St. Louis University’s “Billiken” man: Originally created by art teacher Florence Pretz
Billiken man, mascot for St. Louis University. The original Billiken was created by art teacher and illustrator Florence Pretz.
Last night my husband and I stumbled across a televised basketball game between the St. Louis University Billikens and the University of Richmond Spiders.
Billikens? Whaaat? And then a camera shot of the mysterious and rather freaky-looking mascot. What followed then was a flurry of internet research.
Here is what we discovered: According to legend, the creature was the brainchild of Kansas City art teacher and illustrator Florence Pretz, who taught at Manual Training High School for many years. Evidently, she “got the inspiration for Billiken in 1896 while looking at a collection of grouchy looking gods belonging to Miss Floy Campbell of the art department at the school. They brought to Miss Pretz’s mind the idea of fashioning a god who would smile and bring to his worshippers cheer instead of gloom,” or at least so it was said in an article published in the Chicago Daily Tribune on February 14, 1912. Some say the little goblin came to Florence in a dream, and that later she chose to name her vision Billiken after a character in an 1896 poem entitled Mr. Moon: A Song Of The Little People by Canadian poet Bliss Carman.
High school art teacher Florence Pretz, creator of the Billiken.
In its original form, the Billiken was an elephant-like creature with tapered ears, short arms, an impish smile, and a tuft of hair growing on the top of his pointed head. He was depicted sitting with his legs outstretched in front of him and the soles of his oversized feet clearly visible. Over the decades, the Billiken has morphed into the fellow you see above.
Anyway, despite his original bizarre appearance, the Billiken was an instant hit, becoming a good-luck charm that enjoyed popularity worldwide. Eventually the creature became known as “The God of Things as They Ought to Be.” As a result of her success with Billiken, Florence gave up her teaching position, moved to Chicago, and became the illustrator of a number of short stories written about a group of Billikens. These stories were published in the Canadian periodical Canada West, where their lighthearted antics delighted the reading public.
Alas, after only a few years of popularity, the Billiken faded into obscurity. Unless, of course, you happen to have a connection with the University of St. Louis. Then you come across the mischievous little mascot all the time.
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Wyoming’s Chris Bessonette: A 2018 Milken Award Honoree
So many wonderful teachers out there! This one is Chris Bessonette, a second grade teacher from Wyoming, who was named a 2018 Milken Award winner. Chris teaches second grade dual immersion at K-5 Munger Mountain Elementary School in Jackson, Wyoming.
As a teacher, Chris understands the challenges faced by his immigrant students and their parents, and he advocates for them tirelessly. In addition to learning Spanish in order to better communicate with his learners, this chalkboard champion tutors, attends soccer games and concerts, and works towards connecting families with community resources. Also, he’s famous for his positive outlook!
Chris team-teaches with a Spanish-language teaching partner. Since the pairing, the talented teacher has seen a 20% increase in his students’ state assessments in a single quarter! His lessons are data-driven, and focus on vocabulary development, a skill critical to ensuring his students’ academic success. In addition, Chris has been the leader of a collaborative effort with the University of Wyoming to pilot a new vocabulary initiative to be used in all of his school district’s second-grade dual-immersion classes.
Chris earned a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from Graceland University in 1998, and his Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Wyoming in 2011.
The Milken Educator Awards, which Teacher magazine has described as the “Oscars of Teaching,” has been honoring exceptional educators over three decades. Only 40 Milken Awards are given out each year, and this year Chris Bessonette is the only recipient from Wyoming. In addition to the $25,000 cash prize and public recognition, the honor includes membership in the National Milken Educator Network, a group of more than 2,700 top teachers, principals, and specialists from all over the country who are dedicated to strengthening education.
Way to go, Chris!
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Music teacher Zitkala Sa: Honored by the National Women’s History Project
Music teacher Zitkala Sa: Honored by the National Women’s History Project
It’s Women’s History Month, so today I would like to introduce you to one of the most amazing chalkboard champions and political activists in American history. She is Native American Zitkala Sa, whose Indian name translated means Red Bird.
This remarkable educator was born on February 22, 1876, on the Yankton Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Her father, an American of European descent, abandoned his family, leaving his young daughter to be raised alone by her Native American mother. Despite her father’s absence, Zitkala Sa described her childhood on the reservation as a time of freedom and joy spent in the loving care of her tribe.
In 1884, when she was just eight years old, missionaries visited the reservation and removed several of the Native American children, including Zitkala Sa, to Wabash, Indiana. There she was enrolled in White’s Manual Labor Institute, a school founded by Quaker Josiah White for the purpose of educating “poor children, white, colored, and Indian.” She attended the school for three years until 1887, later describing her life there in detail in her autobiography The School Days of an Indian Girl. In the book she described her despair over having been separated from her family, and having her heritage stripped from her as she was forced to give up her native language, clothing, and religious practices. She was also forced to cut her long hair, a symbolic act of shame among Native Americans. Her deep emotional pain, however, was somewhat brightened by the joy and exhilaration she felt in learning to read, write, and play the violin. During these years, Zitkala Sa became an accomplished musician.
After completing her secondary education in 1895, the young graduate enrolled at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, on a scholarship. The move was an unusual one, because at that time higher education for women was not common. In 1899, Zitkala Sa accepted a position as a music teacher at Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Here she became an important role model for Native American children who, like herself, had been separated from their families and relocated far from their home reservations to attend an Indian boarding school. In 1900, the young teacher escorted some of her students to the Paris Exposition in France, where she played her violin in public performances by the school band. After she returned to the Carlisle School, Zitkala Sa became embroiled in a conflict with the Carlisle’s founder, Colonel Richard Henry Pratt, when she expressed resentment over the rigid program of assimilation into the dominant white culture that Pratt advocated, and the fact that the school’s curriculum did not encourage Native American children to aspire to anything beyond lives spent as manual laborers.
After that, as a political activist, Zitkala Sa devoted her energy and talent towards the improvement of the lives of her fellow Native Americans. The former teacher founded the National Council of American Indians in 1926 and served as its president until her death in 1938. She traveled around the country delivering speeches on controversial issues such as Native American enfranchisement, their full citizenship, Indian military service in World War I, corruption in the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the apportionment of tribal lands. In 1997 she was selected as a Women’s History Month Honoree by the National Women’s History Project.
Zitkala Sa: a national treasure and a genuine chalkboard champion.
You can read more about the Carlisle Indian School in my book, Chalkboard Champions, available from amazon.
