Education Grant Activities Begin

"It could be Sgt. York, but I think it’s MacArthur!!" Such were the responses of students visiting the Memorial from Great Neck Middle School in Virginia Beach. When confronted with a rucksack overflowing with mostly genuine war artifacts, students were challenged to match the clues found in their bags with one of three war heroes. Even the volunteers, chaperones and teachers could not resist the temptation to become involved with the activity by matching up war medals with a chart. Teacher Shirley Daniels remarked, "This is a fantastic activity that makes the Forties come alive for the children."

While the classroom activity sparked interest in the lives of soldiers and sailors, a guided tour highlighted the life and times of Douglas MacArthur. Following the tour, Dr. G. William Whitehurst was on hand to discuss with students his war experiences as a combat air crewman. Dr. Whitehurst is one of several veterans asked to participate in this year’s program. Students left after their hour visit with impressions of the war they did not have prior to the day’s activities. At least one student walked away with a message the museum educators and teachers wanted to convey when he said, "Man, it was tough to be in the Pacific fighting all those years!"

The rucksack activity and associated tour of the Memorial is part of the collaborative grant involving the Hampton Roads Naval Museum, the Children’s Museum of Virginia, the Virginia Beach Public Schools and the MacArthur Memorial. About half of the middle schools in Virginia Beach are signed up to bring large groups of students to the program this year. The program continues for two more years and is available for any student group visit.

So far, grant funds have provided materials for the rucksacks, commercial busses for student transportation, a laptop computer and a computer-to-screen projection machine. This summer, the Education Department will be hosting a teacher intern interested in utilizing the resources of the Memorial to build lesson plans and activities around the life and times of MacArthur.

The grant activities will continue through 2006.