell phone, it was only 11:45 AM! We still hadn’t even gone up the hill to President John F. Kennedy’s (JFK) gravesite and the former home of Robert E. Lee, Arlington House.

I looked at Lisa and joked that the students had severely underestimated how much walking they’d be doing at Arlington.

“Can’t say we didn’t warn them…” she said. I nodded my head in agreement…and off we went to pay our respects to JFK.

Two of my students in front of JFK’s and Jackie’s grave.

The students, once we arrived at JFK’s gravesite, were, dare I say it, even more solemn than they had been at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier…not because they didn’t have respect for the Unknowns, but I think because they had just learned about JFK, his presidency, and how he was killed, in school. I had recently wrapped up the Vietnam War and had shifted into civil rights. We certainly spent some time discussing the nature of his assassination and the work he had started with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to bring more equality to African Americans during the 1960s.

The students posed in front of a section nearby JFK’s site, where visitors can look out into the horizon and reflect on some of the quotes from JFK’s speeches engraved in the granite.

Seeing JFK’s grave, knowing that this was where he had been buried after he was assassinated in Dallas, Texas that fateful day in November of 1963, truly hit them. Their knowledge of him was still fresh in their minds. They noticed that Jackie, his wife, was buried next to him…and then realized that his younger brother, Robert F. Kennedy (RFK), was buried nearby. They had also learned about RFK’s assassination during school, but didn’t know the brothers had been reunited in death at Arlington.

“And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country…”

Me, ca. Spring 2014 - we don’t talk about the petticoats and bonnet, okay?

Up the hill we went to our final stop, Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial. Dr. Matthews had me take the lead, because once, long ago, when I was a naive undergraduate, wanting to become a National Park Service (NPS) ranger, received the opportunity to volunteer at the house. I was optimistic the volunteering would lead to a permanent position with the NPS. I gave tours to the tourists who came to visit the house, dressed up as a Southern Belle, complete with bonnet and petticoats, and learned so much about the history of the house…and the difficult history of the Lees and their choice to own slaves. My students were at odds with the provenance of the house - that it was once a working plantation forcibly staffed by slaves owned by the Lee family.

We had the hard discussion; that unfortunately, it was the reality of the time. We did discuss that the Lees were slightly better owners than other Southern families; Robert E. Lee’s wife, Mary Anna Custis Lee and her daughters taught their slaves how to read, which was illegal in Virginia at the time. I gave the students the history of the house itself; that Mary Lee was the great-granddaughter of Martha Washington…and therefore, the step-great-granddaughter of George Washington. She inherited the house from her father, George Washington Parke Custis, who had opened the house to the public so they could admire all the artifacts and heirlooms of George Washington on display. Mary and Robert E. Lee were third cousins and childhood sweethearts. They were married at Arlington House in 1831 and raised their family there until Lee resigned his commission with the United States Army and joined the Confederate States Army.

Mary and the family stayed at Arlington House until they were forced out by the Union Army in May of 1861. After failure by the Lees to pay a property tax, the house was then auctioned off. The United States government won the auction.

By 1864, Washington D.C. and its surrounding military cemeteries were becoming overcrowded with the war dead from the Union Army. Quartermaster General of the United States Army, Montgomery C. Meigs, suggested that a portion of the land from Arlington House be used to bury the dead. He thought it as a form of revenge for Lee; that he’d never want to return to his home now that Union soldiers had been buried, literally, in his own backyard. Meigs’s suggestion was approved. Lee’s former home became Arlington National Cemetery on June 15, 1864.

Information provided by the National Park Service about the legacy and contributions of the Gray family.

I also talked about the Gray family, the slaves that had been owned by the Lees, and how they were instrumental in finding the Washington artifacts and furnishings that were confiscated when the Union troops had first arrived to the house in 1861. The Grays, who had been set free by the Lees, were also incredibly helpful in helping historians and preservationists restore the house to the way it had appeared before the Lees left. The Gray family helped with making Arlington House accessible to the public. Discussing the significance of the Gray family brightened the mood amongst my students who were uncomfortable with touring a slave-owned plantation; they were happy to hear a historical story that highlighted the importance and contributions of a group of people who never receive recognition. We ended our time at Arlington House by reflecting on the legacies of the Civil War; that the fight for civil liberties and freedoms did not end immediately in 1865 at the surrender of Appomattox.

Dr. Matthews & I - student becomes teacher. I am honored to be a teacher of history, just like he is. Thank you for always inspiring me and encouraging me to never give up on my dreams.

Dr. Matthews said his goodbyes to our students and complimented them on their intelligence and behavior - he told me he’d never seen a group of middle schoolers act so appropriately at such a solemn location. Lisa and I thanked him for his time and we ourselves headed back to the school bus. We laughed at the students on our way back to school - most of them had passed out from exhaustion. The bus was much quieter than it had been on our way to the cemetery. I was very tired myself; I hadn’t done the Arlington walk in a long time, and with my pelvic pain issues, my body was certainly feeling it that evening when I decompressed at home.

The amazement and joy my students received that day though, was 110% worth the pelvic pain. Seeing the looks of wonder and excitement on their faces every step we took at Arlington…giving them the chance to have a normal ending to their crazy school year back in person, after two years of being out of a normal school routine…this field trip was the best moment of my school year. The trip made up for the aforementioned behavioral concerns, the frustrations with the apathy most of my students had to adapting back to school and learning, and the lack of support from parents and guardians.

It also made up for the struggles in my personal life that I started the school year with (see previous summer posts) - it reminded me that my true joy is found in teaching, and that all the doctor’s diagnoses and broken hearts can be mended simply with one “cure”:

Me, in my classroom, surrounded by an incredible and supportive group of teachers and administrators, teaching all the history to my students who deserve a chance at a quality and caring education.

Teaching is my true calling and I will try better this year to not let the imperfections and frustrations in education influence me to quit and find something else to do - I know I wouldn’t be happier in the private sector.

Mischief managed, of course, with Lisa by my side!

So, after I finish my summer break, spend time with my friends, family, and cats (and for the first time teach high school for summer school - so excited!)...I will be ready to return for year five, hopefully put the remains of the insanity from the pandemic and how it impacted education, behind me…and thoroughly enjoy my so-called year of grace.

Dear year four, like I always say at the end of every school term, in true Harry Potter nerd fashion:

“Mischief managed!”

much love and many happy returns…

-kate