Community Corner
Decatur High Teacher Recalls His Many Field Trips to the Carter Center
Chris Billingsley sent Patch this memory on Thursday.
Editor's note: Chris Billingsley is retiring from Decatur High school his spring after teaching there more than three decades.
By Chris Billingsley
Today I took my final field trip to the Jimmy Carter Center and Museum. Seventy students and seven chaperones seem to have enjoyed the experience (including the Varsity for lunch).
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I took my first trip in the late '80s but my relationship with the Carter Center began to strengthen in the early '90s when the superintendent, Dr. Don Griffith, encouraged teachers to use the Expeditionary Learning model. The Carter Center field trip program that I used today still has many of the core ideas of Expeditionary Learning.
Except for time that the Carter Center was being renovated, I brought at least two groups of 70 students per year. There was one year, maybe 1999 or 2000, that I took five trips to the Carter Center.
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One of the highlights of all the trips was the time that President Carter spoke to my students after the 9/11 attack. My students were given the chance to ask Carter questions before the national media. It was quite a thrill to see our students stand and ask a question while more that 70 members of the state, national and international press snapped pictures and took video.
I hope that the students that attended final trip today will always remember the words of Jimmy Carter's high school teacher and principal, Miss Julia Coleman, who regularly told her students, including young Jimmy, that "anyone of you could grow up to be President of the United States."
Now that I am nearing the end of my career in the classroom, I regret that my students didn't hear this more often, because I still believe that the United States is where anyone, even a kid from Decatur, Georgia, can grow up to be anything they choose, even President!
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