Teacher will share ‘lessons of personal bravery, self-sacrifice’
Whitney Farmer’s journey to become a teacher of social studies at Bloomburg High School has been a long one.
She holds two master’s degrees, for example.
But as important as her degrees is the week she spent this summer at Valley Forge, Pa., as a participant in Freedoms Foundation’s Medal of Honor Legacy program for teachers.
While there, she met Medal of Honor recipients and spent five days in scholarly discussion with teachers from across the nation.
Farmer’s week included visits to historic sites such as Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, the Betsy Ross house and the National Constitutional Center.
“For all of that week,” she said, “I thought of how to tie this back to character development in schools.”
She also received teacher’s resource materials. The beautifully bound cover of her Medal of Honor program materials is inscribed “Lessons of personal bravery and self-sacrifice.”
She’s now introducing these heroes and the qualities of courage, integrity, sacrifice and leadership to her ninth-graders this fall in world geography.
The course is entirely new for her. But she has marvelous materials to work with, and her plan is to start this fall and at freshman level.
And as soon as she can, she will also send her application to return next summer to a continuation of the Freedoms Foundation special weeks for teachers.
The foundation is a national nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization founded in 1949 and located next to the Valley Forge National Historical Park. It rests on ground that once was part of George Washington’s Valley Forge encampment during the Revolutionary War.
Those chosen to attend come for one of four weeks to participate in teacher preparation.
“Some of the week’s topics will include a week of visiting presidential homes. Another week will look at primary sources and original documents. And one is the Medal of Honor Legacy program, which I chose this time. I can apply again, and I will,” Whitney said.
In her work as social studies teacher, Whitney sees students at four grade levels. She begins with world geography for freshmen and follows with world history for sophomores. Then, she has U.S. history since 1877 for juniors and government and economics with an emphasis on personal finance for seniors.
She began her professional preparation work after a Top 10 academic finish at Redwater High School. The daughter of Jerry and Shelia Farmer, Whitney said she always knew she would go to college. She started by going not-too-far away from home to test herself and gradually assume more responsibility.
“I’d always been around the same friends since 5 years old,” she said. “I wanted to see how I would do in a bigger situation, and so I started at Henderson College about an hour and a half away from home. Then I transferred to Texas State University at San Marcos about six hours away. I got a degree in history with two minors in anthropology and international studies and really enjoyed my stay there.”
Not intending to teach at this point, she said she wanted more studies and hands-on experience, and so entered the master of arts degree program in museum science at Texas Tech University in Lubbock.
“I had taken a class in public history and got real interested in public education and museum work and so went there for a master’s. To finish, I decided to do an internship rather than write a thesis. I applied at Harpers Ferry National Historic Park meaning to spend six months there and ended up staying nine months.”
While at Texas Tech, Whitney did anthropology field work involving putting together bones. She said she found she enjoyed working with artifacts and putting together the puzzles of bones.
After that degree, she began thinking about how to create partnerships between schools and museums, and that ultimately led to a second master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies at Texas A&M University-Texarkana.
“I didn’t automatically go into teaching at first but veered off and came around the back side of it,” she said of her 2014 hiring.
She had previously done some of her classroom practice teaching at Bloomburg and found that some of her friends she had known at Henderson State University were now also on the staff at Bloomburg.
“Such a small world,” she said.
To teach her Medal of Honor Legacy program, Farmer said she decided not to initiate it in every grade but focus first on the ninth grade.
“It will be a test run and see if we can make this grow. We’ll dedicate our Fridays of each week to it.”
The Freedoms Foundation’s program had been a scholarship gift. She only had to pay for her transportation.
“I didn’t have to worry about anything. We stayed on a campus and got to hear from Medal of Honor recipients who, when they retell their stories, relive what happened. It was all very moving.”