Category Archives: Education

MA Sen. Elizabeth Warren was once a Special Ed teacher

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts was once an elementary school Special Education teacher. Photo credit: Harvard Law School

Many people have heard of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who represents Massachusetts in the US Senate and who was a presidential candidate in 2020. But did you know that this remarkable woman was once a Special Education teacher?

Elizabeth was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on June 22, 1949. She was in the second grade, she says, when she decided she wanted to become a teacher. “That was my dream,” she reveals. Unfortunately, when she was only 12 years old, her father was debilitated by a heart attack. Her mother had to take a minimum-wage job to support the family. Her mother was able to save the home they lived in from repossession, but there was no money left over for college tuition.

Fortunately, when she was a high school student, Elizabeth won a scholarship to George Washington University, which she attended for one year. Then she enrolled at a Texas university. “After I graduated from the University of Houston—a public university that cost $50 a semester—I taught special needs kids at a public school in New Jersey. The children I worked with were four to six years old and had some pretty significant challenges,” she remembers. “But because we had help from the federal government, they could get the kind of one-on-one care they needed—and a better opportunity to build a real, independent future,” she concludes.
In 2012, Elizabeth was elected on the Democratic ticket to represent Massachusetts in the US Senate. She has served in this capacity since 2013. In the Senate, she is a member of the Special Committee on Aging; the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee; and the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.

Holly Witcher named Georgia’s 2025 State Teacher of the Year

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Elementary school teacher Holly Witcher has been named Georgia’s 2025 State Teacher of the Year. Photo credit: Georgia College and State University

I am always excited to share the story of an outstanding teacher who has earned accolades for their work with young people. Today, I share the story of Holly Witcher, an elementary school teacher from Georgia. She has been named her state’s 2025 Teacher of the Year. She was selected for this honor from approximately 110,000 teacher applicants.

Holly instructs a self-contained Special Education class for kindergarten through second grade at Tesnatee Gap Elementary School in White County, Georgia. “I have the best job in the world,” declares Holly. “And everybody says, ‘You have a hard job.’ It is, but it’s absolutely the most rewarding to develop relationships with not just students, but their families, including their brothers and sisters because you must all be in it together,” she continues.

During her senior year in college, Holly took advantage of an opportunity to teach in Sweden. She was curious about education in other countries and how it compared to schools in the United States. When she returned to the United States, she used Swedish concepts to challenge the status quo in American schools. In addition to teaching in traditional public schools, Holly also taught online for 10 years at Georgia Cyber Academy. There, she served as a lead teacher for four years and as an elementary school assistant administrator of special programs for four years.

Her recognition as Georgia’s Teacher of the Year is not the only honor Holly has earned. She was named Teacher of the Year at Peek’s Chapel Elementary in Rockdale County in 2006 and District Teacher of the Year in White County in 2023. 

The honored teacher earned her Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education from Georgia College and State University in 2001. She earned her Master’s degree in Integrated Curriculum with a focus on Special Education from the American College of Education in 2021. She has also earned endorsements in Gifted In-Field Education and teaching English to speakers of other languages. Additionally, she obtained the Teacher Support Specialist Service Certificate, which equips her with the knowledge to mentor new teachers. Her career as an educator spans 24 years.
  

Meet Suborno Bari, said to be the world’s youngest professor

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Here is a video about a youngster who is said to be the world’s youngest professor. Meet Suborno Bari, a child prodigy and mathematics and science genius who became a university professor at just seven years old. He is now 12 years old, and this amazing young man is studying at New York University as a student after finishing high school in record time. Aside from the comments he makes about his experiences as both a student and as a teacher, his personal story is fascinating. This video is about eight minutes in length.

Michigan school teacher and suffragist Emily Burton Ketcham

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Teacher and suffragist Emily Burton Ketcham. Photo credit: Grand Rapids History and Special Collections (GRHSC), Archives, GRPL, GR, Michigan.

Dedicated educators often become involved in movements that benefit society as a whole. One of these is Emily Burton Ketcham, a school teacher who was active in the struggle to secure the right to vote for women.

Emily was born on July 16, 1838, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her parents were Josiah and Eliza (Freeman) Burton. As a young girl, Emily attended first Mary B. Allen’s School for Girls and then Henrietta Academy. She earned her degree from St. Mark’s College, a private theological institution located in Grand Rapids. When she was only 15 years old, Emily became a school teacher.

