By John Trout
Lakehill Preparatory School, Fourth Grade Teacher
Standing in the command center of the U.S.S. Lexington, looking out over the whitecaps of the choppy waters of the Gulf of Mexico far below, I feel like I’m in a skyscraper. The windows of the bridge are filled all around me with the faces of brave sixth graders standing on tiptoe to see out the high windows to the flight deck below, where their friends wave up. Others hang back a bit, intimidated by the height. It seems impossibly high up, and it’s easy to understand how thousands of people could live on these enormous aircraft carriers for months on end. The word “boat” couldn’t begin to capture what being in this floating city is really like.
This is way better than looking at a picture in a textbook!
Accompanying middle school students on Adventure Week is a rare treat for me, as a lower school teacher. When I do get to join my middle school colleagues, and the kids who have grown up just a few years from my fourth grade classroom, it’s always an engaging time full of adventure, wonder, and discovery. When it comes to learning about the past, the modern world around us, and the natural world beyond our city streets, nothing beats actually being there.
When I return, my fourth graders always want to know how my trip went. I try to capture the nervous energy of walking through the Alamo, where so many gave their lives for freedom, the awe-inspiring heights of the Texas Capitol, and a connection to the past so intense that it borders on time travel when climbing the narrow ladders that World War II soldiers scrambled up and down as Kamikaze planes crashed into their floating fortress. I fear that words fail me, but the excitement in their eyes says otherwise. “I can’t wait to be in middle school!” one exclaims, and other others nod their heads vigorously.
“Yep,” I smile. “You’re going to love it!”