Teacher Dolores Huerta dedicated her life to helping migrant farmworkers

Posted on by
Dolores Huerta

Teacher Dolores Huerta dedicated her life to helping migrant farm workers.

Like many people who have heard of farm labor leader and civil rights advocate Cesar Chavez, I have also heard of his right-hand woman, Dolores Huerta, elected vice president of the United Farm Workers Union. But did you know she was also a teacher?

Raised in Stockton, California, Dolores graduated in 1955 with an AA and her teaching credentials from the College of the Pacific. After her college graduation, she accepted a teaching position in a rural Stockton elementary school. She had been teaching for only a short time when she realized she wanted to devote her vast energy to migrant farm workers and their families. “I couldn’t stand seeing farm worker children come to class hungry and in need of shoes,” she once explained. “I thought I could do more by organizing their parents than by trying to teach their hungry children.”

After just one year, Dolores resigned from her teaching position, determined to launch a campaign that would fight the numerous economic injustices faced by migrant agricultural workers. Joining forces with the legendary labor leader Cesar Chavez, the intrepid educator helped organize a large-scale strike against the commercial grape growers of the San Joaquin Valley, an effort which raised national awareness of the abysmal treatment of America’s agricultural workers. She also negotiated contracts which led to their improved working conditions. The rest, as they say, is history.

Although there are several fairly good juvenile biographies of this extraordinary woman, there is no definitive adult biography about her. The closest thing to it is A Dolores Huerta Reader edited by Mario T. Garcia. This book includes an informative biographical introduction by the editor, articles and book excerpts written about her, her own writings and transcripts of her speeches, and a recent interview with Mario Garcia. You can find A Dolores Huerta Reader on amazon. I have also included a chapter about this remarkable teacher in my second book, entitled Chalkboard Heroes.

Remembering Columbine’s Chalkboard Hero and slain educator Dave Sanders

Posted on by
Dave Sanders

Terry Lee Marzell examines plaque honoring slain educator Dave Sanders at the Columbine Memorial.

While visiting the Denver area last weekend, I had the unique opportunity to visit the Columbine Memorial which honors the innocent lives lost in the Columbine High School massacre. There I paid homage to Dave Sanders, a truly heroic teacher who lost his life during the shooting.

Dave was born on October 22, 1951, in Eldorado, Saline County, Illinois. He was the youngest of five children. Sadly, his father passed away when Dave was only four years old. Following his father’s death, the young boy was raised by his widowed mother in Newtown, Fountain County, Indiana.

Even as a youngster, Dave excelled at athletics. Known for being a consistent and dependable player, he participated in basketball, baseball, and cross country. After his 1969 graduation from Fountain Central High School in Veedersburg, Dave enrolled at Nebraska Western Junior College in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, where he earned his Associate’s Degree. He then transferred to Chadron State College in Chadron, Dawes County, Nebraska. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Education from Chadron in 1974.

That same year, Dave accepted his first teaching position at Columbine High School in an unincorporated area of Jefferson County, Colorado, near the Denver suburb of Littleon. There he taught business classes, including typing, keyboarding, business, business law, and economics. He also worked with other teachers in the Business Department to organize career days and arrange for guest speakers to visit classes.

But it was as a coach that Dave truly excelled. Early in his career he coached boys’ baseball, basketball, cross country, and soccer. In his later years, he coached girls’ basketball, softball, and track. In 1995, Dave’s girls’ softball team reached the Class 5A state finals, and the same year, his girls’s basketball team qualified for a coveted berth in the annual Sweet 16 Tournament. “His ability to coach was not so much about his ability to do the sport but about his ability to analyze the mechanics of the sport, the kinesiology of it,” colleague Joe Marshall once described. “It didn’t matter what he coached. He coached kids, he didn’t coach a sport. He truly devoted himself to the athletes,” Joe continued. In addition to his coaching responsibilities for Columbine, Dave and his colleague, Rick Bath, coached basketball camps, softball tournaments, open batting cage sessions, and a B league girls’ softball program during the summers.

Dave Sanders

Chalkboard Hero, teacher, and coach Dave Sanders

Dave’s career as a teacher and coach spanned 25 years. Tragically, this outstanding educator was shot and killed on April 20, 1999, when two students carried out a mass shooting at Columbine High School. During the massacre, the intrepid teacher organized an evacuation of the area, led a group of approximately 200 students to safety, and warned unsuspecting teachers and students in other classrooms of the danger. He is credited with saving at least 200 lives that fateful day before he succumbed from his gunshot wounds.

For his heroism, Dave Sanders was honored in 1999 with the ESPY Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award. The same year, he was recognized by the National Consortium for Academics and Sports with the Giant Steps Award for Male Coach. You can read more about him in my second book, Chalkboard Heroes.

