Category Archives: Education

PE teacher Leonard Skinner: The inspired the band Lynyrd Skynrd

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Leonard Skinner

Florida PE teacher Leonard Skinner and the band he inspired, the infamous Lynyrd Skynyrd

Many exceptional educators earn recognition in fields outside of education, but occasionally a teacher becomes known for the accomplishments of his students. This is true of Florida physical education teacher Leonard Skinner, who inspired his former students to name their band after him. The band’s name? Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Forby Leonard Skinner was born January 11, 1933, in Jacksonville, Florida. As a youngster he attended Robert E. Lee High School, where he graduated in 1951. Leonard enrolled in Jacksonville Junior College on a basketball scholarship, but his education was cut short when he was drafted into the US Army. After he was discharged, Leonard enrolled at Florida State University, where in 1957 he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Physical Education.

Leonard first taught at Glynn Academy in Glynn County, Georgia, but for most of his career, he was a physical education at his alma mater, Robert E. Lee High School. Among his former students were several members of the band Lynyrd Skynyrd, including Ronnie Van Zant, Gary Rossington, and Bob Burns, who were students at Robert E. Lee in the 1960s.

According to legend, Leonard’s strict enforcement of a policy against long hair inspired the members to name their band after him. The gym teacher, a stickler for by-the-book procedures, sent Rossington and others to the principal’s office for violating a school policy prohibiting long hair. Over time, Burns, Rossington, and other band members developed a series of running jokes about their teacher, until ultimately they decided to pay tongue-in-cheek homage to their flat-topped coach by renaming their group Lynyrd Skynyrd. When interviewed in January, 2009, Leonard abashedly told reporters he was just following the district policy. “It was against the school rules,” he said. “I don’t particularly like long hair on men, but again, it wasn’t my rule.” Of his former students, Leonard remembered, “They were good, talented, hard-working boys. They worked hard, lived hard and boozed hard.”

Towards the end of his career, Leonard taught at Jacksonville Technical High School, where he retired in 1970. During his retirement, he became a real estate broker and tavern owner, but he maintained contact with his former students. In 1975, he even allowed the band to use a photograph of his “Leonard Skinner Realty” sign for the inside of their third album, Nuthin’ Fancy. The band also performed at his tavern called The Still.

In January 2009, Leonard’s home town of Jacksonville hosted an event called “A Tribute to Coach Leonard Skinner & Southern Rock” at the National Guard Armory. At the time, the Jacksonville newspaper wrote, “He was just a regular Westside guy, a coach and businessman with a strong code of honor, a disciplinarian at home and at school.”
On September 20, 2010, Leonard passed away at a nursing home in Riverside, Florida. He was 77, and had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for several years. In his obituary, The Florida Times-Union called him “the no-nonsense, flat-topped basketball coach and gym teacher whose name is forever linked with Jacksonville’s legendary Lynyrd Skynyrd.” The New York Times described him as “arguably the most influential high school gym teacher in American popular culture.”

The remarkable Jennifer Williams, Idaho’s art teacher extraordinaire

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Jennifer Williams

The remarkable Jennifer Williams, Idaho’s art teacher extraordinaire

I love to share stories about remarkable educators. That’s what this blog is all about! Today I am sharing the story of Jennifer Williams, a now-retired art teacher who hails from Nampa, Idaho.

As a young woman, Jennifer traveled the world while married to her first husband, an Air Force pilot. She took college classes all over the country, eventually earning multiple degrees in art and secondary education. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from Mississippi State University in 1972, and her Master’s degree from Boise State University in 1977.

Following her college graduation, Jennifer accepted her first position as an art teacher at Mountain Home High School in Mountain Home, Idaho, where she worked from 1972 to 1977. The next year she worked as an art instructor at Fort Boise Alternative School in southwestern Idaho. From 1998 to 2004, Jennifer taught art at Skyview High School in Nampa.

In addition to her classroom responsibilities, Jennifer has also volunteered as an art outreach instructor for Project Van Go, a program she inaugurated in 1976. For this project, the innovative art teacher acquired a van and stocked it full of art supplies. Then she traveled to the small, rural town of Prairie, Idaho, which only had kindergarten through eighth grades in a little red schoolhouse with limited resources. “It really took on a beautiful, wonderful life of its own,” Jennifer remembers. Over the years, she has expanded the outreach program to other rural Idaho communities, often paying expenses out of pocket.

In all, Jennifer’s career as an educator has spanned over four decades. During her long career, Jennifer has garnered many awards. In 2000, she earned both the Governor’s Award in the Arts and the National Unsung Heroes Award. In 2002, she won the coveted Teaching Excellence Award from the National Education Association, and she was named the Idaho Teacher of the Year. In 2005, Jennifer was named Idaho Art Teacher of the Year, and in 2012, she was designated the Idaho Retired Art Teacher of the Year. In 2016, Jennifer was inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame in Emporia, Kansas, the first educator from Idaho to be so honored.

Montana’s Lucia Darling: Pioneer teacher of the Wild West

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Lucia Darling

Montana’s Lucia Darling: Pioneer teacher of the Wild West

I always enjoy sharing stories about teachers who were 19th-century pioneers in settling the untamed territories of our country. One such story is about Lucia Darling, a young educator who founded the first school in the state of Montana.

