Connecting Generations
Alumna’s interest in history was sparked by her grandfather, a World War II veteran; now she’s earning national acclaim for her teaching methods
by Jeff Samoray One of the earliest memories
Michele Anderson (BA94, MA00) has of her grandfather is the time she asked him for an impromptu dance lesson. “I must have been in kindergarten
or fi rst grade,” she says. “I knew that my grandfather had been in World War II—our family held him in a kind of awed reverence. I asked him to teach me to dance the way people did during World War II. My interest in history defi nitely comes from him.” Today, Anderson’s social studies
students at Westland John Glenn High School are the ones dancing with veterans. The school’s annual United Service Organizations (USO) Dance, which Anderson organizes, is among the unique teaching tools she uses to make history leap off the page and connect young people with a generation who lived through some of our nation’s most trying times. Anderson’s creative teaching methods earned her the 2014
“I had a classmate who always
kept to himself, even from the time we were in elementary school,” says Anderson, who grew up in Michigan Center. “He lived with his grandparents, always wore brown and never interacted socially. He just blended in and didn’t cause problems. He wasn’t a special needs student, but looking back, he may have been autistic. “A long-term substitute teacher
Anderson's grandfather, TSgt. Harold “Bud” Burns. Anderson believes this photo is from 1941, when he entered the service. Courtesy of Michele Anderson
who wasn’t familiar with this student began teaching our class. The substitute was trying to get him to comment on what we were learning. He kept pressing this student, over and over, trying to force him to engage. I became very uncomfortable, as did others around me. As the tension built, this student started crying. I remember sitting there thinking, ‘If I ever become a
National History Teacher of the Year award. HISTORY® and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History chose her from more 1,000 submissions nationwide. She received the award last December at a ceremony at the Princeton Club of New York. “According to the old cliché, historical knowledge keeps
us from repeating past mistakes, but it’s so much more than that,” Anderson says. “History helps us identify who we are and helps us move forward. Understanding the past helps us fi nd future success.”
Revealing the past Although Anderson loved history as a child, she hadn’t
thought about teaching until an incident when she was in seventh grade.
teacher, I will never let that happen in my classroom.’ Up to that time, I wanted to be a lawyer.” Anderson earned a BA in history and a secondary teaching
certifi cation from Eastern in 1994. While an undergraduate, she became more curious about her grandfather’s World War II experiences—a topic he didn’t discuss openly. She began asking him questions and putting together his story. Harold “Bud” Burns was a technical sergeant and clerk for
Colonel Charles Willoughby, who was chief of intelligence under General Douglas McArthur. While serving in the Philippines, Burns survived the Bataan Death March, when Japanese soldiers forced about 70,000 diseased and starving American and Filipino troops to trek 65 miles through intense heat to prison camps. Burns told Anderson about the brutal treatment the prisoners endured, including bayonet stabs, beatings, and executions. Exact death fi gures are unknown. Many of the thousands who died were buried in mass graves.
Eastern | SUMMER 2015 27
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