MHS juniors interview veterans for project
By TODD FLORY, Sentinel Staff Writer

With veterans having stories to tell and students with writing and interviewing skills to develop, McPherson High School teacher Valerie Stout thought it would be a good match to have her advanced junior English classes write biographies of veterans in the community.

Last week, the students met with 44 veterans in McPherson to listen to their stories and conduct one-on-one interviews, and plan to write biographies about their respective veteran. Those individual stories will be compiled into a booklet, which will be located at the American Legion, in the school board office and in Stout's classroom at the high school.

Each veteran will receive a copy of his or her biography, as well as a thank you note from the interviewer.

Students first listened in on a telephone conference with Gen. Geoffrey Lambert, a graduate of McPherson College, to begin to familiarize themselves with how a live interview is conducted and what questions to ask. Stout conducted the interview and asked various questions that the students had written earlier.
Questions ranged from Lambert's background information to his time in the military to his thoughts on the current conflict in Iraq.

"I wish I had let the community know about it," Stout said of the teleconference interview. "The students were just awestruck by it. He was just easy going and straight-forward. It was real interesting."

Stout had done individual short biographies with her students in past years. Her previous experience with this sort of project occurred when her students interviewed some retired citizens of McPherson at The Cedars.

"It worked out well before (so I decided) to try it out with a different group this time," Stout said.

She contacted local veterans Jim LaDuke and Tony Fiedler to help set up interviews, and they supplied Stout with a list of around 50 veterans who would be willing to be interviewed by the students.

Aside from developing better interviewing and writing skills, Stout said that she hopes this experience will teach the students how to better communicate with adults, be respectful of other's opinions, even if they do not always agree, and to perhaps create a bond with other people besides their peers.
"I hope they understand the hardships others have had in life compared with their own," she said.

The biographies may even have benefits that have not yet been realized. Stout recalled that one of the biographies written about a resident of The Cedars was used in that person's eulogy, since he did not have any close relatives nearby.
"So, maybe we'll record a little history," she said. "I don't know."

Stout said the students were looking forward to writing the biographies, but were a little anxious interviewing the veterans.

"The kids are a little bit nervous," said Stout, "but they've worked hard to prepare. The veterans have been very willing to help and been supportive."

McPherson Unified School District 418
514 N. Main
McPherson, KS 67460
620-241-9400
It is the policy of McPherson USD 418 not to discriminate on the basis of sex, disability, race,
religion, color, age, or national origin in its educational programs and/or activities, nor in its employment practices.

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