Kategoria BISAC: Biography & Autobiography >> Educators

By the flip of a coin, Thomas Dionysius Clark became intertwined in the vast history of Kentucky. In 1928, Clark received scholarships to both the University of Cincinnati and to the University of Kentucky. Kentucky won the coin toss and the claim to one of the South's eminent historians. In 1990, when the Kentucky General Assembly honored Clark by declaring him Kentucky's Historian Laureate for life, Governor Brereton Jones described Clark as "Kentucky's greatest treasure." Historian, advocate, educator, preservationist, publisher, writer, mentor, friend, Kentuckian -- Dr. Clark has...

The first woman elected superintendent of schools in Rowan County, Kentucky, Cora Wilson Stewart (1875--1958) realized that a major key to overcoming the illiteracy that plagued her community was to educate adult illiterates. To combat this problem, Stewart opened up her schools to adults during moonlit evenings in the winter of 1911. The result was the creation of the Moonlight Schools, a grassroots movement dedicated to eliminating illiteracy in one generation. Following Stewart's lead, educators across the nation began to develop similar literacy programs; within a few years, Moonlight...

This volume gathers personal recollections by fifteen eminent historians of the American South. Coming from distinctive backgrounds, traveling diverse career paths, and practicing different kinds of history, the contributors exemplify the field's richness on many levels. As they reflect on why they joined the profession and chose their particular research specialties, these historians write eloquently of family and upbringing, teachers and mentors, defining events and serendipitous opportunities.

The struggle for civil rights was the defining experience for several contributors. Peter H....

In "Themes for English B" a teacher ponders the nature of meaningful learning, both in and beyond the classroom. J. D. Scrimgeour contrasts his Ivy League education to the experiences of his students at a small public college in a faded, gritty New England city. What little Scrimgeour knows of the burdens his students bring to class--family crises, dead-end jobs, overdue bills--leaves him humbled. Fighting disenchantment with the ideals of higher education, Scrimgeour writes, "How much I owe these students, how much I have learned. They know the score; they know they are losing by a lot...

McGladrey became the first band instructor in Dillingham, a remote fishing village 350 miles west of Anchorage. Before she arrived, someone showed her a photo of Dillingham and her immediate reaction was, "It's terribly primitive." But later she reported in a letter to her family, "I SAW A GLACIER! WOW! . . ....

But the culture of the state changed in the 1960s, and the figure who replaced Dobie as the dominant Texas writer and literary icon was Larry McMurtry. The Texas of Larry McMurtry is a far different landscape. The old certainties were replaced by irony and cultural revolution. The high, wide, and handsome...

The Remarkable Lessons Taught and Learned in a One-room Texas Schoolhouse.

A search for a simpler, more rewarding lifestyle brings Trent Jones and his wife Olga to the ghost town of Terlingua, Texas so that Trent can accept the unusual job of teacher/principal/janitor of a one-room schoolhouse. So what if the princely sum of half his current salary would make it impossible for them to afford a telephone or that they would have to haul drinking water from five miles away. It was a challenge whose rewards far outweighed any inconvenience. The colorful residents, the school children,...