USMC Educator Workshop Debrief

USMC Educator Workshop Debrief · 3 August 2024

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If you are an educator and you do not see the United States Marine Corps (USMC) or any branch of the military as a viable option for all of your students, you should open your mind by attending a USMC Educator Workshop.

I attended a USMC Educator Workshop in early July. The goal of the weeklong workshop is, of course, to get educators to see that joining the Marine Corps is a viable option for students. Whether those students are the best of the best or those who are barely squeaking by or may not even be squeaking by or somebody somewhere in the middle. And as the commanding general of the base told us, to realize that we are partners in helping young men and women become the best versions of themselves.

I have always seen any branch of the military as a viable option for any level of student. I have had students go to military academies and students who have enlisted. Sometimes with my urging, always with my encouragement, applause and congratulations. I have seen all branches of service as pretty much equal in terms of what they do to help my former students become the best versions of themselves. I am not so sure I think that way anymore. To be sure, the educator workshop has probably given me a little bias toward steering the best and brightest, and the hardest working students to the Marine Corps. (But I will still encourage and applaud those who enter any branch of the military.)

Part of the reason that I am more likely to send the hardest working students to the Marine Corps is because of the values they instill. I always tell my students that regardless of whether they remember any of the content I teach, they will hopefully retain some of the values I teach. And I can certainly steer students toward an organization that instills the values of honor, courage, and commitment into its people. They are not exactly the values that I try to instill in my students, but they line up well.

But back to the workshop.

Perhaps the best part of the weeklong workshop was that we were assigned a Drill Instructor (DI) for the duration. We had two busses for traveling to and from our accommodations to wherever we were going, and the people on each bus had their own DI. It was interesting getting to know our DI. Actually both DIs. They barked orders to us from the very beginning. They had us get in lines. They had us shout, “Aye aye, sir!” as a reply to almost everything. They told us how to cover down (get in line) and step out (walk) and, of course, how to reply to everything they said (at the top of our lungs). It was thrilling to say the least. But we were not recruits. We did not need to live with those Drill Instructors for the next 13 weeks.

The interesting thing was that when the DIs wanted to talk with us as just normal people instead of simulated recruits, they took off their coveted campaign covers. Even more interesting was that after a couple of days, we still replied at the top of our lungs when they asked us questions without their covers. And on the final day we seemed at a loss and could not function well when we did not cover down to load the busses and when we were not barked at to do everything. To be sure, it was both disconcerting and comforting talking to the Drill Instructors as regular people.

The workshop was amazing. We went from place to place to place listening to briefs and doing activities. We were lined up on the famous yellow footprints, taken through to have our belongs processed for contraband, crushed by the Combat Fitness Test, allowed to shoot at the rifle range, challenged with team problem solving, and exhilarated by rappelling. Oh. And did I mention that we were often marched from place to place to place? (We did not really march, we just walked. In lines. Covered down.) The briefs were informative, the activities were amazing, and the marching was grueling (on at least one day). In short, the workshop was more than I expected.

The captain in charge of the workshops asked us early on in the process who would have signed up to be a U.S. Marine had they known what they knew after just a couple hours of the workshop. Maybe we had already forgotten our barking drill instructors, but I and many others raised our hands.

I know that the U.S. Marines is not for everybody. It really is for the few and the proud. And I will tell my students and anybody else who asks me that the Marines are looking for good people. Not just to win the nation’s battles, but to do all sorts of other jobs in support of that mission.

I could probably go on and on about the USMC Educator Workshop, but it is not something you should just read about. It is something you should participate in. So if you are in education, I would encourage you to attend a USMC Educator Workshop. You will be glad you did. And you will get a small taste of what your students will experience when they start their process of becoming United States Marines.

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