Teacher thinks outside the book

CHAPEL HILL -- Bill Melega launched his first-period class Friday morning with a question. "In history," he said, "there are days that change the world. Anyone got any of those?"

His history students offered answers: "D-Day. Pearl Harbor. Sept. 11."

Although these honors students at Chapel Hill High School are studying the Civil War this semester, Melega set aside Friday to talk about the day that drew the United States into World War II.

"Today, we're going to tell you that story," he told his students.

In khakis, a tie with a Christmas lights design and a blue shirt rolled up to his elbows, Melega stood before a table covered in yellowed newspapers from Dec. 7, 1941, and the days that followed.

For 50 minutes, he captivated his students with a video clip of the bombing and a play-by-play of the Japanese preparations for it and the American response.

"I really like this class because some teachers read off the book -- he makes it exciting," said Lily Steponaitis, a senior in Melega's fourth-period class.

"You can see it in your head," classmate Armeen Mistry agreed. "It's like a really big, really important story."

Melega is planning to bring Pearl Harbor even closer to home for his students by flying to Hawaii in January. He will use teleconferencing technology to teach a 90-minute class from Pearl Harbor. His plans include interviewing a park ranger and Roy Emory, 88, a survivor of the bombing who retired to Hawaii. Both guests will be on hand during the teleconference for the students to question.

His trip is sponsored by the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill through an annual grant to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Public School Foundation.

"It's a bit of an unusual grant for us," said Kim Hoke, director of the foundation.

"We have never before funded a grant that would take a teacher to Hawaii," she said with a laugh.

Hoke said the foundation liked that the project involved interviewing and studying local history. With help from Emory, a Chicago native, Melega has learned the names of the 15 North Carolinians who were at Pearl Harbor or Hickam Air Field that day, including six men from Orange, Durham and Chatham counties.

He passed around a photograph of the grave of William Durham, buried off Lystra Road in Chatham County. Emory has asked him to collect photographs of the local graves for a memorial in Hawaii.

Melega's schedule for his trip, which he will make with his wife, is jam-packed. He plans to videotape behind-the-scenes tours he has arranged with the U.S. Park Service and anything he can't fit into the teleconference for a future video presentation to his classes.

"I am really excited," Melega said.

An energetic teacher with a loud, smooth storyteller's voice, Melega is Teacher of the Year this year at Chapel Hill High School, where he teaches A.P. World History and Great American Conflicts: the Civil War and World War II.

The idea to apply for the grant came to him shortly after teaching his students about Pearl Harbor last Dec. 7.

"I was talking about it last year, and my students were like, well, it was like another bombing," Melega said.

He recalled that one student asked why the Japanese hadn't bombed San Francisco instead.

"I said good question -- it's several thousand miles farther away," he said.

His wife challenged him to do something about the students' misconceptions, and then Melega saw the grant application.

"As well-traveled as our students are, not very many of them have been there before," he said.

"I try to tell them 1941 was your grandparents' Sept. 11. And I don't know if that quite hits them."