People
An American Hero

Patrick O'Loughlen is a walking history lesson, a living symbol of America.

"Let's just say students were eager to hear my stories," says the retired 71-year-old NEA-Retired member Patrick O'Loughlen, reflecting on his 30 years as a Social Studies teacher in Oregon. "It's always something to have first-person accounts."

Even today, as a substitute teacher at Boone Memorial Middle School in Boise, Idaho - a public high school for pregnant and new teen-moms - O'Loughlen is using his past to connect with today's teens.

As a Marine in the Korean War, O'Loughlen's face became part of a famous American image when a Life Magazine photographer captured him, and two other service men, on film (he is the middle soldier in the photo to the right).

The shot was taken just before being trapped by the Chinese at the Chosin Reservoir; he was one of the few "Chosin Frozen" to survive. "It's strange being in such a well-known photograph," he says. "But it's certainly a powerful image."

After recovering in naval hospitals for close to a year, O'Loughlen was medically discharged from the war in 1952. That's when he became a prison guard at Alcatraz. "My students always wanted to hear stories about Alcatraz life," he says with a laugh. "But it was actually a very boring job. I was there before the big escape in 1961, so my time was mainly spent walking tiers, and counting prisoners." In 1958, O'Loughlen left the prison service at his wife's urging. "She convinced me to try being a teacher," he says. "It's pretty easy to get sour in life when you work in a prison, but it's the complete opposite when you work with kids."

Since his retirement from Oregon's Bethel School District in 1993, he has mentored first-time juvenile offenders, worked with students at Boone, taught youth group and Sunday School classes, and continues to help teachers across Idaho ascertain war veterans to talk to their students. As the department commander of Idaho's Military Order of the Purple Hearts and president of Kiwanis, that's not hard to do. "He makes me proud to be alive, and proud to be a teacher," says Marian Pritchett, an educator at Boone. "He is a phenomenal man, one of those people you are better off for knowing. The students love him, the teachers love him, and the community loves him - a real American hero."

Bev McCulloch has a Jesse James story for students who come to visit her piece of history 40 miles north of Kansas City. Bev and Ron McCulloch's farm sits near a trail the outlaw rode in the 1870s. James was born in nearby Kearney, Missouri, and his father was a friend of the local preacher.

In the 1930s, McCulloch's newly married mother-in-law answered a door knock and found an old man. The man asked if he could come in and see the house. As a small boy, he said, he'd held the reins of James's horse while his mother fixed the famous bank robber a meal.

The focus of the farm now is the solid oak and walnut cabin that's been there since before James was born. They don't build houses like this anymore. The two-story cabin on the farm was inside a barn (which helped preserve it) across the road from its present location. When the owners decided to tear down both buildings, McCulloch and her husband purchased the cabin and moved it to their property.

Five hundred kids have already benefited from the learning activities the site now offers such as basket weaving, corn and coffee grinding, candle dipping and butter churning. "Lots of times we spend so much time and effort getting kids online or involving them in technology," McCulloch says. "Here we have a hands-on experience instead of just printing something out on a computer."

McCulloch is a longtime history enthusiast who taught music for 30 years and this year began teaching gifted kids at Maysville, Missouri, 30 miles from her farm. A descendant of the McCoys of West Virginia, she hosts up to 30 students at a time on weekends or during the summers.

According to her, the kids seem to enjoy dipping candles the most with the liquid wax coming from a kettle on an open pit fire. They also like getting in the covered wagon to eat their sack lunches or swinging from a knotted rope swing on a huge old oak. If you'd like your kids to experience life as it was lived more than 100 years ago, call McCulloch at 816-370-2532.

Echoes of the Past Reverberate in the Present

Echoes of the Past" properly describes what Ralph and Joanne Heinz of Washington State do in their "spare" time. Joanne's a v eteran teacher with 27 years experience; Ralph, an artist and historian. They present three different historical reenactments: Oregon Fever, Men and Women in the Frontier Army, and A Stitch in Time to mesmerize students and other audiences in the Spokane, Washington- Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, vicinity and as far afield as Billings, Montana, and Buffalo, Wyoming.

"Children need to know their past, in order to know what their future might be," Joanne says, and the pair's presentations help them learn both visually and interactively. "We don't do dry lectures," notes Ralph, who's now writing a book about militarily uniforms used in North Africa during World War II.