Recommended reading: Tony Danza’s book about his experiences in the classroom

Posted on by
Tony Danza

Tony Danza’s book about his experiences in the classroom is recommended reading.

It seems to me that in every teacher’s career, there comes a desperate moment in which we just want to be understood. We fervently wish that the public, the parents, and the media comprehended just how dedicated we are to our students, and just how hard we work on their behalf, and just how tough the job is. Tony Danza goes a long way to build this understanding in his 2012 book I’d Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had: My Year as a Rookie Teacher at Northeast High.

Having already earned his degree in history and  his teaching credential, Danza accepted a position as a first-year teacher in an inner-city school in Philadelphia, partly because he had always wanted to teach and decided now would be a good time in his career to explore that option, and partly because the experiment could be turned into a reality show that, Danza hoped, could accomplish some genuine good by turning an empathetic spotlight on our nation’s over-worked, over-criticized, and under-paid teachers.
Throughout the book, Danza provides an insider’s perspective on many of the topics that dominate political discussion in the media and professional conversation in the teachers’ lounge, including such topics as funding cuts, high-stakes testing, high absenteeism, student apathy, and lack of parental involvement. It’s amazing how he hit the nail on the head with every chapter.
I loved this book, and how Danza eloquently voiced the frustrations of practically every teacher in America. Most importantly, I loved how much his genuine affection and respect for his students, and his strong commitment to do right by them, shines through the frustrations. It’s an inspirational book I recommend you put on your summer reading list. You can find it on amazon at I’d Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had. Find more recommended reading on this website’s “Books to Read” tab.

Teacher Prudence Crandall: The Chalkboard Hero who taught African American students

Posted on by
Prudence Crandall

Teacher Prudence Crandall: The Chalkboard Hero who taught African American students.

There are many examples of heroic teachers who have dedicated their considerable energy to improving the American social fabric. One such teacher is Prudence Crandall, a 19th-century educator who fought her entire Connecticut community for the right to enroll African American students in her school.

In 1831 well-known and highly-respected schoolteacher Prudence Crandall opened a boarding school for young ladies in Canterbury, Connecticut. By the end of the first year, she had earned the praise of parents, community members, and students throughout New England.

The accolades for Prudence suddenly ended, though, the day an African American student named Sarah Harris asked to be admitted to Prudence’s school. Sarah said she wanted to learn how to be a teacher so she could open her own school for black students. Prudence knew admitting an African American student would generate some resistance from her neighbors, but after some soul-searching she decided her conscience would not allow her to refuse the request.

Prudence had severely under-estimated the resistance she would face from her community. Figuring the complaint was that she was operating an integrated school, the teacher closed her academy for white girls and re-opened as an academy for “misses of color.” That just made the situation worse, causing objections that rippled all the way up to the US Supreme Court and resulting in Prudence’s brief incarceration in the local jail.

Read the gripping account of this valiant teacher in the book, The Forbidden Schoolhouse: The True and Dramatic Story of Prudence Crandall and Her Students by Suzanne Jurmain, available on amazon. I have also included a chapter about this heroic teacher in my second book, Chalkboard Heroes.

Martha Forrester: Classroom teacher and early Civil Rights activist

Posted on by

Martha ForresterTeachers very often devote considerable talent and energy towards advancing social causes. One teacher in American history who did this is Martha Forrester, a classroom teacher and early Civil Rights activist.

The Civil War was in full swing in 1863 when Martha Forrester was born in Richmond, Virginia. When she grew up, she worked for several years as a public school teacher in Richmond.

Martha married Robert Forrester as a young woman, and after her husband passed away, she moved to Farmville, Virginia, to live with her daughter. There Martha was one of five founding members of retired educators who established the Council of Colored Women in 1920. She served as the president of that organization for over 30 years, endeavoring to better educational opportunities for African American students in Prince Edward County. “She felt the need that she wanted to improve the lives, you know, of African American children here in the form of education,” commented Beatrice White, a descendant of Martha Forrester. Martha was able to accomplish many improvements for the students she cared so much about, including  extending the school year and increasing access to higher-level classes. The Council also conducted tutoring, offered counseling, and organized blood mobiles to serve their community.

The former classroom teacher was also instrumental in founding the county’s first high school for African American students. Under her leadership, the Council raised $300,000 to buy a building and establish Robert Russa Moton High School, named in honor of a local educator. When the doors of the school opened in 1939, 450 students showed up for classes, although the facility was built for only 150. The school has since been turned into a museum.

This amazing chalkboard champion passed away in 1951. Her Farmville home was designated a historic site by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources in March, 2017. Read more about Martha Forrester in this article published by the Farmville Herald.

Martha Forrester

Classroom teacher and Civil Rights activist Martha Forrester was instrumental in founding Virginia’s Robert Russa Moton High School for African American students.