Truly America's Finest

By: Max Rosado

Veterans and soldiers in our military forces come out of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines with more knowledge and more WISDOM than any other group of people. But this wisdom is wasted without a chance to pass it on to others. This was what I thought until I met up with John Roth. He told me about a program called Troops to Teachers that takes recently discharged troops from our forces and gives them a chance to pass on their knowledge to blooming minds--a chance to teach kids in any number of areas. However, this is no simple task. Every one of the 13,000 troops that have become teachers through this program were state certified. Organizations like this are great for students because, not only do these teachers pass on discipline in a world where television rules the nation, it's important to be able to promote efficiency. Not only does it promote troops to become teachers, it also promotes minority troops. In a country where we hold in highest regard those who defend our country, we need to make more support programs for them. However, for a program that does so much, I would have expected it to be recognized more than it is. In fact, the first time I heard of this program was today, and it has been around since 1994. Many of the teachers in this program were recognized with honors, like teacher of the year. Of the exhibits I saw today at the AMLE Conference, this will be the number one thing that I carry with me. It gives a new opportunity to the people who defended our country and gives students in the United States the privilege of learning from them.