Obviously the presentations reach believability and compel and provoke a gamut of emotions from tears to laughter. "I'm sorry you lost your daughter," said one sad youngster for whom the presentation really came alive. On the opposite emotional scale, 19th century women's and men's "underpinnings," i.e. underwear, generally draw gales of laughter from all ages.

The Oregon Fever presentation is aptly named, for a couple of reasons, one of which will be new to most audiences. While people were anxious to get out west, many of us don't know this bit of history. On sections of the Oregon Trail, 10 graves per mile lie beneath the sod, Ralph notes. Cholera was a common killer, since folks had no concept of bacteria and used the same sections of river for all cleansing and drinking purposes.

Joanne and Ralph met as volunteers on a National Park Service archeological dig in 1991. Country western singer Hank Williams Jr. paid $40,000 to learn more about the Big Hole Nez Perce battlefield located in southwest Montana near his ranch. The pair met again at another archeological site in 1994 and married in 1999 at a time-period wedding at their home in Washington State.

Joanne receives 10 days professional leave per year from her district to make presentations. She pays for her own substitutes. Persons or organizations in the Northwest interested in a presentation can reach her and Ralph at 509-447-0656.

The Perfect Fit

Melvin Morgan and his marketing students at Lake Braddock High School in Burke, Virginia are on a mission to collect 3,792 pairs of shoes - one pair for every child who was killed by a handgun in the year 2000. "It started as a public relations project for class, but I think it's gotten a lot more personal than that as the months have gone by," he says. "Children dying from handguns is an issue most kids care deeply about."

Morgan and his students will use the shoes to create a visual display that will bring attention to the number of children slain by gun violence. They may even take their exhibit to the nation's Capitol. "It's going to be a powerful image, seeing all of those empty shoes," he says. "And it's a wonderful opportunity for the students to get involved with the community."

Last year, their community involvement effort earned them first-place in a national public relations and marketing competition sponsored by the Association of Marketing Students. They surpassed 11,000 other students for their public relations project entitled "Lend a Hand: Disaster Relief Awareness," which raised awareness of Red Cross efforts and collected donations for victims of Hurricane Floyd.

"These are the same competitions I was entering as a high school marketing student 11 years ago," he says with pride. "I never thought I'd be teaching it today. But after dropping out of college when I realized I wouldn't play professional baseball, it was my own high school marketing teacher - Jay Walker - who encouraged me to go back to school and become a teacher myself." Morgan fulfills his passion for sports by coaching Lake Braddock's baseball and football teams; he also plays on a semi-professional baseball league every summer.

As the sports and entertainment marketing teacher, he also gets to center his lessons around sporting events and is currently helping students create, market and sell advertising for an interactive school sports Web site. "I love being a teacher," he says. "Where else could I share my love of community, sports and marketing, and work with kids to bring attention to important issues like gun violence? It's a perfect fit."

From Statehouse to Schoolhouse

It was an unexpected event two years ago that convinced John Stasik, then a state legislator in Massachusetts on leave from teaching, to go back into the classroom: He had a heart attack.

"It made me think, 'Your life is not necessarily going to last as long as you thought it would. How do you want to spend the rest of it?'

"And I decided I would rather spend it teaching than figuring out the political angles of the State House."

Stasik first ran for state representative in 1996, intending to promote smart growth and better transportation policies. But the independence and initiative that made him a successful teacher didn't work so well in the legislature, where the leadership wanted obedience. "My progressive inclinations where not in line with the leadership of the House," he explains.

Most of his efforts on issues big and small were blocked. He was even refused a seat on the Transportation Committee, despite his interest and expertise.

So rather than run again at the end of his second term, Stasik walked out of the State House and went back to helping children understand the world around them.

"Today, my kids were heating water with ice in it," he explained in an interview. "They thought they must be doing it wrong because the thermometer said the temperature wasn't going up. I suggested that they continue, and graph the data. When all the ice was melted, the temperature started rising. So they had to think-where was the heat going when the temperature wasn't rising? Being there at a moment of revelation is truly exciting. That's what I get a kick out of."

Stasik sends his eighth grade students at the Weston Middle School outdoors to measure the angle of the sun and see how it changes with the seasons, with instruments like those used in ancient times. They observe the moon and discover the reason for the changing phases.

Stasik sends his lesson plans to other teachers, who hear about them by word of mouth. Recently he answered a request from England.

As for his friends in the legislature, Stasik says, "I'm glad they're carrying on the good fight. But I don't regret going back to the classroom one iota. I had a little trepidation at first, but within an hour, four years of absence melted away. I love it."