South Carolina’s Kate Vixon Wofford: A Groundbreaker in the Field of Education

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Many gifted classroom teachers have proven to be groundbreakers in the field of education. This is certainly true of Kate Vixon Wofford, a high school teacher from Laurens, South Carolina.

Kate Vixon Wofford

Kate was born on October 20, 1894, the eldest of ten children born to John and Cleo (Cunningham) Wofford. As a young girl, Kate attended Winthrop College, where she graduated with honors in 1916.

Kate accepted her first position as an educator at Laurens High School in Laurens, South Carolina. When World War I broke out, the intrepid teacher joined the United States Navy, where she served as a yeoman. She was one of the first women to enlist in the war effort. After the war was won, Kate returned to her classroom at Laurens.

At a time when women were not generally active in the political arena, Kate broke down many barriers. In 1922, she was elected to the position of County Superintendent of Schools, becoming the first woman in the state of South Carolina to be elected to a public office. She served two terms in this position. In addition, she served a term as the first president of the South Carolina State Teachers Association. And in 1929, she was selected to be a delegate to the World Conference in Education held in Geneva, Switzerland.

Kate Vixon Wofford

A lifelong learner, Kate returned to school in 1930. She earned her master’s degree from Cornell University in 1931, and her doctorate from Columbia University in 1934. Following this, Kate accepted a position as the Director of Rural Education at State Teachers College in Buffalo, New York. An accomplished author, Kate wrote two books about education: Modern Education in the Small Rural School in 1938, and Teaching in Small Schools in 1946. These books were widely acclaimed. She also published pieces for the National Education Association.

In 1947, Kate was selected to be the Director of Elementary Education at the University of Florida in Gainesville. In 1952, she threw her energy into organizing a program for the Turkish Ministry of Education, successfully gaining funding and then directing a course of study for 25 Turkish educators. Her report of this program, entitled The Workshop Way with Foreign Students, was published in 1954.

Sadly, that same year, Kate learned she had cancer. She passed away at the age of 60 on October 31, 1954, in Gainesville. She is interred at the New Prospect Baptist Church Cemetery in Laurens, South Carolina.

During her lifetime, Kate was a member of the Daughters of American Revolution and the National Council of Administrative Women in Education. She was also a member of the honors association Pi Gamma Mu. To read more about this chalkboard champion, see South Carolina Encyclopedia.

Oregon’s Edward Diller: Foreign Language Educator Extraordinaire

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Many teachers who exhibit talents in the classroom also achieve accomplishments on an international scale. One of these is Edward Diller, a high school foreign language instructor who made significant contributions to German studies.

Edward came from humble origins. He was born on December 14, 1925, in Cleveland, Ohio. He was the youngest of six children born to Isaac and Frieda Diller. His father, who worked in a hat factory, had immigrated to the US from Austria-Hungary in 1910.

During WWII, Edward served our country in the US Marine Corps. Once the war was won, he returned to school, earning his both his bachelor’s  (1953) and his master’s (1954) from the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1961, Edward completed the requirements for his doctorate at Middlebury College located in Middlebury, Vermont.

During the 1950’s and early 1960’s, Edward taught German language classes at Beverly Hills High School in California. He also served as the foreign language coordinator for the Beverly Hills Unified School District. In the 1960’s, the gifted teacher left the Golden State and headed to the Rocky Mountain State to work as a professor at Colorado College in Colorado Springs. In 1965, he relocated to Eugene, Oregon, to join the faculty of the University of Oregon. There he served as the director of the Robert D. Clark Honors College from 1972 to 1977, and as the Assistant Dean of the College of Liberal Arts from 1974 to 1977.

Edward’s brilliance was obvious to many in the academic field. He was selected to be a Fulbright visiting lecturer to Germany in 1967, and he garnered a Fulbright research grant in 1977 to fund his research studies in Freiburg, Germany. Additionally, he was awarded Fulbright Research Professorships in Braunschweig and Regensburg in Germany,  and was named Carl Schurz Visiting Professor at the University of Dortmund in Dortmund, Germany, in 1970.

During his professional career, Edward was named to a number of prestigious leadership positions. During the 1980-1981 school year, he served as the resident director of the Oregon Study Center in Stuttgart, West Germany. He also served as the president of the American Association of Teachers of German from 1978 to 1980; on the Executive Board of the Joint National Committee for Languages from 1979 to 1980; and the chairman of the Selection Committee of the Federal Republic of Germany and the US Office of Education Grants in 1979. The brilliant educator also served on the Board of Trustees for the American Council on German Studies in 1977. Edward excelled as an academic author as well. He published numerous articles, books, and book reviews, and made important contributions to textbooks for Spanish, French, and German languages.

One of this talented educator’s major skills was his ability to win grants. He won a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and another from the National Science Foundation to produce projects that improved relations between Oregon’s Native American tribes and local Caucasian residents. With a colleague, he garnered another grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to fund summer seminars for high school teachers.

