GREEN BAY (NBC26) — A Green Bay special education teacher who spent decades in law enforcement has turned his unique hobby into inspiration for his students — and now the entire country.
Russell Beckman, who teaches incarcerated students at the Brown County Juvenile Detention Center, has visited the graves of nearly every U.S. president and recently shared his journey in an essay published by the White House History Quarterly journal.
Meet Beckman and see pictures of his travels to see the graves of U.S. Presidents in the video below:
"I hope to leave the world a better place, which is what a legacy is," Beckman said.
After spending years as a police officer and detective, Beckman made a career change driven by his belief in prevention over punishment.
"It's so easy to lock young people up in prison, and I thought, if we took some of those resources to try to keep students out of prison, it might be money better spent," Beckman said.
Now he teaches incarcerated youth, focusing on helping them set and achieve goals.
"I was an at-risk kid myself when I was young. I grew up on the streets, and I feel I have a connection to a lot of my students ... I want to give them the power that they need to believe in themselves so that they can go and they can graduate from high school," Beckman said.
Beckman tries to lead by example, pursuing his own ambitious goal — visiting every U.S. president's grave. He's completed visits to all but one: Jimmy Carter's burial site, which he plans to visit next summer.
"We all have connections to the past and we're closer as a society than what we realize ... Every visit to a president's grave started out as a study of their life," Beckman said.
One president's story particularly resonates with Beckman: the life of Richard Nixon.
"Because he's despised by a lot of people, I felt a connection to him. Because my students are despised by a lot of people in society," Beckman said.
He wrote about the connection between his passion for American history and his passion for making a difference to his students in his essay.
"I tell my students that Nixon helped me to understand that unless you suffer from despair, you could never fully appreciate joy," he wrote.
Being a published essayist is certainly a joyful moment for Beckman.
"I hope to have a couple of these in my classroom so my students can say, 'You know something, Beckman did it, so can I,'" he said.
The White House Quarterly Magazine essay is available in paper copy format only and can be ordered online.
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