May 4, 2005

The future is the children

Teacher Marilyn Tietgens inspires Castillero kids on East Coast history tour

By Jeanne Carbone Lewis
Staff Writer 

The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind—Kabil Gibran 

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires—William Arthur Ward 

A teacher can make all the difference in a child’s life. And one local educator is taking it to the next level, inspiring her students and creating memories to last a lifetime.

The images of chaperone and teacher Dylan Hydes and and a student appear on the Viet Nam War Memorial.

Marilyn Tietgens has been a language arts teacher at Castillero Middle School for the past eight and half years. On spring break, she and a staff of chaperones toured New York City, Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia with 68 eighth graders. Tietgens has planned the annual trip for the past five years and “loves doing it.”

“She’s a super teacher,” said parent Steve Jackson whose daughter Marissa is in Tietgens’ class and attended the East Coast adventure. “With the help of dedicated chaperones, she put up with the teenagers for a whole week. With multiple plane and bus rides, many different places to visit, late-night pillow fights and probably too much whining, she dutifully carried herself to the whole day. She is exceptional and deserves recognition.” 

Tietgens organizes and plans for the adventure a year in advance. The group left on a “red-eye” out of Oakland, arriving in Washington, D.C. where the kids saw the U.S. Capital, Supreme Court, Mount Vernon and the Jefferson, Lincoln and World War II memorials.  

A visit to the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial [Iwo Jima statue] was a highlight. Jackson, his mother Shirley Isaacson and step father, Eric, had worked on a letter about his experiences on Iwo Jima as a sergeant leading 87 men into battle, with only 26 surviving the horrific events on the island in the Pacific. He asked Tietgens to surprise his daughter Marissa at the memorial and have her read it to classmates at the memorial. 

“It was a beautiful moment,” said Tietgens. “The sun came out for a minute while she read. A Korean War veteran also listened as she read. He came over and asked the kids if there were any questions. It meant a lot to Marissa, and it became a very powerful moment for the kids. It was touching.” 

Day two in the nation’s capital, the students experienced the Ford Theater, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the ghostly statues at the Korean War Veterans Memorial and the National Air and Space Museum. 

The next day after a tour of Arlington National Cemetery where they students left a wreath, the group departed for Philadelphia. They visited the Liberty Bell, the National Constitution Center, Lights of Liberty and Founding Fathers Program.

Marilyn Tietgens in her classroom at Castillero Middle School.

The whirlwind tour continued the next day with a visit to Independence Hall and Franklin Court and then on to the anticipated stop in New York City. First stop a guided tour of Manhattan including Chinatown, SoHo, Chelsea and Tribeca, Wall Street and the Financial District and Times Square.

Castillero is an academic, visual and performing arts magnet and the students were thrilled to sit in a Broadway classroom, take a walk through Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum of Art followed by dinner and tickets to “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.”

The last day of their unforgettable trip was to Ellis Island and Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum. 

“I probably liked Ellis Island the best,” said Tietgens. “My father came through there when he came to this country so it holds a special place in my heart.” 

Tietgens grew up in the San Joaquin Valley and attended San Jose State, obtaining her degree in drama with an English teaching credential. She was employed at IBM until she began teaching at Castillero eight years ago. She is married with two sons who attend Pioneer. 

“This is my love,” said Tietgens about her career change. 

And Castillero kids are better prepared for the future because of it.

The following is the letter Marissa Jackson read to her classmates at the Iwo Jima statue in Washington, D.C.

To the students of Castillero Middle School,
I was a 20-year-old young man back in 1941. On Dec.7 of that year the Japanese had attacked our country at Pearl Harbor. Our president, Franklin Roosevelt, then declared war on Japan the next day.

At the time, I was living in Springfield Ill., the home of Abraham Lincoln. I was working for the local power company and living at the YMCA.

One day I was on the elevator and saw the famous recruitment poster of the Marine with his finger pointed at me that said, “I want YOU!” So I joined the Marines I went to various places in the U.S. for training, and when I finally graduated as a staff sergeant, I was shipped out to an island near Iwo Jima, which we intended to invade and take from the Japanese.

This island was only two miles long and was just an extinct volcano but it was a strategic place to have a runway for planes to stop and refuel. The place had no vegetation and was completely covered in black lava. This made it a good place for the Japanese to firmly entrench themselves in the caves they dug.

Prior to our invasion, planes had bombed the island for days hoping that they could wipe out the soldiers there before we landed. But the Japanese had spent many months preparing for us and they were dug into the caves and the hills.

They had all their equipment aimed at where we would land.

When the day came to launch our invasion, they were waiting for us full force. As a staff sergeant, I had 87 Marines under my command. But we all knew that it was our job to do to take this island. No one complained about the bad food, the weather or the insane living conditions. We fought for our families, our friends and, above all, our country.

I never even thought about the poor men that I would have to order to do what it took to take this island. But I saw what they looked like before they made their ultimate sacrifice. Their eyes were wide open but it almost seemed that their souls were already gone. They knew full well that they probably were not going home sooner, later or ever. When I looked at their eyes I could almost see right through them. But not a single one complained. Not a single one refused an order. No matter what!

I left a lot of great friends, great men and great Marines at that island those 28 days it took to take control of the terrible place. When we finally took Mount Suribachi, the famous place where the six Marines are depicted in the statue raising the flag, we were still not done.

Of those six men, three of them would eventually die there and one of them was a Pima Indian named Ira Hayes under my command. He was a great man. Of the 87 men under my command only 25 made it back alive, an unbelievable price paid to take the island that our country needed. But with Iwo Jima, we could continue to win the war and it was a price that had to be paid.

I write this letter with not much time left in my life and hope that all who hear its words come to understand the tremendous sacrifices that our men and women had to go through so that our country, your country is free today. I also hope you never take freedom for granted because it’s not given to you automatically. You have to earn the right to have it just like our great men in the Revolutionary War did.

Thank you Marissa Jackson very much for reading this to your classmates. Your grandfather cares deeply for you and misses you dearly.

Eric Issacson
Staff sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps