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| 2018 Recreation of Toy Caterpillar |
I haven’t always been a teacher, though I have been
for most of my life. I can date my entrance into the ranks of professional
teachers to 1965, but I became a teacher much earlier. I suppose I became a
teacher the day I learned how to make a caterpillar toy from an empty wooden
spool that once had sewing thread wound around it. Until then I was a learner,
but having learned, I wanted to share my knowledge with others. Who knew, a
simple homemade toy would jumpstart my desire to teach others?
I didn’t hold classes in toy making as a child, but
whenever I learned how to make a kite, a sling, a slingshot, a willow whistle,
or whatever else amused me, I wanted to show others how to do the same.
I have a lot of friends who don’t know I was once a
real teacher. Even those who know I was
once a math teacher perhaps do not know that teaching was a part of God’s plan
for my life. I must admit, I did not know I was “predestined” to become a
teacher, either, but clearly I was.
Something about science has always intrigued me.
Maybe my 8th grade science teacher, Coach Carl Lowry (yes some
coaches teach subjects other than history) played a role in my developing
scientific interest. I surely learned a lot of general science in his class. By
the end of high school, I had taken all the science and math courses offered at
Pontotoc High School.
I left high school with a burning desire to become a
chemist. That was before I ran into a stone wall as a college junior, something
called Advanced Organic Chemistry. Organic Chemistry was bad enough, but Advanced
Organic did me in. I took a WF (withdrawn failing) just to get of that class,
one I had no hope of ever passing. Well, maybe had funds been unlimited I could
have passed after a half-dozen or so attempts, but I was in college to get a
job to make money after graduation, so I changed college majors from Chemistry
to Math, something I could pass and one day get a degree. The result of
changing my major was that I graduated roughly a semester later than I planned,
and it was in August when I received my diploma.
Math degrees sometimes command jobs with high salaries,
but that’s usually reserved for persons who graduated with high grade-point
averages in Math. My math grades were at best mediocre. I know that revelation
will disappoint my grandkids, who think I’m the smartest man alive. Sorry.
I mention graduation to note that at the end of
September I was still looking for a job. My dad was co-owner and head butcher
at the grocery store he ran. Among the
many salesmen who stopped by for orders each week was a representative from
Krey Meat Packing Co. who happened to be on the board of trustees at South
Tippah High School, Ripley, MS. I believe the salesman's name last name was Storey, I regret
I can’t recall the rest. I
suppose he knew my dad’s family well enough and had probably heard I was
majoring in math at Ole Miss. The story, as my dad related it to me, was something like
this:
Salesman: Didn’t your son graduate with a math
degree?
Dad: “Yes, a little over a month ago, but he doesn’t
have a job.”
Salesman: “We need a math teacher really bad in
Ripley, and there seems to be a shortage of math teachers, statewide. Send him
up there to talk to E. O. Rutherford.”
Dad: “Okay, but he didn’t major in Education, he has
a Science degree.”
Salesman: “I don’t think that’s a problem. Please ask him to talk to the principal.”
I wasn’t too keen on interviewing for a teaching position in October of 1965,
as I had taken no college subjects specifically needed by teachers.
Nonetheless, I heeded my dad’s advice and acted on the suggestion by the board
member and made my way to the Principal’s office that Friday.
I’m sure the board member had notified the Principal
that a math teacher had been found in Pontotoc, as Mr. Rutherford was overjoyed
when I arrived.
“Am I ever glad to see you,” he exclaimed when I
told him who I was. “We’ve gone six weeks without a math teacher for our 8th
and 9th grade students. It’s
hard to find enough substitutes to have classes. Can you start next Monday?”
“Mr. Rutherford, I’ve not had any classes to prepare
me to teach.”
“Son, don’t worry about that. You have a degree in mathematics. The State
of Mississippi will grant you a certificate for one year. It can be renewed each
year until you complete all the required educational courses for a teacher’s
license.”
I “worked off” the education requirements by
attending college courses over the next three or four summers, first at Blue
Mountain College and then at Ole Miss.
You might find it interesting that after my third
day of teaching, Mr. Rutherford brought a young lady to my room, Laura Grisham,
a student at Blue Mountain College, and introduced us. She was to be a “practice
teacher.” She was there to observe my
students and me for a fixed number of weeks and then to teach my students while
I did the observing. It wasn’t exactly a
case of the blind leading the blind, but it was close. Luckily for Laura, she
was able to observe and learn from Mr. Herman Clemmer, who taught the higher
grades and had more than thirty years of teaching experience.
There’s a reason I stated in the beginning
paragraphs of this story that I was predestined to become a teacher. I say
this, not so much that teaching provided me with a living wage and my first job
after my college years, but to note that as a teacher in the city of Ripley,
MS, I was in the right place at the right time for me to meet the young woman
whom God had selected to become my wife, Barbara Anne Crouch.
My career as a teacher was relatively short. I
taught in Ripley for five years, one year at Algoma High School, Algoma, MS
(the last year before Pontotoc County schools consolidated to form North
Pontotoc and South Pontotoc attendance centers), and I wrapped up my career as
a math teacher with a year at Pontotoc High School.
My professional teaching career ended in 1972, but
opportunities to teach others continue to this day. In 1972 and 1973 I sold
office machines and usually had to train business persons on the features and
functions of electronic calculators, copiers, and electronic typewriters.
Starting in August of 1973 I re-entered the grocery
world I had grown up in, and I became a butcher for a local supermarket and
would soon become the manager of the Meat Department. Trust me, managers get to
do a lot of teaching.
Nine years later, I was promoted to meat supervisor
for a group of retail supermarkets supplied by SUPERVALU, Indianola,
Mississippi.
By 1989, personal computers were becoming affordable
for small businesses and individuals, and a position in Retail Technology
opened at SUPERVALU. I applied and was
hired as manager of the Retail Technology department and had two individuals
who reported to me. I was given a mandate to “learn the ropes” within six
months; somehow I learned enough to continue in the department until my
retirement in 2010, twenty-one years later.
My job with SUPERVALU was a mixture of sales and
teaching. Retailers were anxious to purchase
technology in order to improve pricing and labeling accuracy, and along with
those purchases store personnel had to learn how to use the new technology,
which went hand in hand with my background as a teacher.
As you can see, my teaching career has been long and
varied, and I’ve not mentioned my years of teaching children, young people, and
adults at First Baptist Church in Pontotoc, or my current job of teaching my
grandchildren the important things in life such as, don’t mess with spiders and
snakes, fire is hot, ice is cold, playing in the street is dangerous, etc. I considered
starting a class, “Why Grandpa Is NOT The Smartest Man In The World,” but
they’ll eventually figure it out on their own.
“Teaching is the mental equivalent of riding a
bicycle, in that having done so, one never forgets how.” ~ Book of Wayne
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