American Valor Quarterly Issue 10 - Summer 2013 | Page 36

Preserving the Legacy
& Honoring the Sacrifice
Idaho Teacher Helps Connect
the Greatest Generation with the Latest Generation
As the decades have passed since
World War II, the immediate
connection of young people to the
generation that fought so valiantly to
preserve our freedom becomes
lessened. But at Clair E. Gale Junior
High School in Idaho Falls, Idaho, 7th
Grade Reading teacher Mrs. Sonya
Pearson is working hard to remedy that
disconnect.
Her project, called “Holding the Hand
of History,” connects American
veterans with young people and allows
them to hear directly from the men
and women who were there when
history was made.

all theaters of the war, from the
Pacific and Asia to the Atlantic and
Europe, and from the Battle of the
Bulge to Okinawa and Iwo Jima.

Before the veterans spoke at the
school, Mrs. Person assigned her
students to read about the battles the
veterans fought in, giving them a
better understanding of veteran’s
“I didn’t know I had all these heroes service, and the sacrifice of their
living all around me” Mrs. Pearson fallen comrades.
said.
The veterans came to the school with
Mrs. Pearson then called many of their artifacts from the war and their
these veterans to see if they would memories and eyewitness accounts.
be willing and able to speak about Each veteran sat at table surrounded
their military service in World War II, by four or five students ready to ask
and was grateful when so many of questions of their service. Throughthem readily accepted. She then out the afternoon, students moved
asked each one about their military from table to table hearing the
service and found they had served in veterans’ accounts from the battles the

Rob Morris

In 2007, Mrs. Pearson noticed a
significant amount of literature about
World War II in the school’s library.
She wanted her students to start

reading more about our veterans and
to connect her students with the
people they were reading about in the
books. She then asked the local
newspaper for help in contacting
veterans from World War II who live
near Idaho Falls. The newspaper
provided her a large list of veterans
from around the area.

AMERICAN VALOR QUARTER HH