A Walk in the Park - A Teacher Who Made A Lasting Impression

— Most of us can probably remember a particular teacher from our school days whose influence made a lasting impression on our lives.

Although I could name several teachers whose guidance and instruction I have appreciated over the years, I’d have to say the top honor goes to one of my high school teachers, Ms. Alice Smith.

I recently received an invitation to attend a birthday celebration for Smith. The note requested that in place of gifts we instead write down things we remember for a scrapbook her daughters are compiling.

For days now I have been contemplating whereto start. The admiration I feel for this lady began even before she became my teacher. She grew up only 10 years ahead of me on the same mountain in rural Madison County. My first memories of her are from the days when I was in early elementary school and she was a teenager. I don’t recall too many specifics, except that she had one of those “poofed up” 1960-something hair styles and was nice to me on the school bus. I wanted to grow up to be like her.

After high school graduation, she went away to college, which was an impressive move for a young woman from our neck of the woods. Being raised onthat mountain top near tiny Kingston didn’t seem to hold her back at all. She was a trailblazer.

After completing college, Smith returned to Kingston to teach home economics classes. Although she had a sense of humor, she took her role seriously and was pretty “no nonsense” in the classroom. She taught us the proper methods of cooking, sewing and using modern appliances like the microwave oven. We were told that some day each of our kitchens would have one of these inventions, but we could hardly believe it.

She had class rules and we knew what was expected. She used a rotating chart to see that each class member performed a fair share of duties, as well as insuring that we all learned to perform house keeping and laundry tasks. In addition, her role-model status instilled in us theidea that women could also have careers, be involved in their communities and do anything else we set our minds to.

During my ninth-grade year, I was among five girls from our class that Smith took to the state FHA (Future Homemakers of America) convention in Little Rock. It was one of my first overnight school trips and I was very excited. I remember quite a lot about the trip but nothing about the convention itself.

Smith drove us to Little Rock in her own car, a Ford Thunderbird, if I recall correctly. On the way, she mentioned that she had made herself a dress to wear the next day to the conference. That night after she went to sleep, we girls quietly took her new dress from the closet and examined it thoroughly. We checked the zipper, hem and every seam just as she had done to ourpast sewing projects. We recorded our comments and final grade on a small piece of paper, then pinned the paper to the dress where she would find it the next day. Although we had counted off a few points here and there, she laughed when she read it and said she thought we had graded pretty generously.

I also have fond memories of participating in other school and community activities that I realize now had to be a lot of extra work for her, especially since she now had a family of her own. Some years she organized Christmas caroling around town, followed up with cookies and hot chocolate at her house. Another time we went to her house and made homemade pizza, which in those days was a real treat for us.

Smith did a remarkable job of keeping her program relevant to societalchanges over her 30-plus years in the classroom. She modified her classes to keep up with changes as home economics turned to family and consumer science and FHA became Family, Career and Community Leaders of America. Over the years, she guided her students to compete in many successful state and national competitions.

Not only did Smith set high standards in the classroom, she also demonstrated a strong moral example along with a flair for using time and talents for the good of others.

Fortunately, I have been able to keep in touch with this special lady over the years and I am honored now to consider her my friend. I carry her example with me as I go into my classroom each day. I can only hope to touch the lives of my students the way she touched mine.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 02/03/2010