Broken Arrow Teacher Shares Memories Of The Berlin Wall With Students

November 9th marked 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall and Broken Arrow Middle School teacher Jonathan Colburn saw history unfold first hand while serving in the army in 1989.

He was in Germany just a week after the fall of the Berlin Wall and now 30 years later, pieces from that wall that once divided a city are important tools in the classroom.

"They would have little hammer and chisels along the wall, every twenty feet or so. You would just go along on the west side and chop off pieces that you wanted,” Colburn told his 6th-grade class.

History is hands-on in Mr. Colburn’s room and he says echos from that moment in time speak loudly in a still-divided world. 

“The concept of a government preventing people from leaving or having free thought, I think, is something we really need to emphasize in schools today,” said Colburn. “I still get goosebumps because of the historical impact and the fact that big things were happening.”

Colburn says most of his students get a better understanding of the time period once they get to high school history.