Chalkboard Champions Contribute to Our Democracy

As we celebrate the birth of our country today, I am reminded of the role our chalkboard champions have played throughout history to preserve and perpetuate the freedoms we all enjoy. Classroom educators teach our children about our nation's rich heritage, our history, and our system of government. They lead children in the creation of hand-traced turkeys at Thanksgiving, teach them the words and music to our patriotic songs, design lessons about the accomplishments of our presidents and social reformers such as political activist Martin Luther King and labor leader Cesar Chavez, remind students of the contributions of our veterans, and organize patriotic festivities throughout the year. Our teachers even educate our kids about our failures so that we can become a better democracy.

And let's not forget that many of our nation's courageous teachers have become, themselves, a part of our country's historical record. There are many fine examples. Think of Christa McAuliffe, the New Hampshire history teacher who became the first educator in space; or Henry Alvin Cameron, the Tennessee science teacher who sacrificed his life for freedom in the WWI Battle of the Argonne Forest; or Robert Parris Moses, the New York City math teacher who played a pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's. From sea to shining sea, there are thousands of teachers in our nation's history who have made contributions to our society in large ways or quiet ways as veterans, activists, and supporters of our democracy. We thank them all for the freedoms we celebrate today.

You can read about some of these heroic teachers in my recently published book, Chalkboard Champions, available on amazon, or when my newest book, tentatively entitled Chalkboard Heroes, is ready for publication.

The Normal School: A Place to Train Chalkboard Champions

While I am engaged in reading about various remarkable teachers, I often come across terms that describe schools I have never heard of before. Such was the case when I came across the term "normal school."

I learned that a normal school is an institution which provided training for high school graduates who wished to become teachers. Today, these institutions are typically called "teachers' colleges." The normal school offered courses in subjects that teachers would be expected to teach to their students, and also instruction on how to organize and present lessons. The term derived from the intention of establishing teaching standards or norms.

The first public normal school in the United States was founded in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1839, pictured above. It operates today as Framingham State University.

Industrial Schools: A Way to Provide For and Educate Needy Children

Many times while I am reading biographies about remarkable teachers I come across a description of a type of school that I am unfamiliar with. I enjoy learning about various types of schools and I am eager to share my new knowledge with you. One school I have been learning about is the industrial school, an institution commonly established around the turn of the twentieth century, but not unheard of today.  

An industrial school is a boarding school that provided for the children’s basic needs for housing, food, and medical care. Often these schools were established to provide a means for caring for children who had been orphaned, neglected, or abandoned, and sometimes for those youngsters who were deemed incorrigible. Today, these children are typically cared for through adoption or placement in foster homes, and they are educated in regular public schools, but in the past century, industrial schools served a valuable service for these needy kids.

In the industrial school, students were taught vocational skills that would allow them to seek gainful employment once they came of age. Girls typically received training in the domestic arts or needle trades, and boys were taught vocational skills such as carpentry, shoe-making, or box-making. In addition, the young people were taught fundamental literacy skills in such subjects as reading, writing, and mathematics.

You can read more about various industrial schools in my book, Chalkboard Champions, available from amazon.

Suffrage Schools: Where Chalkboard Champions Influenced A Political Movement

When I read about remarkable teachers, I often come across terms that describe varieties of schools I have never heard of before. One such example is the term "suffrage schools." These schools were first developed by suffragette Carrie Chapman Catt, a trained teacher, in 1917, for the purpose of training women volunteers to become politically effective in their efforts to win the vote for women.

 

The curriculum of a suffrage school included such topics as public speaking, the organization of the U.S. government, the history of the suffrage movement, how to develop a good relationship with the press, and how to use the press for influencing the electorate. Eventually the lessons taught in these schools paid off, for women won the right to vote with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1919.

 

You can read more about suffrage schools in my upcoming book, tentatively titled Chalkboard Heroes.

Henrietta Szold: The Chalkboard Champion Who Saved 22,000 Jewish Children from Nazi Concentration Camps

Henrietta Szold was born on December 21, 1860, in Baltimore Maryland, the eldest of eight daughters born to her father, a respected rabbi. She graduated from Western Female High School in 1877, and then taught school for fifteen years at Miss Adam's School and Oheb Shalom Religious School. She also established the first American school in Baltimore to provide English language classes and vocational education courses to Russian Jewish immigrants.

Henrietta is probably best known, however for founding the international volunteer organization known as Hadassah. This organization sponsored Youth Aliyah, a program designed to rescue Jewish children from Nazi Germany, and, later, from all over Europe. This organization was able to save an estimated 22,000 children from World War II death camps.

Inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2007, Henrietta Szold is truly a chalkboard champion. You can read more about this remarkable teacher in my upcoming book, tentatively entitled Chalkboard Heroes.

Actor Tony Danza: The Unexpected Chalkboard Champion

It seems to me that in every teacher's career, there comes a desperate moment in which we just want to be understood. We fervently wish that the public, the parents, and the media comprehended just how dedicated we are to our students, and just how hard we work on their behalf, and just how tough the job is. Tony Danza goes a long way to build this understanding in his 2012 book I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had: My Year as a Rookie Teacher at Northeast High.

 

Having already earned his degree in history and  his teaching credential, Danza accepted a position as a first-year teacher in an inner-city school in Philadelphia, partly because he had always wanted to teach and decided now would be a good time in his career to explore that option, and partly because the experiment could be turned into a reality show that, Danza hoped, could accomplish some genuine good by turning an empathetic spotlight on our nation's over-worked, over-criticized, and under-paid teachers.

 

Throughout the book, Danza provides an insider's perspective on many of the topics that dominate political discussion in the media and professional conversation in the teachers' lounge, including such topics as funding cuts, high-stakes testing, high absenteeism,  student apathy, and lack of parental involvement. It's amazing how he hit the nail on the head with every chapter.

 

I loved this book, and how Danza eloquently voiced the frustrations of practically every teacher in America. Most importantly, I loved how much his genuine affection and respect for his students, and his strong commitment to do right by them, shines through the frustrations. It's an inspirational book I recommend you read before going back to the classroom in the Fall. You can find it on amazon at I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had.

Chalkboard Champion Maria Montessori: She Worked with Special Needs Children

Almost everyone in the field of education has heard of Maria Montessori (1870-1952), the Italian educator and physician who was especially interested in working with children with developmental and intellectual disabilities. Throughout her long career, she was an advocate for disabled children and for women's rights. Her innovative methods of child-centered instruction, which include freedom of choice, self-motivation, and student autonomy, have proven surprisingly effective for many students of all ability levels. Today, her progressive instructional methods are reproduced in over 22,000 schools in 110 countries around the world in institutions are known as Montessori schools. Maria Montessori is truly an international chalkboard champion.