Sharing a childhood memory of the assassination of President Kennedy

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I was an 8-year-old school child when Persident John F. Kennedy was assassinated. On that day, my third grade teacher made everyone in our class go to the window to watch the school’s flag lowered to half-mast in solemn remembrance. My view of the flag from the classroom window looked very much like this.

Today, once again we observe the anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. As an individual old enough to remember this historical event, this observance triggers a strong and vivid memory of that painful day.

As an eight-year-old, I spent that day in my third grade elementary class. My fellow classmates and I had gone out to lunch. The school yard rang with the happy outbursts of girls playing hopscotch and boys playing dodge ball. We girls were all dressed in our little 60’s dresses with fitted bodices, puffed sleeves, defined waists, flared skirts, and peter pan collars. In those days, girls never wore pants to school. Most of us swept our hair up into pony tails; the boys sported buzz cuts. In the innocence of the hour, we enjoyed our play. Then the bell rang signalling our free time was over, and we reluctantly returned to our academic labors.

Once inside the classroom, however, a sight I had never seen before confronted us. My teacher was weeping, and this frightened me, because I had never seen a teacher cry before. We children counted on adults to be always strong and brave, to guide us and protect us in every circumstance. Through her tears, my teacher told us the president had been shot, and that he had died as a result of his injuries. Then she instructed us to go to the window, as the flag was to be lowered to half-mast. She wanted us to witness this. Perhaps her true motivation was to momentarily direct our eyes and attention away from her grief-ravaged face. As she intended, I have never forgotten the slow and deliberate descent of our country’s fabric emblem, the lowering of which symbolized the depth of despair at our nation’s loss.

In the 36 years that I spent in the classroom as an educator, several catastrophic historical events occurred during school hours—the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, September 11th, Columbine. On these occasions it has been my duty to shepherd my students safely through a tumultuous day in our nation’s history. I cannot in all honesty say that I did this with better control of my grief than my third grade teacher did, but I did my best. When the signalling bell of history rings, that’s all any of us can ever do.

Teacher Caroline Hallisey-Kepka is also a Winter Olympic speed skater

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Fifth grade math and science teacher Caroline Hallisey-Kepka is also a three-time Winter Olympic speed skating competitor.

There are many examples of talented classroom teachers who have also experienced successful careers as athletes. One of these is Caroline Hallisey-Kepka, a three-time Olympic speed skater who now teaches elementary school in Massachusetts.

Caroline Hallisey was born on September 24, 1980. She was raised in Natick, Massachusetts. “I was an average kid, though I did a lot of sports growing up — basketball, soccer, swimming, horseback riding,” Caroline remembers. “I grew up doing everything active kids do, but around the seventh grade I wanted to see how I could do.” She left home in eighth grade to move into an Olympic training center. There she dedicated herself to her Olympic speed skating dream.

And she did very well. Caroline competed on the United States team in the Winter Olympics three times. She participated in the short track speed skating event 1998 in Nagano, Japan; in 2002 in Salt Lake City, Utah; and in 2006 at Turino, Italy.

Once she retired from speed skating in 2006, Caroline enrolled at the University of Colorado. Later she married J.P. Kepka, a US bronze medalist in 2006. The couple lives in Exeter, New Hampshire, with their 15-month-old daughter.

Caroline now teaches fifth grade math and science at the Glen Urquhart School, an independent school for grades K-8 located in Beverley, Massachusetts. As a teacher, Caroline says she strives to provide her students with the motivation to succeed and achieve their goals.”I chose teaching this grade because my middle school years were really challenging for me,” Caroline confides. “So I wanted to teach that middle school age to try and give these kids the tools I learned when I was training as an athlete — how to overcome challenges they will face,” she continued.

To read more about Caroline’s post-Olympic career, see this article published by the Boston Globe.

Bette Cato: Teacher and former member of the Alaska House of Representatives

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Bette Cato: Retired teacher and former member of the Alaska House of Representatives.

Many excellent educators also serve as competent politicians. One of these is Bette Cato, a teacher who served in the Alaska House of Representatives.

Bette Maxine Cato was born on May 9, 1924, in Odessa, Washington, District of Columbia. She was the daughter of William Dallas and Ann (Reimer) Millhorn. As a young girl, she attended Eaton Rapids High School in Eaton Rapids, Michigan. After her graduation, she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Education from Eastern Washington College in 1960. She also completed postgraduate coursework at Alaska Methodist University and Lawrence University.

In 1957, Bette relocated to Alaska, where she accepted a position as a teacher at Kenai High School. She worked there from 1960 to 1963. She also taught at East High School in Anchorage from 1965 to 1969, and Valdez High School from 1969 to 1979. In Valdez, her colleagues elected her president of the local division of the American Federation of Teachers.

In 1980, Bette was elected to the Alaska House of Representatives on the Democratic ticket. She served there from 1981 to 1989. While in the House, the former educator served as the Chairperson of the House Transportation Committee.

