Teacher Dolores Huerta: The Champion of the Migrant Farmworker

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thLike 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, vice president of the United Farm Workers Union. But did you know that she was also an elementary school teacher?

Raised in Stockton, California, Dolores graduated in 1955 with an AA and her teaching credentials from the College of the Pacific. After 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 talent and 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 one year, she 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, Dolores organized 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, and she negotiated the 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 Dolores, her own writings and transcripts of her speeches, and a recent interview with Mario Garcia. You can find A Dolores Huerta Reader on amazon.com I have also included a chapter about this remarkable teacher in my second book, Chalkboard Heroes: Twelve courageous Teachers and their Deeds of Valor.

Elementary teacher Geraldine Flaharty: She served in the Kansas House of Representatives

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thThere are many talented teachers in our country’s history who have also served their communities as politicians. One superb example of this is Geraldine Flaharty, an elementary reading teacher from Kansas who also serves in her state’s House of Representatives.

A native of Kansas, Geraldine was born March 4, 1936, in Parsons, and she currently lives in Wichita. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Wichita State University in 1961, and completed the requirements for her master’s in education from the same school in 1971.

Geraldine worked as an elementary teacher for Wichita Public Schools from 1956 to 1957 and as a reading teacher at Oaklawn Elementary School in the Derby Public School District from 1966 until she retired after teaching after thirty-six years.

This talented educator was elected as a Democrat to the Kansas State House of Representatives for District 98, serving Sedgwick County, Kansas. She served there from 1995 to 2013. During her stint as a politician, Geraldine served on the committees for Education; Health and Human Services; Aging and Long-Term Care; Economic Development and Tourism; and the Joint Committee on Pensions, Investments, and Benefits. One of her legislative acts was to support a bill that would restore professional status to retired teachers who return to work. “Representative Flaharty has been a tireless advocate for the people of Wichita,” House Minority Leader Paul Davis once said. “She has been a champion for job creation, good public schools, and fair taxation.”

Throughout her long career, Geraldine has donated her talents to a number of community organizations, including the American Association of University Women, the International Reading Association, the Kansas National Education Association, the Sedgwick County Zoo, and the Wichita Center for the Arts. Geraldine Flaharty: a true Chalkboard Champion.

Robert Parris Moses: Civil rights activist, algebra teacher, and Chalkboard Hero

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New York City math teacher Robert Parris Moses was a legendary figure during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s. He was the courageous teacher who orchestrated the black voter-registration efforts and the Freedom Schools made famous during the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer. This heroic educator’s revolutionary work, which was not without risk to life and limb, transformed the political power structure of entire communities.

Now, nearly forty years later, Moses is advocating yet another transformational change: the Algebra Project. Moses asserts that a deficiency in math literacy in poor neighborhoods puts impoverished children at an economic disadvantage when it comes to being able to compete successfully for jobs in the 21st century, and that this disenfranchisement is as debilitating as lack of personal liberties was prior to the Civil Rights Movement.

His solution is to organize people, community by community, school by school, to overcome the achievement gap and give impoverished children 3127[1]the tools they need to claim their share of economic enfranchisement. Moses’s book, Radical Equations: Civil Rights from Mississippi to the Algebra Project written with fellow Civil Rights worker Charles E. Cobb, Jr., can be found easily and reasonably-priced on amazon. A fascinating read for anyone who is interested in Moses’s story, either past or present. A chapter about this remarkable teacher will also be included in my second book, entitled Chalkboard Heroes: Twelve Courageous Teachers and Their Deeds of Valor.  This book is also available on amazon; click on this link to view: Chalkboard Heroes.

Goals, plans, and action: How to be a chalkboard champion!

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teacher+cardAn earnest young student once said to me, “Some day I’m gonna be somebody!” It’s the kind of statement that tugs at the heartstrings of a compassionate teacher. She wanted to graduate from high school the first in her family, and then enroll in college. Her ultimate goal was to be a registered nurse. The thing is, the student rarely brought her book to class, almost never did her homework, and spent more time hiding her cell phone use under her desk than actually participating in class. She was not actively involved in her own education. “It’s great to have lofty goals,” I advised her, “but you have to couple those goals with a practical plan and some robust action.”

Even as an adult and a professional, I sometimes get a jolting reminder that talk, even if it is confident and optimistic, doesn’t really accomplish much that’s tangible. And if the talk sounds like whining and complaining, you can even severely sabotage the progress of your venture. We all face challenges and frustrations in our work, no matter what profession we are engaged in, but it’s important to avoid becoming the bellyacher in the teachers’ lounge that spends more energy describing the obstacles in minute detail than on coming up with some constructive and creative solutions.

To actually achieve your lofty goals, follow up your confident and optimistic talk by developing a feasible plan of action and then getting down to work. If you can do that, you will be a chalkboard champion, and you will have a great school year!