Tag Archives: Veterans

Teacher George Anderson named Iowa’s 2020 State Teacher of the Year

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Teacher and assistant football coach George Anderson named Iowa’s 2020 State Teacher of the Year.

Today we shine a spotlight on educator George Anderson, a teacher and coach from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. George has just been named his state’s 2020 Teacher of the Year.

The honored educator teaches at John F. Kennedy High School, where he has worked for 13 years. There he teaches history and also serves as the assistant football coach. He is also a member of his school’s leadership team.

George was raised in the Murrells Inlet area of Garden City, South Carolina. He graduated from Socastee High School. As a young man, he served his country in the US Marine Corps. While in the military, he was an infantry scout for the Second Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. When he received his discharge in 1999, he moved to Iowa and took a job as a construction framer. While working in this job, he worked his way through college. In 2006, he graduated with a Master’s degree in Social Science Education from the University of lowa.

“As a teacher, I like active rooms, students moving around and discussing the material with other students,” George says. “I like to see students engage with the material of history in a way that isn’t just fact recollection or sequencing events. I want student-centered dynamics in the classroom,” he continues. “I do not want to be the center of attention,” he confesses.

To read more about this Chalkboard Champion, see this article published in The Gazette.

Retired schoolteacher Durward Azbell: He’s also a Viet Nam Veteran

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Retired elementary schoolteacher Durward Azbell during his years of military service during the Viet Nam War.

Tomorrow is Veterans’ Day, a day when our entire nation honors those who have served in the United States military. On this day, I like to remember those brave military veterans who have also served in the classroom. One of these is Durward Azbell, a retired elementary teacher from Ohio. He served in the US Army during the Viet Nam War.

Durward grew up in Columbus, Ohio. He was the youngest of three children raised by his widowed mother. “I was nine, going on ten, when my father committed suicide after an accident left him in severe back pain,” Durward once revealed. “He was an enigma to me, because I knew he was an Army veteran who served in Germany during World War II, but I never really got to hear his stories or understand him,” he said.

When Durward grew up, he was drafted and served three years in the US Army as a Specialist E-5. He was stationed in Viet Nam in what he described as the “very secure” base of Long Binh. Durward considers himself one of the lucky ones. “The only danger I saw was when the Viet Cong blew up our ammo dump,” he confesses. But he appreciates his fellow veterans who, in his opinion, made sacrifices greater than his own. “Those were the true heroes,” he says.

After completing his military service, Durward returned to his home state of Ohio. There he became a fourth grade schoolteacher in Columbus. “I believe the time spent teaching children is the best way a person could spend his or her life,” Durward once asserted. His career as an educator spanned 36 years.

Thank you for your service, Durward, both in the military and in the classroom.

To read more about this chalkboard hero, click on this link: PBS Durward Azbell.

Veteran and Chalkboard Hero John Ardis Cawthorn

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175px-John_Ardis_Cawthon_(Louisiana_Tech)[1]Many of our nation’s talented educators are also distinguished veterans. This is true about John Ardis Cawthon, a high school history teacher from Louisiana who served in the US Army during WWII.

John was born on March 16, 1907, in south Bossier Parish, Louisiana. As a child, he was home-schooled by his mother. When he entered the fifth grade, he was enrolled in a local one-room schoolhouse. After John completed the eighth grade, his family moved to Doyline in south Webster Parish, where the young man completed high school.

After his high school graduation in 1934, John enrolled at Louisiana Tech where he majored in History and English. There he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education. He earned his Master’s degree from Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge in 1938.

John accepted his first position as a teacher at a high school in Cotton Valley, where he taught from 1934 to 1935. Later he transferred to Sarepta and was employed there from 1935 to 1939. Next he taught at A.E. Phillips Laboratory School on the Louisiana Tech campus from 1939 to 1940. From 1940 to 1942 John was a professor at Northwestern State University, then known as Louisiana Normal.

When World War II erupted, John was drafted into the US Army. He was 35 years old at the time. The former high school teacher served in Europe in the Education Orientation Division. This position took him to the Biarritz American University in France. In 1974, he published an account of his experiences in the armed forces in an article entitled “A School Teacher Gets Drafted,” published in North Louisiana History.

When the war was over, John decided to pursue his doctorate at the University of Texas at Austin. After earning this advanced degree in 1954, he returned to Louisiana Tech University, where he remained until his retirement in 1972. During this time, he published many scholarly articles in North Louisiana History and wrote several books dedicated to regional history.

This talented educator and distinguished serviceman passed away on October 5, 1984. John Ardis Cawthorn: A true Chalkboard Hero.

Teacher Samuel Youngs: The inspiration behind Washington Irving’s character Ichabod Crane

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History abounds with school teachers who have earned fame outside of the classroom. This is true of Samuel Youngs, an American school teacher who was a close friend of famous American author Washington Irving. In fact, scholars speculate that Samuel served as the inspiration for the character of Ichabod Crane in Irving’s story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”

7051406_117574152061Samuel Youngs was born December 4, 1760. During the Revolutionary War, he served as a lieutenant in the 4th New York Infantry Regiment led by Baron Frederick von Weissenfels. Throughout the war, Samuel served the fledgling American army as a guide over the roads and trails in the county around his home. He was one of a dozen native soldiers known as The Westchester Guides. His father’s farmhouse, located near the intersection of Bradhurst Avenue and Grasslands Road in Eastview, was the scene of a British raid during the Revolution.

After the war was won, Samuel served as a Federalist member of the New York State Assembly from 1796-1797, 1809, and 1810. Additionally, Samuel served as a Surrogate of Westchester County in 1800, 1807, 1810, 1811, and 1819.

The intrepid school teacher and veteran passed away on September 12, 1839. He was originally buried in the yard of the Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow in New York. There he was honored with other citizens of Tarrytown who fought during the Revolutionary War. His service was recognized with a monument, pictured at left. The inscription at the bottom of the monument reads: “This monument is erected by Major General Aaron Ward, 9 division, N.Y.S.M. in testimony of his high appreciation of the services of a brave officer and a true patriot.” In 1851, Samuel’s remains were relocated to the Dale Cemetery in Ossining, New York. He was the first person to be buried in that cemetery.

To read more, click on this link about Samuel Youngs.