A Soldier's Last letter Home



How does a teacher bring literature to life for teenage students? How to help them feel the pain and joy the writer is trying to convey?

We, Grade 12's, had just finished the sad and painful poetry of the WWI poets Owen, Sasson, and others. We also studied the poets' lives, and the students were surprised that Owens and Sasson were homosexuals, which led to other discussions about masculinity. The class was shocked at how young they were. 


Quite by chance, I learned that Cairo had a war cemetery from WWII, so I visited to see if I could extend the student's understanding of the tragedy of war. I discovered that there were almost 1,800 graves, and they were arranged by the soldiers' date of death. Unlike the United States, other countries buried their dead near where they fell. So there were British, French, German, Australian, Indian, and all countries involved in the war. All major religions were represented as well as men and women.


Soon I arranged a field trip, and the students were given a listing of the fallen soldiers, their nationality, age, and gender. The task was to write a final letter home from a soldier, and they were to choose someone close to their age and gender. It was a sobering time as they went through the lists exclaiming how close in age they were to themselves.


The day of the field trip came, and when we arrived at the cemetery, the students were unusually quiet. The grounds are kept pristine by a multi-nation fund that flawlessly maintains the graves and grounds. They had never been to such a place, and Muslim burial grounds are very different.


Each student had a notebook and the information on their soldier, but it took some time for them to locate the appropriate tombstone. The atmosphere was heavy with silence as they read tombstone after tombstone, reflecting on the poetry we had studied. They were overwhelmed.


More than one student, even the boys, wiped tears from their eyes as they settled in to write the letter that was to be the last.


The lesson was a huge success on so many levels, and I cried as I graded the letters.





.


Heliopolis War Cemetery web site

https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/find-cemeteries-memorials/cemetery-details/2018702/heliopolis-war-cemetery/


San Antonio Tlayacapan, MX

November 9, 2022

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