From 1943-1944, when WWII was in full swing, Bette was with United States Navy. Later she joined the American Legion, where she held the position of Deputy Vice Commander in 1955. She was also the Commander of Post 2 in Valdez from 1972-1982.  In addition, Bette was a member of Beta Sigma Phi.

Bette resigned from her seat when she was diagnosed with diverticulitis in 1989. She passed away from complications due to cancer on Jan. 18, 1996. 

To learn more about this chalkboard champion, see this link to 100 Years of Alaska’s Legislature.

 

 

Choir teacher Kaitlin Holt: The Chalkboard Hero of Saugus High School

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Choir teacher Kaitlin Holt: The Chalkboard Hero of Saugus High School.

The backbone of any school is the teachers, who sometimes act in incredibly heroic ways. This was proven true when a troubled student opened fire on his classmates at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California, on Fri., Nov. 15. One of the Chalkboard Heroes of that day was choir teacher Kaitlin Holt.

Kaitlin was teaching a class when five students suddenly bolted inside her classroom, claiming there was an active shooter outside. One of the students had been shot in two places. The quick-thinking educator grabbed a gunshot wound kit and immediately began to address the injured student’s wounds. Then she directed the students to block the doors to her classroom with rolling mirrors and a grand piano. She told them to turn off their phones, turn off the lights, and take shelter in her office.

Outside the choir room, the 16-year-old shooter killed two of his classmates, wounded three others, and then turned the gun on himself. He later died from his self-inflicted wounds.

Kaitlin says the staff received training for an active shooter situation last January. She insists she’s not a hero, she just reacted. But being required to instantly shift from being a teacher to being a paramedic was tough. “That should not be part of the teacher’s job,” she asserted. “I should not feel like I needed to be trained like a paramedic to save someone’s life and deal with the consequences of that.”

In spite of the trauma of that day, the heroic teacher is ready to return to her classroom. She says she wants her classroom to be a safe space for students, and she wants to be there for them. “I’m ready to do whatever my students need me to do,” she declared. “I want to help them rebuild.”

To read more about Kaitlin, click on this link to KTLA Channel 5.

Composer, playwright, actor, and former teacher Lin-Manuel Miranda

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Composer, lyricist, singer, actor, playwright, and producer Lin-Manuel Miranda is also a former English teacher.

Almost everyone has heard of composer, lyricist, singer, actor, playwright, and producer Lin-Manuel Miranda. He’s probably best known for creating and starring in the Broadway musical Hamilton. But did you know that he was once a junior high school English teacher?

Lin-Manuel was born Jan. 16, 1980, in New York City, the son of Puerto Rican parents. His father, Luis Miranda, Jr., was a political consultant father. His mother, Luz Towns-Miranda, was a clinical psychologist. Lin-Manuel has one sister, also named Luz. The family lived in the Hispanic neighborhood of Inwood in Manhattan.

The Miranda children were raised in a musically-oriented family. Both siblings took piano lessons. The music of Broadway featured prominently in the home, but Lin-Manuel also developed an appreciation for hip-hop, including the music of the Beastie Boys, Boogie Down Productions, and Eric B. & Rakim.

During his pre-teen and teenage years, Lin-Manuel attended Hunter College’s elementary and high schools. During these years, he performed in student stage productions. Once he graduated from high school, he enrolled at Wesleyan University, where he majored in theater studies.

After college, Lin-Manuel accepted a teaching position. He taught seventh grade English for one year. Then he became a substitute teacher at his alma mater, Hunter College High School. That’s where he was working when his musical In the Heights caught the interest of Broadway producers.

“Hunter had asked me to stay on to continue to teach part time,” the former teacher remembered. But here came a chance to follow his dreams on Broadway. He asked his father, “What should I do? Should I keep teaching or should I just kind of sub and do gigs to pay the rent, and really throw myself into writing full time?”

His father responded with a heartfelt letter. “I really want to tell you to keep the job — that’s the smart ‘parent thing’ to do — but when I was 17, I was a manager at the Sears in Puerto Rico. I basically threw it all away to go to New York, [and] I didn’t speak a lot of English. It made no sense, but it was what I needed to do,” Lin-Manuel recalled the letter said. “It makes no sense to leave your job to be a writer, but I have to tell you to do it,” the elder Miranda advised. “You have to pursue that if you want.” The former teacher’s success is, as they say, history.

Since then, Lin-Manuel has garnered three Grammy Awards, three Emmy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, a MacArthur Fellowship. He was also honored at Kennedy Center in 2018. But one of his favorite trophies is the one he earned when he was a junior in high school. “Because I got straight C’s in math all through high school,” he once confessed. The award, he said, “is on my shelf next to my Grammy.”

To read more about the life of Lin-Manuel Miranda, follow this link to Biography.