Tag Archives: Elementary Teachers

Sekou Biddle: Talented elementary school teacher and politician from Washington, DC

Posted on by
Sekou Biddle

Sekou Biddle: Talented elementary school teacher and politician from Washington, DC

There are many fine examples of talented classroom teachers who go on to become influential in local politics. One such teacher is Sekou Biddle, an elementary school teacher and politician from Washington, DC.

Sekou was born and raised in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, DC. His parents, who both worked for the federal government, stressed the importance of education, and they made sure Sekou went to quality public schools. The youngster attended Woodrow Wilson Senior High School in Tenleytown, a historic neighborhood in Northwest, DC. There he played sports, including football, basketball, and crew. He also dated the valedictorian, whom he later married.

Following his high school graduation, Sekou attended Morehouse College, where he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration.

Once he earned his degree, Sekou accepted a position as a fifth and sixth grade teacher at an elementary school in the Bronx borough of New York City. The job fulfilled his obligation to the Teach for American program. Later, Sekou accepted a teaching position at an elementary school at Atlanta, Georgia. In 2005, he moved back to Washington, DC, where he taught math for the Knowledge is Power Program. Eventually he was named the Director of Community Outreach for the Knowledge is Power organization.

When he decided to throw his hat into the political ring, Sekou ran for and won a seat on the District of Columbia State Board of Education. He served in that capacity for four years. When his term expired, he became the Executive Director of Jumpstart for Young Children, a nonprofit organization that prepares youngsters to enter elementary school. He worked there for four years. Since 2012, Sekou has been employed as the vice president of the United Negro College Fund, where he oversees the advocacy platform that builds coalitions and supports education reforms.

Give an Inspirational Book to Dad on Father’s Day

Posted on by

Give an inspirational book to Dad on Father’s Day! If he is an educator. a history buff, or an avid reader, I can recommend two great choices: Chalkboard Champions and Chalkboard Heroes.

Chalkboard Champions presents stories of 12 gifted and dedicated teachers who worked with some of America’s most disenfranchised and disadvantaged students.  Among the captivating stories included is that of Charlotte Forten Grimke, an African American born into freedom in the North, who during the Civil War volunteered to teach emancipated slaves in a South Carolina school established just behind the battle lines. There’s the gripping eyewitness account of the Wounded Knee Massacre by teacher Elaine Goodale Eastman, the talented New England child poet who founded a school for Sioux Indians on a south Dakota reservation. There’s the story of Leonard Covello, the Italian immigrant turned school teacher who enlisted in the US Army during World War I to fight alongside his students, and educator Mary Tsukamoto, imprisoned in a World War II Japanese internment camp.

Then there’s Mississippi Freedom Summer teacher Sandra Adickes who, together with her students, defied the Jim Crow laws of the South and integrated the Hattiesburg Public Library. And Clara Comstock, who found homes for thousands of Orphan Train riders. And what collection about remarkable teachers would be complete without a discussion of Anne Sullivan Macy, the teacher of Helen Keller, and the dedication of Jaime Escalante, the East LA educator who proved to a skeptical establishment that inner city Latino youths could successfully meet the demands of a rigorous curriculum.

Chalkboard Heroes shines a spotlight on courageous teachers in American history who were both exemplars of teaching and role models of society. There are the veterans, such as Henry Alvin Cameron, who fought in World War I, and Francis Wayland Parker, a Civil War veteran. There are the social reformers who put themselves at risk to fight for improved conditions and better lives for disenfranchised citizens, such as Dolores Huerta, the champion of migrant farm workers; Robert Parris Moses, the Civil Rights activist; Prudence Crandall, who defied prevailing 19th-century convention to open a school for African American girls; Carrie Chapman Catt, the suffragist; and Zitkala-Sa, who campaigned for the constitutional rights of Native Americans.

Readers also learn about the brave pioneers who took great risks to blaze a trail for others to follow, such as Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher in space; Willa Brown Chappell, the aviatrix who taught Tuskegee airmen to fly; Etta Schureman Jones, who was interned for four years in a POW camp in Japan during World War II; and Olive Mann Isbell, who established the first English school in California while the Mexican American War raged around her. And then there are the savior teachers like Dave Sanders of Columbine High School, who put their own life at risk to protect the students whose safety was entrusted to their care.

Share these stories with your Dad this Father’s Day. He’ll be pleased.

Distinguished educator and legislator Joe Ellis Brown of South Carolina

Posted on by
Joe Ellis Brown

Distinguished educator and legislator Joe Ellis Brown of South Carolina.

Many terrific teachers also make excellent lawmakers. This is true of Joe Ellis Brown, an educator from South Carolina who also served in the House of Representatives for his home state.

Joe was born on May 24, 1933, in Anderson County, South Carolina. After his high school graduation, young Joe enrolled at Allen University, a private university located in Columbia, South Carolina. He was the first member of his family to go to college. Joe earned his Bachelor’s degree from Allen in 1956, and then he earned his Master’s degree at South Carolina State University in 1961.

