User:Tjpepper/sandbox

=Getting an Education as a Military Dependent Child=
Growing up in a military family is an interesting concept. Being transported from place to place throughout one's childhood certainly exposes the child to valuable experiences not afforded to civilian children who may grow up in a more stable, unchanging environment. However, as a person who did, in fact, grow up in a military family, I am able to attest that the educational experience (that is, the experience of changing schools often) leaves a lot to be desired. the military child's education tends to be choppy. Hopefully, in today's technologically advanced society, this issue has been addressed.

Birth and Family

I, Teresa Jodene (Butler) Pepper was born at Fort Bliss, Texas on June 28, 1961, to a military father and a stay at home mother, the second eldest of four daughters. Growing up in a military family exposed me to several states and three different countries, including the United States, Taiwan and Germany.

Early Life

My family lived at Fort bliss until I attained the age of three; I have no memories of that time in my life. In the early 1960s, the Vietnam War was ongoing and my father, a soldier, was deployed there for a year at this time in my life. During his deployment, my mother took my sisters and me to her home, Arch, New Mexico. This is a farming community in the northeastern part of New Mexico. My great grandparents worked a farm there, growing peanuts and cotton, and the occasional watermelon. After my father's deployment was over, he was dent to Fort Dixon, New Jersey, where we lived for six months. This is the time in my life from which I begin to have memories.

New Jersey

While in New Jersey, I started kindergarten. I really only have three clear memories of our short stay there: Germany
 * My first day of kindergarten: I remember the first day my mother sent me to school. While I do not remember the school building at all, I do remember my mother chasing me there. Apparently, I did not want to go and was found sitting on the back porch after I was supposed to go to school. My mother chased me to the school with a belt, screaming at me to "get to school!"
 * I had one friend at the apartment complex where we lived; one day we were playing on a tricycle. We were taking turns pushing one another on it when she became terrified that I was going to make her crash into something. She had seen the shadow of a telephone pole across the asphalt and was certain I was going to make her crash into it. I had the hardest time convincing her that it was just a shadow and could not harm her. I think she went home crying.
 * One of my sisters was born at Fort Dix; perhaps that is the reason for our stay there.

After his assignment at Fort Dix was over, my father was sent to Germany, where we lived for about three years. The area where we were living was called Buren. I attended the first, second, and part of third grades there. Another of my sisters, and the youngest of us all, was born in Germany.

New Mexico

After his assignment in Germany was completed, my father once again was deployed to Vietnam. His deployment this time would last for one full year, during which my mother once again stayed at her home in New Mexico, and I completed the third grade. I remember having severe allergies to the crops that were grown there: our house was surrounded on all sides by corn fields.

Fort Huachuca, Arizona

Once my father's final deployment in Vietnam was done, he was assigned to Fort Huachuca, Arizona for the first time. He would be assigned there again later. Here I attended fourth, grade and started fifth grade on the military base at Army sponsored schools.

Haleiwa, Hawaii

Following my father's career, we were transferred to Haleiwa, Hawaii, on the north shore of Oahu. Here I finished the fifth grade, attended the sixth grade and started the seventh grades. I also learned how to swim while there.

Taiwan

After our time in Hawaii, my father's career took him to Taiwan. Here I finished the seventh grade, attended eighth and started ninth grades. the American military did not at that time have any military sponsored schools so the school American children attended was called "Taipei American School" and sponsored all grades from K through 12. Here I began to study Spanish. My first year Spanish teacher had, himself, been a student at that school as a military brat in his own time. At the time, I had never heard of the television show, "Welcome Back, Kotter," which was a sitcom in the 1970s about a man who returns to his old high school to teach.

Back to Arizona

After being in Taiwan, we were all ready to be back home in the good old U.S. of A. In Sierra Vista, Arizona, I attended high school at Buena High School.

It is easy to see that an education for a military child can be choppy at best, and completely neglected at worst. Most military children in my generation fall somewhere in between those two extremes. While the lifestyle itself is quite an education, it is quite different from an education that a person growing up in one location might get. In my imagination, a child of a civilian family glides smoothly through the educational process, unencumbered by the turbulence of a military career interrupting their education at every turn. Must be nice. :)