Citizen soldier
Jennings teacher uses military precision to shape young minds
by Heather N. Pollock

He has the haircut. He has the posture. He has the air of authority. He has all the requisites for a man in uniform – a clean dress shirt, tie and pressed slacks – standard issue for a day on the job. Sgt. Michael McBennett, retired from the Army National Guard, teaches eighth-grade history at Jennings Middle School.

While McBennett goes home to his wife and family at the end of each day, another marriage – one that has produced hundreds of well-educated children – exists at work. He has made unlikely bedfellows of the military and education.

During his 14 years in the military, McBennett trained at Fort Knox, served overseas in England, secured Air Force bases in Europe and worked his way up the ranks to sergeant. One might think he joined the military because of his father, an Air Force man. Or maybe it was because of his brothers, who also chose military careers. But it was his sister and a love of history that helped him realize goals.

He watched his sister, who was an excellent student, juggle three jobs as she paid for college. He knew he could not hack her workload. He knew he needed money. He joined the Army.

Although he started out as a soldier, McBennett knew he wanted to be a teacher when he was 13. He took all of the history classes he could – even the "bad ones" – knowing he could also learn something from watching those teachers' mistakes.

"I knew I could be one of the good teachers, and I could have a lot of fun doing it," he remembers of those early days.

One might expect the list of positive Army influences on a classroom to include discipline, organization, accountability and responsibility. Influences you might not expect are the ones he treasures the most: creativity, reflection and individuality. According to McBennett, the Army is just as disinterested as public schools in turning out a "product."

"My military experience was as individualized as the private next to me," says McBennett. "Even though military ranks and stages are prescribed, what distinguishes each soldier is his or her private, personal motivation."

In McBennett's eyes, what distinguished good leaders was knowing how to reach that source of motivation and put it to the test. He learned a few other lessons in the Army that he brought to his education career.

"In most cases, as long as you got from point A to point B, the method for getting there is up to you," says McBennett.

This lesson works for a teacher of young adults, a group that often requires completely different approaches from desk to desk, class to class and year to year.

Another important lesson was learning not to make generalizations and judgments. But, surprisingly, what endears him to many as a teacher also made him a better soldier – empathy. He strongly believed that, at a certain point, your life becomes your own, regardless of your circumstances. Teaching taught him compassion in dealing with new recruits, who remind him of his students.

Where do these two perspectives intersect? – Poplarville, Miss., in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. McBennett had been teaching for five years when his unit was deployed to aid the recovery. It would be nine months before he would return home and again devote himself to his chosen career.

McBennett was sent to rebuild a destroyed school. He names it as the single-most worthwhile thing he has done in the last 14 years. As a teacher, he saw something that the other men in his unit did not – the dashed hopes of teachers whose carefully constructed classrooms were reduced to rubble.

The disaster compelled him to reflect on his own students and classroom. Unlike teaching, where the investment is long-term, or military life, where success comes in the form of regimented promotions at scheduled intervals, in Mississippi, McBennett found immediate rewards and daily results.

A photo expressing the town's thanks hangs on a filing cabinet in the corner of McBennett's classroom. In the background is destruction, the kind that whips up out of nowhere, lashes out and is gone as quickly as it came, leaving scars both visible and buried. In the foreground is a hero, a teacher and a solider – the kind we rely upon to build bridges, weather storms, mend fences, and teach young people.

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