Newtown, Connecticut, Reminds Us to Honor Our Chalkboard Heroes

So many of us have had Newtown, Connecticut, on our minds these past few months, as we hold our own children more closely, guard our students more carefully, and evaluate our lawmakers' choices more intensely. This newest example of senseless loss of life saddens us all deeply. Of course, every instance of school room violence reminds us of Columbine High School, and the valiant teacher, Dave Sanders, who was killed there protecting his students from two well-armed student assassins. Sanders, a business teacher and girls basketball coach with 25 years of tenure, clearly went beyond the call of duty to ensure the safe evacuation of over 200 Columbine students and colleagues, and lamentably he paid the ultimate price. You can read Sanders's heroic life story in a slender volume entitled Dave Sanders: Columbine Teacher, Coach, Hero by Marilyn Saltzman and Linda Lou Sanders. The book can be found on amazon at Dave Sanders, but is very costly, and alas the book is not easily available at your local library. If you're highly motivated, however, you will pay the asking price to read the book. Or you could wait to read the chapter about this lionhearted teacher in the book I am currently writing, tentatively entitled Chalkboard Heroes.

"Schoolmarms with a Cause" Describes Gutsy Teachers of the Wild West

I found this little softcover book, Daughters of the West by Anne Seagraves, in a little touristy mercantile in Prescott, Arizona. I was immediately intrigued by the chapter titles: "Horse Trading Ladies & Cattle Queens," "Those Wells Fargo Women," "Petticoat Prisoners." But when I saw the chapter entitled "Schoolmarms with a Cause," I simply couldn't pass it up. I truly enjoyed reading the captivating stories about these turn-of-the-century school teachers conquering the Wild West in their own gutsy ways. Included are numerous historical black and white photos. This slender volume is well worth taking a look at. You can find Daughters of the West and other books by Anne Seagraves at amazon.com.

Warriors Don't Cry: What Happened When the Little Rock Nine Integrated Central High School

On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court issued the landmark decision Brown v. Board of Education which declared segregated schools unconstitutional. Three years later, the schools of Little Rock, Arkansas, were still segregated. A plan for gradual integration generated an intensely hostile response from Little Rock's staunch segregationists. Nevertheless, nine courageous African American students were selected to challenge the status quo and integrate the city's Central High School.  Clinging stubbornly to Jim Crow tradition, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus used the Arkansas National Guard to block the entrance of the nine black students into the school, and, in response, President Dwight Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and charged the troops with protecting the lives of the nine and enforcing the Supreme Court's ruling. Every school day that year, the Little Rock Nine braved angry mobs spewing hostilities, racial epithets, and threats to their lives simply for seeking the right to enter their school. This book, Warriors Don't Cry: The Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High, tells the story of Melba Pattilllo Beals, one of those valiant nine students. When you read this compelling account, you wonder how any kid could have that much fortitude. This book is a great read for teachers, students, and history buffs. You can acquire Warriors Don't Cry from amazon.

Neutralize Negative Teacher Stories; Substitute Stories about Chalkboard Champions!

Is this an experience you have had? You meet someone new, perhaps at a party or at the local watering hole, they find out you are a teacher, and they promptly launch into a half-hour diatribe of the worst teacher they ever had in their life. The teacher made them read aloud in class, the teacher lost their homework and made them do the assignment over, the teacher gave them an F and they couldn't graduate with their class. You politely listen to yet another tale of woe, mentally counting how many such depressing stories you have listened to throughout your career, while silently promising to yourself that you will never tell another person on this planet that you are an educator.

Here is a strategy I have developed to neutralize the demoralizing effects of such an encounter. First, I listen to everything the person has to say, making the appropriate sympathetic noises and facial expressions. Then, at the conclusion of their story, I ask them this question: "And who was the best teacher you ever had?" You can almost see the Rolodex-flip through their file of schoolhouse memories until they finally find at least one teacher they can speak about positively. Using this strategy shifts the feeling tone of the conversation, it neutralizes the negativity, and anyway it's only fair that if through social convention you're forced to listen to a troubling story, you should also get the opportunity to enjoy an uplifting one.

 

In my long career I have endured many a doleful worst-teacher story, and that is one reason why I wanted to write a book about great teachers. I love to tell stories about remarkable educators. There are so many fascinating and inspiring stories to tell! To read about twelve of the greatest and most moving teacher stories I have personally discovered, look on amazon.com for my book,  Chalkboard Champions. 

Tuesdays with Morrie: A Story About a Man and His College Professor

Tuesdays with Morrie is the true story of sports writer Mitch Albom and Morrie Schwartz, Albom's favorite professor from his college days at Brandeis University. During Albom's undergraduate years, he and Schwartz formed a warm friendship that went beyond the typical student-teacher relationship. After graduation, although Albom vowed to keep in touch with his favorite professor, he failed to do so.

Years later, while flipping channels on the television one evening, Albom stumbled across the introduction to Nightline and heard the name Morrie Schwartz. His long-forgotten professor was the subject of an interview, during which Albom learned that his former mentor was dying of ALA, Lou Gehrig's disease. Albom decided to get in touch with his former professor.

Albom began to visit Schwartz regularly, and Tuesdays with Morrie is a journal of the conversations the two men shared until Schwartz passed away 14 weeks later. The book, far from being morbid, details the lessons Schwartz provides in his last class:  How to die with dignity and without fear. Great stuff.

You can find this inspirational book at amazon at the following link: Tuesdays with Morrie.

Sports in Literature, Edited by Bruce Emra

A really great book for physical education teachers, coaches, and avid sports enthusiasts is a volume entitled Sports in Literature: Experiencing Literature Through Stories, Poems, and Nonfiction About Sports, edited by Bruce Emra. This collection of stories, essays, poems, and biograhical sketches presents athletic heroes and villains, the famous and the obscure, and their triumphs and defeats, as seen through the eyes of contemporary and classic writers. Each selection included in the volume explores both the dramatic and the personal aspects of sports, and the stories reveal sports as a metaphor for the human experience. Terrific as a read for yourself, and equally great to offer to students as leisure reading. Each selection is followed by several comprehension questions and a thought-provoking essay assignment, which makes this book perfect for classroom assignments, make-up work for absences, bad-weather work, or extra credit opportunities. This wonderful book can be ordered from amazon at this link: Sports in Literature.

Tundra Teacher: an Alaskan Teacher and Basketball Coach Tells His Story

Anyone intrigued by the wilderness of Alaska and the challenges teachers face there would find Tundra Teacher: A Memoir by John Foley a fascinating read. In the remote Eskimo village of Gambell on St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea, Foley becomes immersed in the local Yup'ik culture, helping to haul in a whale, keeping an eye out for polar bears on his way to school, and discovering how important it is to earn respect on the basketball court. Later, Foley transfers to the Athabascan Indian village of Tetlin on the Alaska Highway near the U.S. border with Canada, where he teaches and coaches basketball. The author writes candidly but with wry, mellow humor about village life, students, teachers, women, and relationships. You can find Tundra Teacher on amazon.com.