Jackson T. Davis: An Educator Who Worked Tirelessly for African-American Students

Many chalkboard champions work tirelessly on behalf of disenfranchised groups of students. This is certainly true of Jackson T. Davis, a remarkable educator who devoted his entire 45-year career to improving educational opportunities for African-American students here in the United States, and for Africans abroad.

Jackson T. Davis was born in Cumberland County, Virginia, on September 25, 1882. He attended public schools in Richmond, Virginia. He earned his bachelor's degree from the College of William and Mary in 1902 and his master's degree from Columbia University in 1908. He was given an honorary law degree by the University of Richmond in 1930 and another by the College of William and Mary in 1931.

Following graduation from William and Mary, Jackson was was employed in a variety of high-profile positions where he dedicated his talents to improving the lives of students. He became the principal of the public schools of Williamsburg, Virginia. He also served as the assistant secretary of the YMCA in Roanoke, Virginia, from 1903 to 1904. During the 1904-1905 school year, he was principal of the public schools of Marion, Virginia, followed by a stint as the superintendent of schools in Henrico County, Virginia from 1905 to 1909. The next year, 1909-1910, this hardworking educator was a member of the state board of examiners and inspectors for the Virginia State Board of Education, and from 1910 to 1915 this forward-thinking individual was the  state agent for African-American rural schools for the Virginia State Department of Education. In 1915, Jackson became affiliated with the General Education Board in New York, New York, as a field agent. Two years later he was transferred to New York City as the board's general field agent, where he remained until 1929 when he was made the assistant director. He became the associate director in 1933, and the vice-president and then the director in 1946. During his many years associated with the General Education Board, Jackson's work was focussed on education in the Southern states, and he used his influence to improve relations and understanding between whites and African-Americans. His pioneering work in promoting regional centers of education in the South tremendously significant.

Throughout his extensive career, Jackson specialized in Southern education, inter-racial problems, and education in the Belgian Congo and Liberia. In 1935 he traveled to Africa as a Carnegie visitor, and in 1944 he went again to that country as the leader of a group sent by the Foreign Missions Conference of North America, the British Conference of Missions, and the Phelps-Stokes Fund. Jackson served as a trustee of the Phelps-Stokes Fund, an organization devoted to African-American education and race relations, both in America and in Africa. He became vice-president of the Fund in 1940, and succeeded Anson Phelps Stokes as president in 1946.

At the time of his death in 1947, Jackson T. Davis was the president of the board of trustees of Booker T. Washington Institute in Liberia, the president of the New York State Colonization Society, a member of the Commission on Inter-Racial Cooperation, and of the Advisory Committee on Education in Liberia. He served as a member of the board of visitors of the College of William and Mary from 1913 to 1920, and as secretary of the International Education Board from 1923 to 1938. He was also frequently contributed articles for publication to educational journals.

This remarkable chalkboard champion passed away in Cartersville, Virginia, on April 15, 1947.  In 1962, Jackson Davis Elementary School in Henrico County, Viriginia, was dedicated in his honor.

Educator, Veteran, and Chalkboard Champion John Ardis Cawthorn

Many of our nation's talented educators are also distinguished veterans. Such is certainly the case for John Ardis Cawthon, a high school history teacher from Louisiana who served in the US Army during WWII.

John was born on March 16, 1907, in south Bossier Parish, Louisiana. As a child, he was home-schooled by his mother. When he entered the fifth grade, he was enrolled in a local one-room schoolhouse in the Koran community of south Bossier Parish. After John completed the eighth grade, his family moved to Doyline in south Webster Parish, where the young man completed high school.

After his high school graduation in 1934, John enrolled at Louisiana Tech where he majored in History and English. There he earned a bachelor's degree in secondary education. He earned his master's degree from Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge in 1938.

John accepted his first position as a teacher at a high school in Cotton Valley, where he taught from 1934 to1935. He transferred to Sarepta and was employed there from 1935 to 1939, and then he taught at A.E. Phillips Laboratory School on the Louisiana Tech campus from 1939 to 1940. From 1940 to 1942, John was a professor at Northwestern State University, then known as Louisiana Normal.

When World War II erupted, John was drafted into the US Army. He was 35 years old at the time. The former high school teacher served in Europe in the Education Orientation Division. This position took him to the Biarritz American University in France. In 1974, he published an account of his experiences in the armed forces in an article entitled "A School Teacher Gets Drafted," published in North Louisiana History.

