Category Archives: Education

Florida School Shooting: Mourning the Loss of Three Chalkboard Heroes

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Once again our nation mourns the tragic loss of life in a school shooting which occurred two days ago at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. This most recent shooting brings to national attention three exceptionally courageous chalkboard heroes who were killed while attempting to protect their students from the gunman, a former student described as mentally ill who was expelled from the school last February.

Scott Beigel

Among the slain is geography teacher and Cross Country Coach Scott Beigel, age 35. Student Kelsey Friend remembers her teacher with great respect. “Mr. Beigel was my hero and he still will forever be my hero,” said the grieving teen. “I will never forget the actions that he took for me and for fellow students in the classroom. I am alive today because of him.”

Chris Hixon

Also killed in the attack was Athletic Director and Wrestling Coach Chris Hixon, age 49. Known for his generosity to students, he would give them rides or lunch money and, if they needed it, welcome them into his home, remembered his wife, Debra Hixon. “He just loved being around kids and giving back to the community,” she said. Also a United States veteran, Chris served his country as a Naval Reservist and was deployed to Iraq in 2007.

Aaron Feis

The third chalkboard champion who perished was Assistant Football Coach Aaron Feis, age 37. An alumnus of Stoneman Douglas High School, Aaron had been a football player when he was a student, and in 2002 he returned to the campus to serve as a coach. Witnesses say Aaron shielded students with his own body, and was hit by oncoming bullets which caused his fatal wounds. “He died the same way he lived –he put himself second,” expressed football program spokesperson Denis Lehtio. “He was a very kind soul, a very nice man. He died a hero.” Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel concurred. “The kids in this community loved him. They adored him. He was one of the greatest people I knew. He was a phenomenal man,” said the sheriff.

To view CNN’s story about all 17 victims of the shooting, click on CNN: These Are the Victims. You can also read the story at Times: These are the Victims.

Teacher Pernella Mae Anderson: Collector of African American Slave Narratives and Folklore

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Many talented classroom teachers become known for accomplishments outside of the classroom. One such teacher is Pernella Mae Anderson, an elementary teacher who worked in Arkansas and Michigan who was also an important collector of African American folklore.

Pernella Mae Center Anderson was born April 12, 1903 in Camden, Ouachita County, Arkansas. She was the youngest of ten children born to Willis and Sallie (Washington) Center. Her father was a carpenter and her mother was a housewife. When Pernella was only two years old, her mother died, and two years later her father remarried.

When Pernella grew up, she married Theodore Haynie, Jr., (circa 1920) and the union produced three children. Between 1922-1924, the young mother attended Arkansas Baptist College, where she earned a liberal arts degree. Evidently, Pernella divorced Theodore and, on April 21, 1931, she married her second husband, William W. Anderson.

In 1935, the Pernella accepted a teaching position in Lockesburg in Sevier County, Arkansas. The following year, she went to work for the Federal Writers’ Project (FWP), an organization associated with the New Deal-era Works Progress Administration (WPA). Pernella’s work included collecting oral histories, some of which were published in the seventeen-volume Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves (1941). Additionally, she collected the folk stories of Black residents ranging in age from 19 to 92. Pernella was one of only two African Americans hired to do this work.

A lifelong learner, Pernella went back to school in 1944 to earn her teaching certificate, and then she completed the requirements for her Bachelor’s in Education from Grambling State University in Grambling, Louisiana. From 1953-1955, Pernella taught school at Carver Elementary School in El Dorado in Arkansas’ Union County. In 1955, Pernella moved to Detroit, Michigan, and taught in Detroit public schools until the conclusion of her career.

This talented teacher and folklorist passed away on March 5, 1980, in Detroit. She is interred in Westlawn Cemetery in the town of Wayne, Wayne County, Michigan.

You can read more about this remarkable educator at this link: Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. To learn more about the Federal Writers’ Project, click on this link: FWP at the Library of Congress.

Meet Memphis Teacher Michael Scruggs: “You have everything it takes to be #1”

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Meet high school social studies teacher Michael Scruggs from Memphis, Tennessee. He is such an inspiration to his students! Every day he begins his classes with a motivational mantra such as, “You have everything it takes to be #1.”

This passionate chalkboard champion was featured last June in an episode of the Ellen DeGeneres Show. View the video below to see him in action, and to meet one of his former students.

 

 

Kentucky’s Lyman T. Johnson: Educator and Civil Rights Activist

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I am always eager to share stories about passionate teachers who have dedicated their talent and influence to compelling social causes. One of these is Lyman Tefft Johnson, a high school teacher who worked towards racial justice during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s.

Lyman was born on June 12, 1906, in Columbia, Tennessee, the eighth of nine children born to Robert and Mary (Dew) Johnson. He was the grandson of former slaves.

In 1926, at the age of 20, Lyman earned  his high diploma from the preparatory division of Knoxville College, a historically black institution in Knoxville, Tennessee. In 1930, Lyman earned his bachelor’s degree in Greek from Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia, and the following year he completed the requirements for his master’s degree in history from the University of Michigan in Detroit, Michigan.

Once he completed his education, Lyman accepted a position as a teacher of history, economy, and mathematics at Central High School in Louisville, Kentucky. Lyman had already been teaching for 16 years when he won a legal case to integrate the University of Kentucky in 1949, a full five years before the US Supreme Court made its famous 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education ruling that outlawed segregation in public schools.

Lyman taught at Central High until 1966, then spent seven years working in the Jefferson County Public Schools as an assistant principal. During these years, he continued his civil rights work, leading efforts to integrate local neighborhoods, swimming pools, schools, and restaurants. He was also a major force behind a fight for equal pay for his both black and white teachers in his district. In addition, Lyman headed the Louisville Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for six years.

In all, Lyman devoted 34 years of his life as an educator. For his work as a teacher and civil rights activist, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Kentucky (1979), the Governor’s Distinguished Service Medallion for Volunteerism (1995), and the City of Louisville’s first Freedom Award (1988). Also, a Louisville school was renamed in his honor. In 1980, Parkland Junior High School was designated Lyman T. Johnson Middle School. This amazing chalkboard champion passed away on October 3, 1997. He was 91 years old.

To learn more about this amazing teacher and civil rights activist, click on Lyman T. Johnson Obituary. You might also want to read a biography of him written by Professor Emeritus Wade Hall of Bellarmine University entitled The Rest of the Dream: The Black Odyssey of Lyman T. Johnson.