Category Archives: Education

MN Governor Tim Walz becomes Kamala Harris’s running mate

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Many successful politicians can boast a prior career as outstanding educators and athletic coaches. One of these is current Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a former teacher and athletic coach. He has been selected to be the Vice Presidential running mate for Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate for President of the United States.

Former teacher and athletic coach Tim Walz of Minnesota has been named the running mate of the Democratic candidate for President, Kamala Harris. Photo credit: NBC News

Tim was born on April 6, 1964, in West Point, Nebraska. His father was a teacher and school superintendent, and his mother was a homemaker. During his childhood, Tim was raised in Valentine, Nebraska, and then the family moved to Butte, Nebraska. Before his graduation from Butte High School in 1982, he was involved in his school’s football, basketball, and track programs.

Tim earned his Bachelor’s degree in Social Studies from Chadron State University in 1989. He earned his Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from Minnesota State University at Mankato in 2001. His master’s thesis was a treatment of Holocaust education.

Through World Teach, inaugurated his career as an educator when he accepted a one-year position to teach in Guangdong, China. Upon his return, he moved to Alliance, Nebraska, where he worked as a teacher and athletic coach. There he met and married fellow teacher Gwen Whipple. The couple then relocated to the city of Mankato in Minnesota, Gwen’s home state. In Minnesota, Tim became a global studies and geography teacher and an Assistant Football Coach at Mankato West High School. The team had lost 27 games in a row before he joined the coaching staff as a Defensive Co-ordinator. Three years later, in 1999, the team won its first state championship. During these years he also served as the faculty advisor for the school’s first Gay-Straight Alliance. In addition, Tim and Gwen organized summer educational trips to China for high school students through Educational Travel Adventures. Read more about his work in public schools through this article published by NPR.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has been named the running mate for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Photo credit: Britannica

In addition to his work as an educator and coach, Tim is a US military veteran. He enlisted in the Army National Guard when he was only 17 years old. While there, he trained in heavy artillery, and worked in disaster response following floods and tornadoes. He was also deployed overseas. Tim retired from the National Guard in 2005, but during the 24 years he served, he was named the Nebraska Citizen-Soldier of the year in 1989, and he earned the Army Commendation Medal and two Army Achievement Medals.

In 2006, Tim was elected to the US House of Representatives on the Democratic Farmer Labor Party ticket. He represented Minnesota’s First District from 2007 to 2019. There he worked diligently on issues related to veterans affairs, education, agriculture, infrastructure, and health care. In 2019, Tim was elected the 41st governor of Minnesota, a position which he holds today. As governor, Tim Walz has worked towards police reform, reproductive freedom, workers’ rights, gun control reform, LGBTQ rights, and the legalization of recreational cannabis. In addition, he continues to work on health care reform.

 

Teacher and politician Lorna Herseth served as SD’s First Lady

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South Dakota teacher Lorna Herseth served as her state’s First Lady, and later as the South Dakota Secretary of State. Photo credit: South Dakota State Historical Society

Many fine classroom teachers have also served as excellent politicians. This is certainly true of Lorna Buntrock Herseth, a teacher and politician from South Dakota.

Lorna Buntrock was born in Columbia, South Dakota, on April 5, 1909, the youngest of 11 children born to immigrants from Germany. As a young woman, she attended Northern State Teachers College in Aberdeen, South Dakota, where she earned both her Bachelor’s degree and her teaching credential.

Once she completed her education, Lorna taught in public schools in Brown County. In 1936. she was elected to the position of Brown County Superintendent of Schools. She later served on the Selby School Board. She taught in both rural and urban schools around the state.

In 1937, Lorna married her college sweetheart, Ralph Herseth, after having dated for many years. The couple farmed a ranch on the east side of Sand Lake near the town of Houghton for nearly 30 years. On this farm they raised wheat, corn, and Aberdeen Angus cattle. During these years, Ralph served as a South Dakota State Senator and in 1958-1960, was South Dakota’s 21st Governor and Lorna served as the state’s First Lady from 1959 to 1961. While Ralph was Governor, the first state-wide teachers’ retirement benefit program was established.

After Ralph’s death in 1969, Lorna continued her career in politics when she was elected on the Democratic ticket to serve as the South Dakota Secretary of State. She served two terms in this position, from 1973 to 1979. As if all this were not enough, Lorna also served on the Board of Directors for the Brown County Red Cross. She also served as the State Director of the Easter Seal Society.

Lorna passed away on September 8, 1994, at the age of 85. She is interred in Houghton Cemetery in Brown County, South Dakota.

Former teacher, veteran, and Senator from Hawaii Daniel Akaka

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Many fine educators have also served as capable politicians. One of these is former teacher and senator Daniel Kahikina Akaka.

Daniel was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on September 11, 1924. He was the youngest of eight children born to a father of Chinese descent and a Native Hawaiian mother. As a youngster, Daniel attended Hawaii’s prestigious Kamehameha Schools, founded specifically to provide a quality education to Native Hawaiian children. He graduated from high school in 1942.

