“If we could survive 1968 as a country, we can survive anything.”

1968 — the worst year in United States history — was filled with turbulence and terror: the devastating Tet Offensive in Vietnam, Martin Luther King Jr.’s and Robert Kennedy’s assassinations, hundreds of riots breaking out across the country and a year capped off with the violent 1968 Democratic National Convention and a nuclear missile scare.

But for retiring Advanced Placement United States History teacher Patricia Edaburn, 1968 isn’t just another one of the 400 plus years APUSH kids are forced to learn about, filled chock full of impersonal events.

She experienced the strife and struggles of 1968 as a protestor and student — along with many other watershed moments in the 20th century. It’s what gives her an unparalleled view of our nation’s history and makes her teaching so good, according to junior Jaagruthi Draksharam.

“She connects every single event with a personal experience or something about the current time, so it’s easier to understand,” Draksharam said. “Her life makes [the content] more impactful.”

Edaburn’s story began in post-World War II Germany, where she was born and adopted as an infant by an American soldier stationed there. After two years in Germany, the new family moved to Camp Mabry, a military base in Austin, Texas, where Edaburn recalls often riding horses that she rented from her neighbors.

“There were two horse stables within walking distance from my house,” Edaburn said. “[Horses are] what I asked for my birthday and Christmas every year.”

But even early on, Edaburn was confronted by the restrictive social norms of the mid 20th century. Nearly every college offering her dream field of study — veterinary medicine — only admitted men. The closest co-ed was in California, 1700 miles away.

So she shelved that career. But her desire for educational parity never extinguished.

“If there was a way to make sure that people have an equal opportunity … for education, that’s a law I would like to see added,” Edaburn said. “There needs to be options for [everyone].”

Inequality may have redirected her vision, but soon a new passion was sparked. Edaburn decided she wanted to go into teaching after her 10th grade English teacher Ms. Cummings praised her analysis of “The Catcher in the Rye.”

“I do feel like teaching was my calling,” Edaburn said. “I think that God has called me to be a teacher. Absolutely.”

Under her father’s influence, Edaburn decided she wanted to start teaching history.

“I’ve always loved history, and if my dad had gone to college, he would have been a history professor,” Edaburn said. “My dad never talked about [his time in the army], but we talked about the historical facts of America.”

Even though they would spend hours discussing the founding of the United States, Edaburn frequently clashed with her father about the nature and value of contemporary 1960s youth protests.

“He was very patriotic and very loyal to his nation because he had put his life on the line in Korea and World War II,” Edaburn said. “When Vietnam happened, people were protesting and burning flags, which broke his heart. So he and I would talk about whether people should be allowed to do that.”

Still, as a teenager, Edaburn was committed to saying “when our government is incorrect” through protests at the Texas Capitol in Austin. Fifty years later, Edaburn says she is “putting [her] faith in [this next generation] that they’re going to vote,” a passion that has influenced students like junior Sofia Giuliani.

“She encourages us to be very active members of the community and to take action in voting and politics, even not exactly as politicians, but as civilians,” Giuliani said.

Edaburn attended Texas Tech University to become a history and English teacher. She completed her student teaching in Lubbock, Texas, where she was thrown into managing a class headfirst.

“I was put in an English class, and I walked in … and the [teacher] said ‘Bye. See you later,’” Edaburn said. “I don’t know that I ever saw her again. It was hard. It was scary. But it was exhilarating.”

Edaburn met her husband teaching in Corpus Christi, and together they moved all over the South, eventually settling in Houston at Bellaire High School. The rest is history.

Days away from retirement, Edaburn reflects on the changes in American society over the course of her life.

“How I feel about my country today, and how I felt about my country when I was a teenager are two different things,” Edaburn said. “I think my feeling today is much more honest because I recognize the problems we have. And if you can see that and still love your country, I think that’s a better way than just being nationalistic.”

One notable example of generational change to Edaburn is the loss of civic rituals, like the Pledge.

“When I was growing up, everybody stood up and said the Pledge of Allegiance out loud and put their hand on their heart,” Edaburn said. “Nobody would have ever thought about sitting there. Today, nobody says it. Are those words going to be lost at some point in time?”

Edaburn traces this loss of patriotism she’s seen over her career to declining American faith in politicians, a departure from the people’s trust and support throughout most of America’s history.

“I think when Watergate occurred in 1973-1974 that people really lost trust in the government,” Edaburn said. “And I think we’re so used to not trusting the government that [we] don’t realize what it was like to have that trust.”

Edaburn tries to combat this ubiquitous distrust and polarization in American politics by offering opposing views on well-known historical events.

“Saying we’re very partisan and we’re very divided is an understatement,” Edaburn said. “I want my students to question. I do not want anybody to accept anything. You should question both sides and get as much information as possible.”

Junior Zev Goetz agrees that Edaburn encourages her students to critically analyze the world around them, but he feels she does it in a very open-minded and non-confrontational way.

“I feel like every time she talks, she’s offering a different perspective, and I always feel like I can ask her questions about anything,” junior Zev Goetz said.

And when considering her legacy at Bellaire and the impact she’s left on the thousands of students she’s had through 40 years, Edaburn has just one hope:

“I hope that what people would say about me is that [I] presented all sides of the issue to let y’all make your minds up yourselves.”