A very interesting book, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, was published in 2003 and made into a movie in 2004 (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Five_People_You_Meet_in_Heaven). While going to Heaven is my ultimate goal, I didn’t have to go there to meet five interesting people during my first year of teaching at Luttrell Elementary in 1987-88.
I learned that just as the Maynardville community and elementary school had its legends, so did Luttrell. In future I will share with you what in my opinion makes an educational legend, but for the moment I will share with you some of the educational legends I met during that first year of teaching.
The first that comes to mind is Ms. Pauline DeVault. Ms. DeVault was the first grade teacher at Luttrell during 1987-88. Sadly, it was also her last year of teaching before retirement. I have two very fond memories of Ms. DeVault.
There was a day when I had put students who had not finished their work outside in the hall until they completed it. Ms. DeVault said, “Mincey, it does my heart good to see these I never could get anything out of sitting out here digging it. Let me tell you, there’s them that does and them that don’t, and it’s the same them every time.” I considered that a memorable bit of philosophy from a most worthy education veteran.
One of the saddest things I’ve seen also involved Ms. DeVault. I had walked into Luttrell Elementary just a few months before Ms. DeVault’s last day on the job. On her final day, she came out of her room, carrying her space heater. She stopped and said good-bye to those of us in the hallway, and we all watched as that great lady walked down that long hallway for the last time with that heater in her hand. I think about that more often as my own last day is surely approaching.
Also that year I met Ms. Evelyn Booker. Ms. Booker was a very kind lady and became a good friend. Ms. Booker advised those of us who were new teachers to keep up with our students as best we could. She advised that we keep scrap books of newspaper articles, pictures, and other items that showed how they were progressing through life. I’m sure she did this, though I never saw her actual scrapbook.
I remember one time when I stuck my foot in my mouth right in front of Ms. Booker. I knew I had accidentally hurt her feelings, and I avoided her for a few days as I didn’t know what to say. Finally at the end of a day when only Ms. Booker and I were in the building, I went to speak with her. I said, “Ms. Booker, do you remember what I said the other day in the teachers’ lounge?” She replied, “Oh, I’ll never forget that.” I apologized, and Ms. Booker graciously accepted. She asked, “What took you so long to say anything?” I told her how I had dreaded to speak with her as I knew I had hurt her feelings. The incident was never mentioned by either to the other after that.
A few years later, I became principal of Sharps Chapel Elementary. The school was vandalized, and I had to speak with the news people. A short snippet of my interview was broadcast on the local evening news. I didn’t think I did very well, and I was joked by some that I seemed more concerned about the disruption of the Thanksgiving lunch than anything else. Unexpectedly, then retired Ms. Booker called me and told me what a fine job she thought I had done, better than anyone else she’d seen. Ms. Booker understood that it was the small things that mattered, and Ms. Booker was a great encouragement to me.
Next time I’ll share about other great educators I met at Luttrell that first year. The friendliness and helpfulness of seasoned teachers are a tremendous blessing and encouragement to beginning teachers. I leave you with some thoughts of wisdom from my email receipts.

Most times, it just gets down to common sense.

"Wisdom doesn’t necessarily come with age.
Sometimes, age just shows up all by itself."
- Tom Wilson

We spend the first twelve months of our children's lives
teaching them to walk and talk
and the next twelve years
telling them to sit down and shut up.
- Phyllis Diller

Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

You're never too old to learn something stupid.

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987, 654,321

America is so great
that people who hate it, refuse to leave it.
- Louisiana State Senator John Kennedy

. . . with all our progress, don't you just wish, just once,
you could slip back in time and savor the slower pace,
and share it with the children of today.

Only in math problems
can you buy 60 cantaloupe melons
and no one asks,
"What the ---- is wrong with you?"