Seneca Valley teacher ensures that students "Never Forget"
JACKSON TWP — James Lucot doesn't believe in making his students memorize dates.
An educator for 20 years, Lucot teaches history at Seneca Valley High School, where he tries to connect students on a personal level to historic events and the people who were part of them.
There is, however, one important date he requires all students to know: D-Day.
It was that day — June 6, 1944 — in the heat of World War II, when Allied forces invaded northern France via beach landings in Normandy. The estimated 160,000 troops were a fraction of those involved in the greater war, with seemingly no family or community in the United States unaffected.
Although not part of the Greatest Generation, Lucot's connection was prominent throughout his life. An uncle was killed in the war, and some of his earliest memories involve walking to the cemetery behind his Pittsburgh home to visit the grave site.
“I don't have any conscious memory without World War II,” he said.
He also vividly recalls parades and World War I veterans, the two generations overlapping for a brief moment in history. He said this helped form a deep connection, which later led him to want to learn more about his uncle. However, that information was classified, and despite declaring himself next of kin, putting pieces of the puzzle together was challenging.
He took to knocking on doors and writing letters — all done during an era before the prevalence of the Internet — and was able to find three members of his uncle's battalion. At first, he interviewed them to simply learn about his family member, but it became much more.
“I realized how fortunate we are to live in this country and the sacrifices that were made for us to live this way,” he said.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. To learn how James Lucot turned this passion for the Greatest Generation into an amazing teaching tool with his students, make sure to pick up Sunday's Butler Eagle or subscribe online.