When the war was over, John decided to pursue his doctorate at the University of Texas at Austin. After earning this advanced degree, he returned to Louisiana Tech University in 1954, where he remained until his retirement in 1972. During this time, he published many scholarly articles in North Louisiana History and wrote several books dedicated to regional history.

This talented educator and distinguished serviceman passed away on October 5, 1984. John Ardis Cawthorn, a true chalkboard champion.

Chalkboard Champion Bill Holden: He Talks the Talk and Walks the Walk

Often classroom teachers become advocates for social issues that extend far beyond their classroom. Such is the case with teacher Bill Holden, an educator who has worked tirelessly to increase awareness about the problem of juvenile diabetes.

Bill was born in 1948 in Elgin, Illinois. He earned his degree from Southern Illinois University in 1970. Bill accepted his first position as a teacher in 1973, but soon became interested in working with Native American students. After teaching many years in Illinois, he transferred to Camp Verde, Arizona. At Camp Verde, Bill became aware of the alarming rate of diabetes among his Native American students. Bill retired after 32 years in the classroom, but he was not done dedicating his energy to benefit his students. He decided to focus his vast energy on helping to find a cure for juvenile diabetes.

In 2005, Bill literally walked from Arizona to Chicago, a distance of 2,100 miles, with the goal of raising $250,000 in donations for the American Diabetes Association to fund research to find a cure for juvenile diabetes. Bill started his walk on January 11, 2005, walking through the states of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Illinois. Along the way he battled arthritis in both knees, fatigue, sunburn, windburn, and stifling heat, and once he was nearly hit by a car. It took the dedicated teacher six months to complete the walk, but the effort garnered him national attention.

Bill Holden is certainly a true chalkboard champion.

Technology, the Classroom, and the Future of Chalkboard Champions

Many years ago in a language arts anthology assigned as a textbook for a class I was teaching, I came across a short story by Isaac Asimov  entitled "The Fun They Had." This futuristic story described two children who had an afternoon free because their "teacher," a computer, had crashed, temporarily rendering it impossible for them to complete their school assignments. To occupy their time, the children went up to the attic to explore, where they came across a dusty trunk of ancient printed books. As residents of a highly technological society where every function was completed by computer, they had never seen books before. The find generated a conversation between the children about how students in the past attended schools with other children, interacted on a daily basis with a human teacher, and conducted their studies with print materials. At the end of their discussion, the children concluded that children of the past must have had much more fun in school than they.

The grass is always greener, isn't it?

I have been thinking about this somewhat prophetic story a great deal lately, and especially since I have recently enrolled in an online course through the local university. The course is run much the same way as the lessons completed by the students in the Asimov story. The professor posts the readings and the assignments. The assignment usually entails downloading a program from the internet and using the program to create a product that demonstrates both knowledge of the content contained in the readings and a mastery of the technology skills. The student posts the completed assignment on a class discussion board, where classmates view it and offer peer critiques. There is no direct instruction, no guided practice. The professor's role appears to be to make the assignments, grade the finished products, and be available in case the student has questions.

I know I'm not a child, but I find myself craving more. More direct instruction. More guided practice. More face-to-face time with the teacher; more human interaction with my classmates.

The other day, I became engaged in conversation with a student at a different university. We talked about the use of technology in our respective university courses. I related that on the first day of another course I had enrolled in, a course that meets for four hours every other week (attendance is optional), I was surprised when the instructor commented that she had expected everyone to show up with their laptops. I had dutifully shown up with my notebook, paper, pen, and textbook, and considered myself prepared. Not having taken a university course in about five years, it had never occurred to me that bringing a laptop was now an instructional expectation. That was a wake-up call for me.

The other student told me that she recently took a course in chemistry at a prestigious local university, and on the first day of class, 24 students showed up. Twelve did not have laptops. The instructor excused those twelve, because, he said, there was no way they could complete that day's assignments without the necessary technology. She said two people dropped the class that day, and four more dropped it by the next week, because they had no way of acquiring the technology. The young lady then told me that the entire course was taught by computer. How is it that a chemistry class does not involve a lab, or experiments, or any other kind of experiential learning?

In a highly technological society where more and more courses are being taught online, will there be a place for chalkboard champions?

