It was poignant to hear of the many gatherings of veterans and friends to observe this historic occasion, including one such gathering at our own state capital in Phoenix.
The saddest report was of the annual gathering of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association at the site of the attack in Hawaii. On their fiftieth reunion in 1991, there were several thousand survivors gathered. This year there were only a little over a hundred. They announced that this seventieth anniversary would be their last gathering, since the surviviors are fast becoming extinct.
One member of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association said that the last time he spoke at a school assembly, about five eyars ago, a little girl (upon hearing him introdcued) raised her hand and asked, "WHo is Pearl Harbor?" While such cute misundertandings are understandable, and even perhaps excusable in one so young, it underscores the need for each generation to pass this received cultural knowledge on to the enxt. That is why those of us in the classical Christian school movement say that history is the core of our curriculum.
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