This amazing chalkboard champion passed away on March 30, 1985, at the young age of 59. He is interred at Rest-Haven Memorial Park in Eugene, Lane County, Oregon. You can learn more about him at Revolvy. You can also visit the Edward Diller author page at amazon.com.

 

Teacher Haley Curfman Wears Her Students’ Artwork

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Here’s a teacher who really knows how to celebrate her students. She’s Haley Curfman, a second grade teacher at Blackwell Elementary School in Blackwell, Oklahoma.

For the second year in a row, she brought a white dress to school and encouraged her students to fill the fabric with their art work. “This is something I’d seen on Pinterest a few years ago, and I fell in love with the idea,” she says. “I think every teacher should do this! It’s a great project and an even better keepsake.”

Haley says she purchased an inexpensive white dress, and pre-washed it before she brought it to the classroom. With fabric markers she purchased from Walmart, she set up an activity station that featured the dress, the markers, and pieces of cardboard to place between the layers of fabric. She reports that it took approximately a month to complete, because the students worked on it intermittently as time allowed. When the students were finished adding their artwork, she wore the dress for a class party, and then put it on display.

“It’s been pointed out that this idea has been around way longer than Pinterest,” discloses Haley. “Teachers have been sharing their dresses, aprons, quilts, T-shirts, etc. with me that they’ve been creating since the 1950’s with the same concept. Which is awesome, and I love that you are sharing them with me! Thank you all so much for your kindness and support!” she concludes.

For more of Haley’s classroom projects, check out her Facebook page at The Weary Teacher.

School Violence Prevention Counselors Could Help Prevent Tragedies

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As a nation, we are now attempting to recover from yet another school shooting, this latest one at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which claimed the lives of 14 students and three teachers. The tragedy has sparked yet another heated debate about best practices for protecting students in our nation’s schools. Much of the current debate has centered around such strategies as enforcing stricter gun control laws, strengthening mental health services, bettering law enforcement responses to reported threats, and arming teachers in schools. Are there any other strategies that could be considered? I think so.

After the Columbine shooting, the California legislature mandated that a school violence prevention counselor be placed in every high school. Unfortunately, state funding for these positions was cut about a decade ago when the economic downturn hit, but it would certainly be a good idea to consider passing a similar mandate on a federal level.

A school violence prevention counselor can develop beneficial instructional programs on such topics as anger management, conflict resolution, anti-bullying, stress management, depression, or domestic violence. As for “see something, say something,” there are times when a student may be more willing to share about a potential threat with a counselor than with a resource officer, who, as a policeman, may seem like an intimidating person to approach. School violence prevention counselors have been specially trained to recognize and respond to potential threats, serving as a front-line defense. Because they have more training, more resources, and more time than other school personnel, they are better able to sift through rumors and reports and identify those threats that are the most likely to pose real danger. They may even be able to reduce the tensions that sometimes give rise to violent incidents.

When considering strategies for preventing further tragedies like the ones that have occurred at Columbine and Stoneman Douglas, it’s important to remember that there is no one single fix. We must use a combination of approaches that are both vigorous and innovative. Let’s include federal funding for the training and hiring of school violence prevention counselors in the conversation.

 

 

Mississippi’s Doug Anderson: The Former Teacher and Legislator Who Championed Historically Black Colleges

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Many talented classroom teachers have gone on to successful careers in politics. This is certainly true of Douglas Leavon Anderson, a mathematics teacher who served as a very capable politician in both the Senate and the House of Representatives in his home state of Mississippi.

Doug was born in 1939, the 11th of 12 children in his family. He earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Dillard University, a private historically Black liberal Arts college located in New Orleans, Louisiana. He earned his master’s degree from Oklahoma University, a public research university situated in Norman, Oklahoma.

Doug’s career as an educator spanned the years 1965 to 1987. He taught in the Meridian Public School system in Meridian, Mississippi, and in his home town of Jackson, Mississippi. He was also an associate professor of mathematics at Jackson State University from 1965 to 1987.

In 1976, Doug was elected on the Democratic ticket to represent District 27 in the Mississippi State House of Representatives. There he served until 1980, serving on the committee for public health and welfare and the committee for universities and colleges. In 1980, Doug was elected to the Mississippi State Senate, where he served until 1992, serving on the committees for the state budget, the judiciary, and universities and colleges. While in office, the former teacher was an active and outspoken advocate for historically Black colleges. In 1993, Doug joined the Hinds County Board of Supervisors, where he served for 19 years. In all, this amazing chalkboard champion devoted more than 36 years of his life to public service.

Doug passed away from complications from diabetes on April 13, 2013, at the age of 74. He was interred at Garden Memorial Cemetery in Jackson. To read more about this accomplished educator, see the Mississippi State Resolution 507 or the Doug Anderson Obituary.