We Are All Here to Learn

“Sixteen,” I said. I have forgotten the maths question my teacher, Joyce Cooper, asked that day, but I will never forget my answer. As soon as the number left my mouth, the whole class started laughing. I felt like the stupidest person in the world. Mrs Cooper fixed them with a stern look. Then she said, “We are all here to learn.” Another time, Mrs Cooper asked us to write a report about what we hoped to do with our life. I wrote, “I want to be a teacher like Mrs Cooper.” She wrote on my report, “You would make an outstanding teacher because you have a strong mind and you work hard for it.” I was to carry those words in my heart for the next 27 years. After I graduated from high school in 1976, I married a wonderful man, Ben. Before long, Latonya was born. Our life was hard at that time. College and teaching were out of the question. I found a job as a cleaner. One day in 1986, I thought of my dream of being a teacher. I talked it over with Ben and Latonya, and it was settled: I would go to Old Dominion University. For seven years, I attended classes in the morning before work. I studied after work. On days, I had no classes to attend, and I worked as a teaching assistant for Mrs Cooper. Sometimes I wondered whether I could make it. When I got my first failing grade, I thought about quitting. “You want to be a teacher,” my younger sister Helen said. “If you stop, you’ll never reach your dream.” On May 8, 1993, my dream came true. With my college degree and teaching license to be a teacher, I was interviewed by three schools. A few days later, Coleman Place Elementary School had a job for me.