Author Archives: Terry Lee Marzell
Even on your toughest days….
Social Studies teacher Al Young was also a celebrated race car driver
Asian American Social Studies teacher Al Young , who taught in public schools in Washington state, was also a celebrated race car driver. —Photo credit: Atlas Obscurer
Many Chalkboard Champions have earned recognition in fields other than education, and Al Young is a great example of this. Al taught high school in Seattle, Washington, for 37 years, but he is also famous as a former world champion drag racer.
Alfred John Young, a Chinese American, was born in 1946 in Whittier, California. His father was a colonel in the US Army Reserve, and later a businessman His mother was an artist and art collector. Al and his two siblings were raised in San Francisco, where Al graduated from George Washington High School. After his high school graduation, he enrolled at the University of Washington where he majored in English literature. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in 1968 and his Master’s degree in 1972.
After his college graduation, Al served for many years as a teacher, tutor, counselor, and advocate for the Upward Bound program. He also founded one of Seattle’s first alternative schools, the Summit K-12 School, in 1972. In the 37 years that this gifted teacher worked in Seattle public schools, Al instructed vocational courses such auto shop and physical education, electives such as film study and Chinese cooking, and rigorous academic courses such as history, AP American Government, and AP Comparative Government and Politics. He also served as the adviser to school teams that participated in the Chrysler Trouble Shooting contests, YMCA Mock trial competitions, Junior State of America conventions, and he has led high school groups to the South Pacific and Washington, DC, for close-up learning. As if all this were not enough, this remarkable educator also coached volleyball, softball, and basketball.
In the world of drag racing, Al competed in Pro Bracket racing. He has won the American Hot Rod Association World Championship, and between the years of 1976 and 1996, he twice won major drag racing events, and three times was declared the winner of Bremerton Raceway’s Day Fire Nationals. In 1988, Al was inducted into the Firebird Raceway Bracketeer All-Stars in Boise, Idaho. Al has also been involved with the preparation of classic high performance race cars. For his accomplishments as a race car driver, he was inducted into the Bardahl Corporation Hall of Fame in 2015. In 2019, he was inducted into the National Hot Rod Association Hall of Fame, Northwest Division.
For his work in the classroom, Al has earned many accolades. He has been honored as one of Seattle Public Schools’ “Heroes in the Classroom” by such entities as Vulcan, Inc., Russell Investments, and the Seattle Seahawks organization. In 2008, this accomplished Chalkboard Champion retired from the teaching profession. His wife, Vicki Johnson Young, is also a retired school teacher, having taught in the Seattle public school system for 28 years. As retirees, Al and Vicki drove throughout the United States and Canada in their 1973 Plymouth Roadrunner Muscle car. Al has also practiced martial arts and actively served as a member of the Board of Trustees for the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle and worked for the Chinese Historical Society of America.
Al passed away in Shoreline, Washington, on Dec. 11, 2022, at the age of 76.
Share this:
Teacher Clara Comstock helped orphan children find homes
Teacher Clara Comstock, second from right, with a colleague and a group of orphan children she escorted on an Orphan Train. Over the course of her career, Clara helped place more than 12,000 orphans into loving homes. Circa 1910. Photo credit: Children’s Aid Society, New York
Throughout our country’s history there are many examples of dedicated educators going above and beyond in order to help young students, both inside the classroom and in their personal lives. One of these was Clara Comstock, a hardworking teacher from New York who helped placed more than 12,000 orphan children into loving homes.
Clara was born on July 5, 1879, in Hartsville, New York, the daughter of hardy pioneer stock. Her father was a farmer and blacksmith. As a young girl, Clara was educated at the Canisteo Academy in the neighboring town of Canisteo, New York. She graduated in 1895 at the age of 16 and spent the next several years completing her teacher training courses.
Clara inaugurated her career as a teacher in 1903 at the Brace Memorial Farm School in Valhalla, New York. Her students were New York City “street Arabs,” homeless boys that were orphaned, abandoned, or removed from their homes because their parents were deemed unfit or unable to adequately care form them. At the Farm School, these kids were taught fundamental literacy skills such as reading, writing, and mathematics, some vocational training, including carpentry, shoe-making, and box-making.
After a few years, in order to be of greater service to homeless kids, Clara accepted a position with the Children’s Aid Society (CAS), an organization which still exists today to benefit needy children. The CAS organized the famous Orphan Trains, small groups of children that were transported west and placed in foster homes on farms and in rural communities. Clara escorted many of these groups, conducted background checks on prospective foster parents, and made periodic checks on the children she placed. She did this work until her retirement in 1928, then she spent another two decades working for the CAS in-state foster care program.
During her lifetime, Clara placed more than 12,000 homeless children in homes, painstakingly keeping track of each one of them until they reached adulthood. She kept a personal diary and filled several trunks with meticulous records of the children she worked with. Decades later, these records became invaluable resources for Orphan Train riders who were seeking information about their origins.
You can read more about this amazing and dedicated teacher and the orphan train system in my book Chalkboard Champions, available on amazon.
Share this:
Georgia’s Jemelleh Coes helps others become better teachers
Former middle school teacher Jemelleh Coes contributes her considerable talent to helping others in the profession become better teachers. Photo credit: Educator For Equity
Many fine educators contribute their considerable talents to helping others in the profession become better teachers. This is certainly true of Jemelleh Coes, a former middle school teacher from Decatur, Georgia.
Jemelleh was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of immigrant parents. She was raised in Decatur, Georgia. She was the first in her family to attend college. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Education with an emphasis in Special Education (2008) and her Master’s degree in Education, Teaching, and Learning (2010), both from Georgia Southern University (GSU). While studying at GSU, Jemelleh traveled nationally and internationally to collect data from a variety of educational systems in order to discover ways to make improvements in local school systems. In 2018, Jemelleh graduated from the University of Georgia with her PhD in Educational Theory and Practice with certificates in Education Law and Policy, Disability Studies, and Qualitative Research.
Jemelleh has taught at both the K-12 and university level. She spent six years teaching English/Language Arts and mathematics in both the general and special education setting at Langston Chapel Middle School in Statesboro, Georgia. For this work, in 2014, she was named Georgia’s State Teacher of the Year. Then, from 2013 to 2014, she served as a board member for the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education.
Currently, Jemelleh serves as an advisory councilperson for the Georgia Partnership of Excellence in Education. She also serves as the Director of Teacher Leadership at Mount Holyoke College, where she leads the program, developed curriculum, and provides professional development opportunities for teacher leaders. She is also a professor at the University of Georgia where she teaches future educators along with future professionals dedicated to disability advocacy.
In addition, Jemelleh serves as a teacher mentor for classroom teachers throughout the state of Georgia. In this capacity, she supports teachers with career development and special projects. She is also an educational consultant and motivational speaker.
To learn more about Chalkboard Champion Jemelleh Coes, click on this link to her website: Educator For Equity.
