Neal Tull, a teacher and football coach at Lubbock High School, put away the books for the summer and went to boot camp for a week as part of the United States Marine Corps 2016 Educators Workshop at the Marine Corps Recruiting Depot in San Diego, California.
“It used to be this mystery and now they’re peeling it back and they want people and educators to come and see what they do,” Tull said.
The purpose of the workshop is to help teachers across the country get a better understanding of the Marine Corps and the methods it uses to make new marines.
The week consisted of briefings, problem solving, combat training and obstacle courses. Staff Sergeant Jon Austin, a drill instructor, said the workshop is a benefit to both the Marine Corps and teachers.
“One, we are teachers too, two it’s a way for us to say thank you to them for what they’re doing and three, it’s a way for us to show them how our methods are a little bit different than theirs.” Staff Sergeant Austin said. “Our methods are pretty effective, so maybe we can give them some tools in the toolbox.”
The workshop not only gives teachers a way to share with students what the Marine Corps is all about, it also taught them lessons they can take back to their own classrooms.
“It’s attention to detail for me as a professional,” Tull said. “When I tell a receiver he needs to run a corner route and break at ten yards, he needs to break at ten, not at nine, not at eleven, at ten and that’s the small details.”
“They have them for four years, we only have them for three months,” Staff Sergeant Austin said. “So if they plant that seed or at least give them an honest opinion, I’m not telling them to sell it but they’re going to want to after they come here, because that’s just the nature of what we do.”
