How Will I Remember President Obama, as a Public School Teacher

I will always remember my third grade teacher in Morgantown, WV- Mrs. Gladys Peyton. 
She largely taught her career in the Annex for black children on White Avenue. 
She was a great teacher inspiring a lot of us-who met her after that color barrier fell in public ed- short years before we entered her room. Not a word from her about any of this, and  when they moved my 3rd grade class back to the Annex with overcrowding-(so a mixed group got the wonderful, fair treatment that she was not afforded in her career arch)-our not knowing that or that MOST of the teachers that taught the black kids were let go on the technicality their ed training wasn't good enough-but Peyton's was-hung invisible to us. Her training was top notch. A lot of the reality of her experience was put aside, as she focused on teaching us well-to the best of her ability.


Mrs. Peyton got through the "training" clause to eliminate these teachers, which I'm sure was devised to really stop any community objection to integration by getting around it entirely-and ousting the black teachers. Mrs. Peyton was one of three black teachers allowed to remain in this system-three in the county who were allowed to now teach children that were white- after long careers teaching those of color. What happened to the rest? I did not hear that asked. Black children had a wonderful teacher in Mrs. Peyton, there was the true irony, but she taught all of us without even a word about this near past she endured. Not a word.

In our time she quietly and effectively fought the school system and won the right to group children in reading groups as she saw fit-my parents and a few others coming forward with force to support her. My father did that. I'm proud of them now as I realize what they did. What that really was-a vote a call on conscious. In a community not supporting her professionalism. She fought to remain the instructional leader-respected- over a cog taking orders from data. Who she was. Who my parents were-who Kelly Corwin's family was-a classmate with a powerful mom that stood together.

When Barack Obama was elected I felt the weight, joy, the expectation-the STANDARD that Mrs. Peyton would have held-just alive in me. Her eyes. She died in her hundreds-and here I was-left to see.  If he did nothing else Obama's dignity in office spoke, just as her actions spoke, to what a standard they were held to as "firsts."  A standard that our First Lady bore with incredible dignity. One mistake-all that would be needed to call upon the forces of lesser men to topple them-and still I have some small part of family that describe them in terms one can only call out as vestiges of the days Peyton dealt with and rose beyond- when to be black was to be segregated and despised by those with closed hearts and untrained minds and smallness. 

So I was watching FOR Mrs. Peyton last night during the third night of the 2016 DNC as I have taught for her all these 30 plus years of my social justice work as a teacher. 
It is a job requiring a lot of heart and a lot of backbone. And I am no Gladys Peyton. 
I would love to be so defined. I was watching the real undoing of the system of racism-as I watched it as a girl of 8- a long time ago in my PUBLIC school system. 


Yes, there is another frame I think of the Obama's in-it is a practical one that I witnessed. 
For years I have taught in California- moving here in my late twenties. Food was cooked and wonderful in my schools in West Virginia. 

But not here in schools serving black and migrant kids where I worked.
Water fountains were never cooled or filtered, restrooms were never comparable to ones I knew, nor facilities. 
Always in ALL the public schools I was tenured in- the food was mostly a wasteland. Frozen chicken nuggets and frozen, reheated mess. Inedible largely. And I ate it often sitting with my kids-until a faculty demanded I not eat with them. Wondering when this would be seen. The crappiness of the food was astounding. 


Michelle Obama shined a light on providing better, fresher food. Fruit and veggies. Farm to table and even in the most recalcitrant places such as where I taught where the mindset was "they should be lucky to get anything" stated many a day by a first grade teacher I once worked beside years ago with a small heart.
I saw salad bars appear, choice, the language of nutrition and care. 
Real care.
My husband did this too-better, earlier, without help to see it- in the districts he led like gang-busters.

I hold that in my sight every single day I do my job -and I do say, "THANK you President Obama."
It IS embarrassing to need to eat at school, and I really for all our thrift and need I never knew in my childhood that hunger- with a Dad that provided food he grew-but my heart is not closed to that. That Dad drove his excess food out to the mining encampments and to others.  

As Mr. Rogers once said-I look to the helpers, I look to that family seeing practical, forward movement. And for Mrs. Peyton I remember what she asked of me as a child as I delivered her huge bags of fresh vegetables Dad grew-when I tried to thank her. "Treat others, the children, thinking of me." 

The Obama's made her proud-let me assure you.

That IS the Legacy, and we are better for it.