Joe inaugurated his career as a teacher at Atlas Road Elementary School in Columbia, South Carolina. Within his first year of teaching, the talented educator was promoted to principal. In 1957, Joe was named the principal of Hopkins High School in Richland County School District in Hopkins, South Carolina. Later, he accepted a position as the principal of Hopkins Junior High School. He held this job until his retirement in 1985. In all, his service as a professional educator spanned nearly 30 years.

After he retired from teaching, Joe decided to pursue a career in public service. In 1986, he was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives on the Democratic ticket. He represented District 73. While a member of the House, Joe was recognized as a stalwart supporter of public education, and he also worked toward reducing the cost of health care. In addition, he served as the Chairman of the Medical, Military, Public and Municipal Affairs Committee. He also served as the Chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus. His career as a legislator continued until 2006, a total of 20 years.

After leaving the House, Joe continued his practice of working for others by returning to his alma mater, Allen University, where he completed full-time volunteer work with alumni affairs, undergraduate affairs, the Student Mentoring Program, and the Legislators’ Archive Project.

Throughout his lifetime, Joe earned many accolades. He garnered the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity’s Charles W. Green Award of Merit; the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity’s Citizen of the Year Award; the Distinguished Alumni Citation of the Year Award from the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education; and an Honorary Doctorate of Arts and Humanities from Allen University. In addition, he was a life member of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Arrow’s Bridge Club for Professional Men, and the Eau Claire Rotary Club, as well as many other civic and community organizations.

This amazing educator and politician passed away from natural causes at the age of 84 on January 7, 2018.

Teacher Mary Tsukamoto was incarcerated in a US internment camp during WWII

Posted on by
Mary Tsukamoto

Japanese American teacher Mary Tsukamoto was incarcerated in a US internment camp during WW II.

At the start of World War II, Mary Tsukamoto was living a quiet life as the wife of a strawberry farmer in a diminuitive Japanese-American community in Florin, Northern California. When Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Empire of Japan on December 7, 1941, “a day that will live in infamy,” Mary’s quiet life was suddenly turned upside-down.

Like 120,000 other persons of Japanese descent living on the West Coast, most of them American citizens, Mary was forced into a relocation camp by the US government because her loyalty to our country was questioned. Evicted from their home, Mary, her husband, their five-year-old daughter, her elderly in-laws, her teenaged brother and sisters, and other members of her family wound up in a camp in Jerome, Arkansas, where they were incarcerated until authorities were convinced this family of farmers posed no threat to national security.

While detained in the camp, Mary became part of a prisoner-organized effort to provide meaningful educational opportunities for the imprisoned children. Mary taught speech courses for the high school students and English language classes for the elderly. Once she was released from the camp and the war was over, Mary returned to college, completed her degree, and became an elementary schoolteacher, one of the first certificated Japanese American teachers in the United States.

This intrepid teacher’s remarkable story is told in her autobiography, We the People, a volume which unfortunately is now out of print. However, with some effort, it can be found through second-hand book sellers or in some libraries (check WorldCat), and it is well worth the hunt. You can read also read her story in my first book, Chalkboard Champions, available through amazon.com.

Eulalia Bourne: The plucky Arizona teacher who was ahead of her time

Posted on by
Eulalia Bourne

Eulalia Bourne, the plucky Arizona teacher who was ahead of her time.

I love to tell stories about plucky teachers, and in this blog post I’ll share a little bit about a really plucky teacher from the American Southwest: Eulalia Bourne. This daring educator, whose career spanned more than four decades, taught elementary school in rural areas, mining camps, and Indian reservations throughout Arizona during some of our country’s most challenging periods: World War I, the Depression, and World War II. This women’s libber was ahead of her time, becoming one of the very few women in her day to own and run her own cattle ranch.

Eulalia thought outside the box in many ways. Every year on the first day of school she would wear a new dress, usually blue to complement her eye color. Every school day after that, she wore jeans, Western-style shirts, cowboy boots, and Stetson hats to class. She was once fired for dancing the one-step, a new jazz dance, at a birthday party some of her students attended, because the clerk of the school board considered the dance indecent! She even learned to speak Spanish fluently and, when confronted with non-English-speaking students, taught her classes in Spanish, even though at the time it was against the law to do so.

Eulalia is probably best known for producing a little classroom newspaper entitled Little Cowpunchers which featured student writings, drawings, and news stories about classroom events. Today, these little newspapers are recognized as important historical documents of Southern Arizona ranching communities from 1932 to 1943.

Additionally, Eulalia published three critically-acclaimed books about her teaching and ranching experiences: Ranch Schoolteacher, Nine Months is a Year at Baboquivari School, and Woman in Levi’s. These volumes, although now out of print, can sometimes be purchased at used book stores and can sometimes be found at online sites featuring royalty-free works. These books are well-worth the search, particularly for those interested in Arizona history.

You can read more about about Eulalia’s intriguing life in a book entitled Skirting Traditions, published by  Arizona Press Women. You can also find a chapter about her in my first book about remarkable teachers, Chalkboard Champions.