BELCHERTOWN — In observance of Veterans Day, most students will have the day off from school on Monday. At Jabish Brook Middle School, English teacher Jennifer Poli encourages her students to remember why.
On Friday, Poli’s eighth grade students created cards and paper poppy wreaths for veterans at Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke, with students including the name, branch and conflict of a soldier who died on the individual remembrance poppies.
“I think we should work on stuff like this, because it’s important to remember what happens outside of our daily lives,” said Lauren Cooper, a student in one of Poli’s classes.
Poli began incorporating the activity into her class seven years ago, when she and another teacher started the tradition as a way to remind students why they have a day off during Veterans Day weekend. Veterans Day falls on Sunday and the federal holiday is being recognized on Monday.
“We both have personal connections to people who have made sacrifices, and we thought that this would be a meaningful connection for students,” Poli said.
Poli began the activity with a discussion of how Veterans Day relates to the text that the class is currently studying: a version of Homer’s ancient Greek epic “The Iliad,” which experts believe was written around the eighth century B.C.
With an ancient text such as the Iliad, Poli said that connecting the reading to the modern day helps students form a stronger understanding of the characters populating the text.
In Poli’s class discussion, students connected themes such as sacrifice and leaving behind one’s home and family between real life veterans and the Homeric soldiers.
“It connects to all the people going to war, and the activity we’re doing right now gives us an opportunity to say ‘thank you’ to all of the people who fought in the wars,” said student Matthew Devoto.
“I think it’s kind of cool how something written so long ago can connect to something in this age,” Cooper added.
Poli said that she sometimes uses John McCrae’s war poem “In Flanders Fields” in the lesson as well.
It is common for younger students to send cards to veterans, Poli said, but this practice drops off after the elementary school level. Poli believes in keeping the practice alive among teenagers.
“It makes me really proud of them to get engaged and make these real world connections,” Poli said.
Poli’s students also expressed a continued interest in carrying on the activity.
Ty Bogdanovich, another student in Poli’s class, said that he appreciates the opportunity to take time during the school day to thank veterans, adding that his grandfather is a veteran.
“I’m just going to say to (veterans) that they are thanked, loved and honored,” Bogdanovich said on what he would write in his card.
“It’s a time to remember people who risked their lives for us and fought for our freedom,” student Alexis Jarnagan said of Veterans Day. Jarnagan also has veterans in her family.
“They’re really special because they went away from their lives and decided to help us,” Jarnagan said, adding that it’s worth it to take some time out of the school day “if we’re remembering all the people who died for us.”
The unofficial “homework” for the long weekend? Thanking a veteran.
Jacquelyn Voghel can be reached at jvoghel@gazettenet.com.