Emily’s work in the suffrage movement began in 1873. She became active in the initial effort to remove gender as a qualification for voting in Michigan. Later, Emily met with suffragist movement leaders Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, and by the 1890’s had developed long-lasting professional relationships with them.

Emily was heavily involved in many community improvement groups. She was a member of the Grand Rapids Woman’s Suffrage Association, the Political Equality Club, the Susan B. Anthony Club, the Woman’s Civic League, and the Woman’s and Children’s Protective League. She was a charter member of the Michigan Equal Suffrage Association, she would serve as its president from 1892-1893, and again in 1900.

As part of her work as a suffragist, Emily was a featured speaker at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. Due to Emily’s indefatigable work and outstanding organizational skills, Stanton and Anthony brought the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) to Grand Rapids for its annual convention in 1899.

This amazing Chalkboard Champion passed away on January 13, 1907, in Detroit, Michigan. She was 68 years old. She is interred at Rosedale Memorial Park in Tallmadge, Ottawa County, Michigan.

To honor her work as a suffragist and educator, Emily Burton Ketcham was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame in 1999. To read more about Emily, see her page on the website for the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame.

Emily Griffith: Founder of Denver’s Opportunity School

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Emily Griffith

Emily Griffith, teacher and founder of Denver’s Opportunity School, often wore hats created by students in the school’s millinery classes. Photo credit: Denver Public Library

There aren’t many educators who are so revered their portrait hangs in a state capitol building, but one who does is teacher Emily Griffith of Colorado.

Emily was born on February 10, 1868, near Cincinnatti, Hamilton County, Ohio. Even at a young age, Emily knew she wanted to be a teacher. However, because her father often changed professions and frequently moved the family from state to state, and because she was expected to go to work at a young age to help support the family, Emily didn’t have much opportunity to earn a formal education.

Nevertheless, in spite of her youth, lack of formal education, and inexperience, Emily managed to convince the school board at Broken Bow, Oklahoma, she was capable enough to teach. The teenager began her teaching career in the sod schoolhouse she had briefly attended herself. How long she taught there is not known for certain, but it is estimated to be between eight and eleven years.

In 1895, Emily moved with her parents to Denver, Colorado. There she accepted a position as a long-term substitute sixth grade teacher at Central School. The following year she secured a full-time position. The students that attended Central School came from impoverished immigrants from many countries, and Emily could see that her kids’ parents needed help to learn math and how to read and write in English. Emily reasoned that it was just as important to offer educational opportunities to adults as it was to offer them to children.

In 1904, Emily was appointed the Assistant State Superintendent of the Colorado Education Department, a position she held for four years. When her term expired, the veteran teacher served a two-year stint as an eighth grade teacher at the Twenty-Fourth Street School in the Five Points neighborhood of Denver. In 1910, she garnered the position of Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction, where she served another four-year term. After the end of this appointment, Emily once again taught at the Twenty-Fourth Street School, and before long, she became the school’s principal.

In 1916, Emily inaugurated a radical progressive experiment, a nontraditional school open from early morning until midnight, available to “All Who Wish to Learn,” including adults and working youngsters. The school offered courses the students deemed useful, such as English as a second language, American citizenship, mathematics, millinery, auto repair, cooking, carpentry, sewing, needlework, typewriting, and telegraphy. Instruction was individualized, and students could attend free of charge. When Emily became aware that some of her younger students had no time or money to eat, she organized free soup to be served. After 17 years, Emily retired from her work at the Opportunity School in 1933, but her years of service were not over. For the next 12 years, she served on the State Board of Vocational Education.

After Emily completed her public service, she and her sister, Florence, retired to a rustic cabin located in Pinecliffe, Boulder County, Colorado. Sadly, on June 18, 1947, the two sisters were found murdered in their home. Authorities have never been able to prove with certainty who the murderer was.

For her tireless work in public schools, Emily garnered many honors, both during her lifetime and after. In 1911, she was recognized with a diploma and two Bachelor’s of Pedagogy degrees from the Colorado State Normal School and Teachers College in Greeley, Colorado, an institution now known as University of Northern Colorado. In 1976, a stained glass portrait of Emily was dedicated in the Colorado State Capitol. In 1985, Emily was inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame, and in 2000 she was recognized with the Mayor Wellington Webb Millennium Award for Denver’s Most Useful Citizen.

Emily Griffith: A true Chalkboard Champion.