A Tribute to Some Mighty Good Teachers

As a new school year begins, my thoughts return to school years long gone and of teachers who changed my life. I was blessed with the best. While every teacher I sat under was not enjoyable, they were at least endurable and all respectable. I honor them to this day.

I grew up in an educationally divided home. My mom was a graduate of Georgetown College, a Baptist school in Georgetown, Kentucky. She taught English and literature for over 30 years at Gallatin County High School. She was a great teacher and disciplinarian. She gave me my first “C” when I was a Senior.

My Dad, on the other hand, was a different story. He quit school at age 16. He would recount that the eighth grade was the “three longest years of my life.” That wasn’t true but it always got a laugh. Mom taught English and Dad had horrible grammar. That was not because of a lack of intelligence. Together, they made a great pair and as the singing group Alabama sang, “It Works.” My sister would go on to become a teacher and family dinners would be full of educational conversations. Dad would say, “School, school, school! I get so tired of hearing about school!” He meant it.

In 1959, I started first grade at Glencoe Elementary. There was no kindergarten or day care in those days. Margaret Arrasmith was my first grade teacher. I thought she was ancient. She taught first and second grade in the same room. That was common in the last century. She was my teacher for grades 1,2,3, part of the 4th and for history in the 6th. I learned so much from Miss Margaret. In later years she would come to hear me preach and told me that she “never taught a bad kid.” Her memory must have been fading.

Every morning, we pledged allegiance to the American flag and recited the Lord’s Prayer. In 1962, when the United States Supreme Court ruled prayer and Bible reading unconstitutional in public school, we carried on. I learned to recite the Lord’s Prayer in a public school. Miss Margaret was a great Christian teacher who kept a Bible and a paddle on her desk and used both regularly. She was a teacher worthy of honor.

Godly teachers impact students in ways they could never realize. The Gallatin County school system had some of the best. Althea Craft, Kathleen Carver, Edith Norman, Doug Ball, Katie Lowe, Ralph Edwards and many more who impacted multiple generations. I know I am leaving many off my list.

Then there was Frances Shinkle. Mom didn’t just impact me. Her deep faith and unbending discipline shaped us. This week, I heard a a speaker begin to quote,

“It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee”

And I thought, “Oh, brother!”

How can a woman love God and love the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe at the same time? How can a teacher make students memorize and publicly recite 20 passages from Macbeth? But she did. And it has blessed me through the years.

I won’t even mention college and seminary professors who changed my life. I will leave that for another time.

So, “take heart,” teacher! Whether you are toiling in public, private or at home, may God bless you. Perhaps fifty years from now some old man will rise up and bless your name. Hang in there.