Harlon Block

The purpose of this lesson is to help students make connections between what is being taught in school and their community. The student should be able to learn history that had shaped their community.  For the city of Weslaco, TX. Harlon Block was a hero. Thus, the city has a Sports Complex named after him. The city museum has a small exposition about Harlon Block life and  accomplishments. The Marine Military Academy from Harlingen TX, has the monument of “raising the flag in Iwo Jima Battle” this is to commemorate all of those who serve during World War II, this war was one of the deadliest wars and it claimed the lives of many soldiers who were part of our community. The Academy also has an annual parade in remembrance to the Iwo Jima Battle and Harlon Block, this is a public event.

It is important for the student to be able to make a relationship between school and community. Unfortunately, new generations do not know much about who Harlon Block was, and this is the main reason we thought of using him as an example of local people being contributors to our nation. We considered for this lesson the use of Paulo Freire Pedagogical Framework theory. He based his theory on curiosity and our lessons considered our students to use their creativity to do the activities and assignments. As well as using innovation and collaborative assignments that will help them fight for social justice and become good citizens (Lewis, 2012, p 29).