In October 23, Lucia was only 27 years old when she opened her school on the banks of Grasshopper Creek in the frontier village of Bannack, Beaverhead County, Montana. Until a cabin could be constructed to serve as the schoolhouse, the young teacher used the home of her uncle, Sidney Edgerton, who was serving as the governor of the territory. Makeshift desks and chairs, books, and other instructional materials were hastily assembled to serve her pupils.  Lucia’s students were the children of the approximately 3,000 homesteaders and gold miners who had established their claims in the wild and woolly Western town.

In those days, Bannack was tumultuous and rough,” the young schoolteacher recorded in her diary. “It was the headquarters of a band of highwaymen. Lawlessness and misrule seemed to be the prevailing spirit of the place.” Through her school, Lucia sought to inject some semblance of law and order into the community.

Lucia was born in Tallmadge, Ohio, in 1939. Although raised on a farm, she became a qualified teacher and spent nine years teaching in an area of northeast Ohio. She also taught at Berea College, the first integrated college in Kentucky. She did this at a time when it was unusual for a woman to get a college education or go to work.

In 1863, Lucia accompanied her uncle and his family as they moved West. She kept a a detailed diary of the route, the Native Americans they encountered, the historic landmarks they passed, the weather patterns, and the chores she completed each day along the journey. The group traveled by train from Tallmadge to Chicago, by river boat down the Missouri River to Omaha, and by covered wagon across the vast prairies of the West. After three months, the expedition finally landed in Oregon territory. From there Lucia made her way to Bannack, where she founded her historic school.

After the Civil War, Lucia traveled to the Deep South where she taught for the Freedman’s Bureau, an organization founded by the US Government in 1865 to provide educational opportunities for newly-freed African Americans.

Lucia Darling: A true chalkboard champion.

Honoring teacher and New Jersey US Congressman Donald Payne, Sr.

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Donald Payne

High school teacher and former US Representative Donald Payne, Sr.

In American history, there are many examples of successful educators who later became noteworthy politicians. One of these is Donald Payne, a former teacher who was elected as the first African American to represent New Jersey in the US House of Representatives.

Donald Milford Payne, Sr., was born in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, on July 16, 1934. Following his graduation from Newark’s Barringer High School in 1952, Donald enrolled on a scholarship in Seton Hall University in South Orange, new Jersey. There he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Social Studies in 1957. Later he pursued post-graduate studies at Springfield College in Massachusetts.

After his college graduation, Donald taught English and Social Studies in Newark Public Schools. He also coached football. While still a teacher, Donald became the first African American president of the National Council of YMCA. From 1973 t 1981, he served as the chairman of the World YMCA Refugee and Rehabilitation Committee.

After leaving the classroom, Donald worked for a time as an executive for the Prudential Insurance Company. He also served three terms as a Municipal City Councilman, but he had always wanted to become a Congressman. In 1988 he finally achieved that goal when he was elected on the Democratic ticket to represent New Jersey’s Tenth District. “I want to be a congressman to serve as a model for the young people I talk to on the Newark street corners,” Donald said during his campaign. “I want them to see there are no barriers to achievement. I want to give them a reason to try.”

While in Congress, the former teacher served on the Committee on Education and the Workforce, including the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education. In addition, he was a part of the Committee on Government Operations and on the Committee on Foreign Affairs, including the Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health and the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere. From 1995 to 1997, he was the Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. He was elected to Congress a total of eleven times, and some of his wins were by the widest margins in New Jersey history.

In his later years, Donald suffered from diabetes and he experienced several small strokes, but it was colon cancer that finally claimed his life on March 6, 2012. He was 77 years old. Donald Payne: a true chalkboard champion.

Olympic Medalist and junior high school teacher Tim Morehouse

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Tim Morehouse

Olympic Silver Medalist and junior high school teacher Tim Morehouse.

While researching remarkable educators, I often come across examples of teachers who have made their mark as accomplished athletes. I also read about many teachers who support their sport in the community. Both are true of fencer Tim Morehouse, an Olympic Silver Medalist who founded a program for promoting fencing in schools around the country.

Tim was born July 29, 1978, in New York City, New York. His grandmother was a Jew who immigrated to the United States after her escape from Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Tim was raised in the Bronx and attended Riverdale Country School in New York City. While in high school, he played baseball and cross country. He was also a part of his school’s fencing team. He served as the team’s captain, and was named the squad’s Most Valuable Player during his junior and senior years.

Once he graduated from high school, Tim attended Brandeis University, a private institution located in Waltham, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. While there, he was ranked in the top ten of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division 1 Men’s Sabre, and he was named an NCAA All American for three of his four years.

He earned his Bachelor’s degree in History in 2000. Following his college graduation, he earned a Master’d degree in Teaching from Pace University, a private university located in Manhattan in 2003. After earning his degrees, Tim completed a two-year stint for Teach for America. He taught underprivileged seventh graders at Intermediate School 90 in Washington Heights, Manhattan. During this time, the talented athlete also coached the fencing team at his alma mater, Riverdale Country School.

He also continued his amateur career as a fencer. He was ranked number one in the United States from 2008 to 2011. He earned US National Championships in 2010 and 2011. Most impressively, he attended the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing as a member of the US Fencing team. There he earned a Silver Medal in the Men’s sabre event.

Today, the former classroom teacher supports a variety of non-profit organizations. He also serves as an Athlete Ambassador for Right to Play, an organization working with volunteers and partners to use sport and play to enhance child development in disadvantaged neighborhoods. In 2011, the former classroom teacher founded the Fencing in the Schools Foundation, a non-profit that offers fencing to underprivileged kids throughout the country.

Tim Morehouse: a true chalkboard champion.