Thanksgiving Post 1 - Mr. Danny O. Watkins

This week at our faculty meeting, our professional development coach was doing a presentation about Growth Mindset.  She made a very sad statement that she could not think of one teacher who made a real impact on her.  I have always known I was blessed to have some great teachers, but as I was mentally making a list and coming to five without even giving it much thought, I was struck by just how many great teachers God put in my life.  Since November has started and Thanksgiving is on its way, I am going to write about one of these teachers each week.  I'll handle them in chronological order.  I would start with my sixth-grade teacher, Mr. Tom Dorrin, the person who turned my personality from fragile to one that can teach middle schoolers, but I just wrote in detail about him in January. This week's post will be about Mr. Danny O. Watkins, my history and homeroom teacher in the 7th and 8th grades.

History was not "my thing."  I didn't hate it, but if I had to list my classes in order of preference, history would always be at the bottom of that list.  Most of the history teachers I had were named Coach Something (Before you turn away, I've known many fabulous teachers who also coached athletic teams.  If, however, you introduce yourself to anyone except for you players as Coach So-and-so, you have a problem.  Your players should call you "Coach."  To everyone else, you are communicating that you teach a class because you have to in order to keep your sports job.  Okay, rant over.) Back to the gist of the story.  I was not inclined to love a history class.

In 7th grade, I was enrolled in Mr. Watkins' North Carolina history class and homeroom.  I don't quite know how to describe what made him so special, but I'll start with this: He's the most positive individual I've ever known.  He could find something good in anyone.  We loved him so much that my two friends and I weren't even bothered when he asked us to sing "How Firm a Foundation" with three-part harmony in homeroom EVERY day.  We just stepped up and did it for no other reason than he wanted us to. 

During that year, I learned a lot.  I learned about Winston Churchill, Frank Boyden of Deerfield Academy, George Washington Carver, W.E.B. DuBois, and Czar Nicholas and Alexandra.  What's that?  That doesn't sound like North Carolina history to you?  Yeah, we didn't care.  He taught what he loved.  You could study from the book for your tests, but he taught the parts of history that he was passionate about.  By the way, I learned about all those same things in American history the next year.  I get that this would not fit with the curriculum driven world in which we teach today, but in 1989, he made me fall in love with parts of history I might not have if he had stuck to the book. 

In particular, I became interested in the story of Czar Nicholas and the family and Rasputin.  In the 8th-grade, I read the book Nicholas and Alexandra for no other reason than the joy Mr. Watkins took in talking about this story.  To this day, if I am flipping through channels and see Rasputin, I stop and watch.  Ten years after this, I was in a Tulsa art museum that had an exhibit of imperial art.  They had Alexandra's crown a desk used by Nicholas.  I stood in that museum with tears running down my face.  I would not have had an emotional response to a crown and a desk if Mr. Watkins had not made me care so much about that family.

While I believe in my curriculum, what I learned from Mr. Watkins is the power of a teacher communicating the passion they have for what they are teaching.  For that and his relentless positivity, I am thankful.