As students prepare to arrive back in their classrooms, I hope that teachers are planning a lesson on the historical significance of Neil Armstrong, who died this past week.

The first man to walk on a celestial body, Armstrong’s name is right up there in the history books with Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus.

Sometimes, I forget myself, and I ask people what they were doing on the day man landed on the moon. Some look at me with a puzzled look and tell me that they were’nt even born at the time. That’s too bad because July 20, 1969 was one of the great days in the history of the world.

I had just graduated from college, and I was spending the summer working in a Catholic Charities youth center on the south side of Williamsburg run by Epiphany parish. The center usually closed at 10 p.m., but because Armstrong was scheduled to step out onto the moon a little later, we kept the doors open. We sat around a black and white television set and watched in wonder. As I walked home along Bedford Ave., I looked into the bars and saw that every TV set was tuned to the same broadcast. The whole world was watching. It was the most watched broadcast of all time.

Students should know the name of Neil Armstrong, but even more they should understand the courage and tenacity of what he did. Granted, there were thousands of brilliant and talented people who worked to make possible that historic flight. But it was Armstrong who first went where no man had gone before. No one really knew what was going to happen. Indeed, the world held its breath until the following day when the lunar excursion module (LEM) finally successfully lifted off Tranquility Base and headed for a rendezvous with the mother ship, Columbia. It took nerves of steel to take those small steps for mankind.

Armstrong returned to the classroom and taught for the rest of his life. He shunned the limelight and made very few appearances. The most recent statement from him was an uncharacteristically critical one of President Obama’s plans to curtail America’s space program.

Armstrong knew that people need to be challenged to reach beyond themselves. Men and women want to dream, and the space program allows them to do just that. It proved that dreams were not in vain, and greatness can be achieved.

Students need to hear this today because I don’t think they believe it anymore. I’ve seen too many young people stuck in mediocrity, willing to get by with staring into a screen that’s held in the palm of their hands or lost in a cacophony of noise that’s blasting into their ears.

When I was in high school, Father Tom Brady taught a class in which he dared every student to strive to be a hero. No simply getting along just to get along. We were told to dream big and shown that such dreams could be achieved. We dreamed impossible dreams that only could be gained by exerting our last ounces of courage.

Teachers, take a lesson from Neil Armstrong, and tell your students they can be as great as he was. Let his death be a reminder that we can achieve what seems to be impossible only with a lot of hard work and determination. It’s a lesson worth teaching.

*** *** ***

Just a reminder! Each week, I sit down with Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio and interview him for a Friday segment on Currents, the daily news show seen on the NET. Maybe you have a question for the bishop? If so, please submit your question for consideration. Simply send your query to me at The Tablet, 1712 Tenth Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11215 or ewilkinson@diobrook.org.