Daniel was an American hero. He served in the United States Army Corps of Engineers during World War II, from 1945 to 1947. When the war ended, the US veteran used his GI bill to enroll at the University of Hawaii. There he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Education in 1952 and his Master’s degree in 1966. After earning his teaching credential, Daniel was employed as a high school teacher in Honolulu from 1953 to 1960. He taught music, social studies, and math. In 1960 he was promoted to vice principal, and in 1969 he became a high school principal. In 1969, Daniel left public schools to work in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare as a chief program planner.

A multi-talented individual, the former teacher won election to the US House of Representatives in 1976, where he served a total of seven terms. In 1990, Daniel was appointed to fill a vacant seat in the US Senate which had occurred upon the death of Senator Spark Matsunaga. Later Daniel was elected to that position in his own right, and he served there until his retirement in 2013. Daniel’s career in politics spanned a total of 36 years.

While in office, Daniel served on a number of committees, including Armed Services, Homeland Security, and Energy and Natural Resources. But he is best known for his work on behalf of America’s veterans. He supported legislation to re-evaluate the wartime service records of members of the Army’s 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the 100th Infantry Battalion. These units, comprised almost entirely of Japanese American soldiers, were engaged in some of the fiercest fighting in Europe. They exhibited some of the most exemplary combat records of the entire war. Despite this, only one Asian American soldier earned the nation’s highest decoration for military valor, the Medal of Honor. Because of Daniel’s efforts, more than 20 additional Asian American veterans of World War II were awarded the Medal of Honor in 2000.

Daniel Akaka passed away after a lengthy illness on April 6, 2018, at the age of 93. To learn more about this amazing educator and politician, click on this article at Washington Post Obituary.

Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was once a NYC teacher

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Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was born into an aristocratic family, yet she worked as a teacher when she was a young woman and all her life she championed education for the underprivileged. Photo credit: National First Ladies Library

It is common knowledge that Eleanor Roosevelt was a popular First Lady who served our county during the presidency of her husband, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He served during the Great Depression and World War II. During that period, Eleanor worked tirelessly to advance her husband’s social and political agenda. But did you know that this great lady was a teacher before her marriage to FDR?

Eleanor Roosevelt was born into an aristocratic family in New York city. Her mother died when Eleanor was quite young, and her father was an alcoholic. As a child, she was socially and physically awkward and starved for attention. When her father also passed away, young Eleanor became a ward of her maternal grandmother.

Eleanor was educated by private tutors until she was 15 years old. Then her grandmother sent her to private finishing school, the Allenswood Academy, in England. There Eleanor flourished under the guidance of the school’s headmistress, Marie Souvestre, who encouraged social responsibility and independence for young women. When Eleanor completed her formal education at age 18, she returned to New York City. There she made her social debut in 1902, according to the customs of her social class.

After Eleanor’s debut, she shunned the social life of a debutante that her family expected her to follow. Instead, she turned her boundless energy into progressive projects that helped improve the lives and working conditions of immigrants and those living in poverty. She joined an organization known as the Junior League, and helped established a community center known as the Rivington Street Settlement House on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The center specialized in teaching life skills and vocational skills. Many of the center’s clients were children who worked long hours in the confined spaces of sweat shops. These children did not have many opportunities to engage in physical exercise and movement. To help them improve their health, Eleanor worked as a dance teacher and calisthenics instructor.

Because of her work at the Junior League, Eleanor Roosevelt found her voice as a social activist long before she became First lady. Her work at there was the start of a career in public service that extended even after she left the White House.

To learn more about this amazing historical figure, see this link at the National First Ladies Library.

William McKinley: President and former country schoolteacher

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President William McKinley was a country schoolhouse teacher when he was a young man. Photo credit: Public domain

In my research about former residents of the White House who have also been teachers. I have been very surprised to learn just how many of them there are. For example, did you know that President William McKinley was once a teacher?

William McKinley was born in Niles, Ohio, and was raised in Poland, Ohio. When he was a youngster, education was very important to William, and he studied diligently at  the school he attended that was run by the Methodist seminary in his hometown.

After William graduated from high school, he briefly attended Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania. However, he had to drop out because of health and financial difficulties. As the seventh child in a large family, he needed to go to work to help support his family. Like two sisters, William decided to go into teaching. He inaugurated his career as an educator as a teacher at a one-room country schoolhouse not far from the home of his parents.

In his classroom, the 17-year-old William taught 50 students of all ages and skill levels. For this work he earned $25 a month. According to the custom of the day, the neophyte educator boarded with the families of his students, although at times he walked several miles to and from school to stay at home with his parents.

William hoped to eventually earn enough money to return to college but, when the Civil War broke out in 1861, he decided to enlist in the army on the Northern side. He fought in the Twenty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, where he rose to the rank of Second Lieutenant.

Once the war was over, William moved to Canton, Ohio, and returned to the classroom. Later, he shifted careers and went into the practiced of law. Eventually, the former teacher became the governor of Ohio, and then, in 1896, he was elected the 25th President of the United States.

“How priceless is a liberal education!” President McKinley once declared. “Our hope is in the public schools and in the university. Let us fervently pray that they may always be generously supported,” he concluded. To read more about this Chalkboard Champion, see this link provided by the Miller Center at the University of Virginia.