D300 holding Vets Day classes for first time
Plans activities for students to learn about, honor veterans
CARPENTERSVILLE -- When then-"Tonight Show" host Jay Leno took a jab at Community School District 300 earlier this year for its decision to hold classes on Veterans Day, the district didn't just take it on the chin -- they took it to heart.
"The school board in Carpentersville, Ill., said Veterans Day is no longer a day off for students because the students don't know the meaning of the holiday," Leno said during an opening monologue in January.
"Here's a crazy idea: You're a school. Why don't you teach them, OK? Why don't you get a teacher who's a veteran? Hello!"
Maybe that was an eye-opener for the district, said Tish Hodor, secretary of the Sleepy Hollow Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization.
As D300 prepares for its first-ever classes on Veterans Day on Wednesday, Nov. 11, Hodor said she could not be more "surprised and pleased" by the activities planned in her two children's Sleepy Hollow classrooms. Similar activities are planned at schools across the district.
Sleepy Hollow does have at least one teacher who's a veteran, Hodor said -- Randy Bruce, who teaches her 8-year-old son Ryan's second-grade class. And already the school is taking steps to teach students the meaning of the holiday.
Both Ryan and 6-year-old Jessica, Hodor's daughter in first grade, brought home questionnaires, asking Sleepy Hollow students to contact friends or family members who are veterans and learn about their military experience. Both their grandfathers are veterans, Hodor said.
"They were very interested and asking questions," she said. "For an 8-year-old in a world of G.I. Joe, it is real and it's people we know."
That was the first time, as a family, they talked about the military and their relatives' service, she said.
On Veterans Day, Sleepy Hollow will display those questionnaires and hold an all-school assembly, featuring a visit from local VFW members. Classrooms also are collecting different items for veterans at area VA hospitals that they will present during the assembly.
"While there is probably nothing that would be 'enough' to say thank you, having the school celebrate this holiday in such an educational and meaningful way seems to be a step in the right direction!" Hodor said.
But, she added, "Jay Leno's comments have nothing to do with out Veterans Day plans. The reason is out of respect for our local veterans, who asked us to hold school on the holiday."
The D300 Board of Education had mulled holding classes on Veterans Day in years past, but never before had it gotten the support it did this year from district residents and area veterans, according to Strupeck. Many veterans spoke at school board meetings about the importance of teaching students about the meaning of Veterans Day before the vote to hold classes was taken, she said.
"In the past, it had been hit or miss," Strupeck said. "Some of our schools had taken the time to teach the kids about Veterans Day and why we celebrate it. Some, not as much."
She said she was impressed by the variety of activities that teachers, principals and parents at all schools across the district had come up with to mark the holiday.
This year, Veterans Day activities in D300 include inviting veterans to speak to classes, reading President Barack Obama's Veteran's Day Proclamation, writing letters to American soldiers overseas and holding assemblies featuring plays, poems and essays written by students.
Dundee Highlands Elementary School will welcome the VFW honor guard and color guard to present the flag, taps and a 21-gun salute outside the school, weather permitting, according to the D300 Web site. The school also will host an assembly to honor veterans with a movie and poems written by students. All veterans are welcome to attend.
On the west side of the school district, the WWII Historical Re-Enactment Society will bring Jeeps, cannons and World War II artifacts to Hampshire Middle School in Hampshire and present a WWII re-enactment, dressed in uniform. Fourth- and fifth-graders at Hampshire Elementary School will join middle school students for the re-enactment, and all elementary students will dress like one of the branches of the military by grade level.
Students at Golfview Elementary School in Carpentersville even will eat an "all-American" lunch of hamburgers and hot dogs, the Web site said.
For a complete list of Veterans Day activities at D300 schools, visit d300.org.
