Veterans Inspiring Patriotism Teaches Students How to Be Better Citizens and Patriots

Today is Veteran’s Day – what used to be known as Armistice Day, to recognize peace between World War I Allies and Germany. During that war, every American knew someone who was serving overseas. It was a time to be proud of your country and understand the price of freedom with so many lives lost.

After World War II, it was changed to Veteran’s Day in the United States to honor all the soldiers who have served.

Joe Foss was one of those soldiers. During World War II, he was an “ace” fighter pilot and won the Congressional Medal of Honor for outstanding service to his country. Upon his safe return to the United States, he became a 2-term governor of South Dakota, the Commissioner of the American Football League (AFL) and conceived the idea for the Superbowl.

He would go on to many other pursuits including hosting ABC’s “The American Sportsman” television show. To watch a short video of Foss’s outstanding life, click here.

After his semi-retirement, he began public speaking about patriotism, leadership and faith. This helped him hatch the idea for other veterans to speak to young people about serving your country and being good patriots. This led to the creation of Joe Foss Institute.

Foss has since passed on but some other heavy hitters involved in the Joe Foss Institute advisory board including broadcaster Tom Brokaw, Vice President Dan Quayle , NFL hall-of-famer John Elway and the legendary sales guru Zig Ziglar.

Foss 3 minute video

From their homepage:

The Joe Foss Institute is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to promoting & teaching patriotism, public service, integrity and an appreciation for America’s freedoms. It is our vision to promote an informed patriotism and to be recognized as the national leader in promoting patriotism in schools and organizations.

Bob Paulk, President and CEO of Joe Foss Institute, tells Family First the free Veterans Inspiring Patriotism presentations are given by veterans from all over the service. They teach student about how to be better citizens, not matter how old you are.

They also give the kids a call to action to try and be good patriots and show them our freedom is not free. Serving your country, either as a citizen or a soldier, is vital for our survival as a free country.

According to Paulk, the veterans give 30-50 minute presentations either to large groups of students or one classroom. The presentations include an introductory video, a discussion about how they can be good citizens and patriots as well as questions and answers for the soldiers themselves.  

One of the presenters, Lambert Modder is a Pearl Harbor survivor from World War II and one of their oldest presenters.

One of their younger presenters, Kevin Kane, spent a year in Iraq as part of the military police during his 5 years of Army service. He helped train the Iraqi police force in all aspects of law enforcement and won two Purple Hearts while serving.

He tells Family First speaking about his experience has helped him as well. Before he began giving the presentations, he was very private about his military experiences but seeing how important it is to the kids to talk about patriotism, American pride and freedom has helped him open up and be more comfortable as well.

He wants to pursue a career in politics, and public speaking – especially to kids who are still forming their own opinions about being patriots – is great experience for Kane.

The introductory video, according to Kane, is a cartoon about a little girl’s homework project. She gets some pretty amazing help from none other than George Washington.

This leads into discussion about the Pledge of Allegiance, what the flag stands for and the importance of The Constitution.  He says he asks the kids for examples of pride, what they think the flag represents and about ways they think they can show their patriotism.

He tries to make the presentations as interactive as possible to keep the kids engaged and thinking on their own, instead of simply telling them what to think.

Kane says during the question and answer portion a lot of times the kids ask about very specific questions such as what kind of gun he carried, if he got to drive a tank and if he killed anyone. He says he tries to turn the questions around to make them relevant to the kids and talk about bigger ideas such as personal courage.

Some of the questions are incredibly insightful for ones so young, according to Kane. One of the questions he particularly remembers was about how he feels now that he’s back home and how his multiple injuries have affected his life. Pretty deep questions from a little kid.

One kid was so inspired by what he heard during the presentation, he went home, knocked on his neighbor’s doors and asked them to fly their flags. Kane heard about this story in one of the follow up letters he gets from the classes.

Classrooms also receive free American flags, copies of the Bill of Rights and The Constitution as well as one copy of Joe Foss’s biography for the school library or teacher’s classroom.

In 2011, according to Paulk, they will be rolling out an “e-citizenship” curriculum for teachers which includes 10 lesson plans, handouts and presentations they can give about The Constitution, how to be good citizens and how to better their world.

If you are interested in having a local veteran visit your child’s school or local organization, you can request a presentation here.