H. Adams Carter: High School Language Teacher, Pioneering Mountaineer, Journalist, and Patriot

Often talented educators earn recognition for achievements outside the realm of teaching. Such is the case with Hubert Adams Carter, a high school foreign language teacher, mountain climber, and journalist from Massachusetts.

Hubert, who was most often called "Ad," was born on June 6, 1914, in Newton, Massachusetts. He graduated from Milton Academy in Milton, Massachusetts, in 1932, and from Harvard University in 1936.

Ad was very young when he began his career as a mountain climber. He made his first notable ascent at the age of five when he climbed Mount Washington in New Hampshire. Ten years later he climbed the Matterhorn, and he also began making ascents near Kandersteg in the Swiss Alps. In 1936, during his senior year at Harvard, Ad was a member of the British-American Himalayan expedition that climbed India's Mount Nandevi for the first time. In 1937, this amazing athlete was named to the US Ski Team, competing in the Alpine World Skiing Championships. The following year he participated in the Pan American Championships.

In 1938, Ad married fellow teacher Ann Brooks, pictured with him above. The union produced three sons and a daughter and lasted 53 years.

During World War II, Ad assisted with the establishment and training of the 10th Mountain Division. A talented linguist, he translated material in German, Italian, French, and Spanish for use in writing the first army manuals on mountain warfare. He also interrogated Japanese and German prisoners of war. For these valuable services, Ad was given a Commendation for Meritorious Civilian Service in 1945.

After the war, Ad returned to school. He earned his master's degree from Middlebury College in 1947, and then accepted a position as a teacher of foreign languages at his alma mater, Milton Academy. He taught German, French, and Spanish. He also founded the school's Ski and Mountaineering Club, which today is known as the H. Adams Carter Outdoor Program. The dedicated teacher often used his vacation home in Jefferson, New Hampshire, as a base camp for school field trips to the White Mountains.

In addition to teaching, from 1954 to 1958, Ad contributed his expertise as an officer of the American Alpine Club, and from 1960 to 1995, he served as the editor for the American Alpine Journal, a position he held for 35 years. Under his leadership, the Journal became one of the most prominent  journals of record for mountaineering in the world.

Ad retired from the teaching profession in 1970 after 23 years as an educator. This chalkboard champion, journalist, and talented athlete passed away on April 2, 1995, at the age of 80, from an embolism.

Terry Marzell Discusses the Contents of Her Book, Chalkboard Champions

Terry Marzell discusses the contents of her book, Chalkboard Champions, published in 2012. Specifically she mentions teachers Jaime Escalante, the educator featured in the movie Stand and Deliver, and Anne Sullivan, the "miracle worker" who worked with blind and deaf student Helen Keller. Listen to the screencast to learn more...

 

 

Elementary Teacher Bonnie Bracey Sutton: An Educators' Spokesperson in Washington, D.C.

How wonderful it is when one of our fellow educators becomes a spokesperson in Washington for our profession. One such educator is Bonnie Bracey Sutton, an elementary school teacher and technology consultant now based in Washington, D.C.

Bonnie is a former teacher at the Ashlawn Elementary School in Arlington, Virginia, and a teacher-in-residence at the Arlington Career Center, where she teaches all subjects. She is a graduate researcher at George Mason University's Telecommunications Department, where she evaluates new programs and technologies. She is also a member of the George Lucas Educational Foundation advisory board.

Bonnie was also named a Christa McAuliffe Educator for the National Foundation of Education, and she is a member of the Challenger Center faculty. She is a Young Astronaut teacher and, in 1990, was named a Challenger Fellow. That year she received the President's Award in Teaching in science. Bonnie has also attended the Hubbell Space Science Institute and holds honors in a variety of fields in educational fields, including technology, aerospace, physics, geography, and multicultural education. She has also earned a graduate degree from Marymount University SED program.

Bonnie was one of the first teachers to promote the role of the internet in classroom instruction.  She was the only teacher selected by the Clinton administration to serve on the National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIIAC). Bonnie also served as the lead educator on President Clinton's 21st Century Teacher Initiative.

Currently, this remarkable teacher works as an international educational consultant. In this capacity, she conducts outreach activities for the George Lucas Education Foundation and other groups. She is also an active member of the Digital Divide Network and does preventative work on cyber-bullying.

Bonnie Bracey Sutton: Truly a chalkboard champion!