And they are:
John Reynolds Gardiner
If you have not read his book--Stone Fox--a children's book that is only about 100 pages, you should run out right now and borrow it from the library or buy it. Every year I use it, I cry (even though I swear I won't cry this time). He spoke once to a group of teachers and confessed that when he sent it to his editor, there were 138 mistakes (spelling/grammatical). That proves to me that the power of the story is victorious over everything else.
Mae Jemison
Mae Jemison was the first African American woman into space, which is incredibly impressive all by itself, but I look up to her more because of the little girl she used to be. One of her teachers (kindergarten? first grade?) asked the students what they wanted to be when they grew up. Mae said, "I want to be a doctor." Her teacher said, "Don't you mean nurse instead of a doctor? Don't you want to be a nurse instead?" Mae matter-of-factly replied, "No, I want to be a doctor."
She became a doctor...and then an astronaut. So there!
My other on-the-wall heroes are: Nikki Grimes, Jackie Robinson, Anne Lamott, Emily Dickinson and Jesse Owens. (I had trouble narrowing them down to seven and had to make sure all of them were appropriate for children. Otherwise Vince Gilligan would certainly have a place on the wall, but there is no way I could explain the exquisite beauty of Breaking Bad to eight-year olds. No way.)
As I'm writing this, I realize how many of my heroes are nose-thumbers. Perhaps not John Reynolds Gardiner, and I don't know about Nikki Grimes, but I imagine Anne Lamott has thumbed her nose at someone at some point in her life, and although he never did it in public, I'm hoping Jackie Robinson mentally made some gesture with a finger or thumb. I'm impressed with Jesse Owens' athletic accomplishments (they're wicked impressive, after all), but the nose he thumbed--aimed at Hitler--is what makes me look up to him in such awe.
I'm going to ask you the same question I'm asking of my students: Who are your heroes?
It has been a while since I read Stone Fox...should put it on my reread list. Shane is what I taught and cried with each year. Jack Schaeffer was great western writer who never sent past Ohio...or so I have read.
ReplyDeleteHeroes....Dr. Tom Dooley comes to mind...from St. Louis but you never hear much about his achievements anymore. Ike from Abilene...Jimmy Doolittle, fighter pilot...Willa Cather...oh too many more!
Dr. Tom Dooley--what a great man. Cather--what an incredible writer.\
DeleteI've never read "Shane." I guess I should?
My dad and two of my brothers. George Washington. Roberto Clemente. Itzhak Perlman. Louis Zamperini. Amelia Earhart. Margaret Sanger. Maria Montessori, Margaret Mead.
ReplyDeleteHmm...not one writer in the bunch at the top of my head.
Kim--I have not read "Unbroken" but I keep intending to. Perhaps you just provided the nudge I needed...
DeleteNot so much a hero as an inspiration: Dolly Parton. She grew up in a shack in Tennessee, left on a Greyhound bus the day after she graduated to seek her fortune, and is now worth $450 million. She makes tons of money off the rights to the 3000 songs she has written. Like that little Whitney Houston tune, "I Will Always Love You."
ReplyDeleteShe's a do-gooder with that money. Her Imagination Library sends a book a month to kids from birth until age 5. She bought up the song rights of her old partner Porter Waggoner, even though he had once sued her for $3 million when she branched out on her own, and sold them back to him for a dollar when he had tax troubles.
I doubt I will hang her picture in my classroom, though. High school kids react a bit differently than third graders.
And I'm sure you already knew this: Elvis wanted to buy that song--he insisted on her relinquishing all rights--and she refused. Probably lots of people thought she was crazy, as famous as Elvis was, but she stuck to her guns...and then Whitney Houston came along.
DeleteShe has written loads of incredible songs, and is so irreverent when it comes to herself. But you're right. I think high school kids would focus on other things instead of her songwriting talent and her spunk.
Anne Frank, her Dad Otto and friend Miep, Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan, Corrie ten Boom -- all writers and speakers of their times, all inspirational. Perhaps it's their honesty and candor, and humbleness.
ReplyDeleteAnne Frank! How could I have left her off the wall? Perhaps I have room for one more? (I'm hoping other comments don't make me hit my head like this one did, and I end up with 117 framed pictures all over my room and down the hall and into the gym...)
ReplyDeleteI got to work with some excerpts from "The Diary of Anne Frank" and since it had been decades and decades since I last read it, I didn't remember the humor (gallows humor, for sure). It makes her all the more heroic.
Thanks, Marcia (Sioux said as she printed up ANOTHER 8 x 10 and ran out to get another frame ;)
Oh, gosh. Well, Mae Jemison is now, for sure (I'd like to learn more about her now). Eleanor Roosevelt. Rosa Parks. Anne Lamott (because she's so dang honest in her writing). Great post, Sioux. It's wonderful to be reminded of those who inspire us and fill us with awe. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteEleanor Roosevelt was such an incredible woman. Rosa Parks, too. As I narrowed the list of my heroes, I tried to pick ones who were probably NOT well known to my students.
ReplyDeleteI agree. When Anne Lamott writes, she bares her soul...
Love the list, and realize I have a lot more reading to do after thinking about all these great people!
ReplyDeleteMary--That's the thing about lists. It jogs your memory and sends your mind in all these divergent directions. Marcia made me realize I HAD to include Anne Frank, and other comments made me wish I had lots more wall space.
ReplyDeleteI have so many people I admire. Authors, too many to count. I love Anne Lamott too for her unflinching way with words. Toni Morrison comes to mind as well. It took her six years to write her first novel. The manuscript was subsequently destroyed by fire, and she started over! Also J.K Rowling, a welfare mom who took ten years to write the first Harry Potter.
ReplyDeleteI admire Mother Teresa for her spunk, unpretentiousness, and humility.
Most of all, I admire my dad for his work ethic and stick-to-it mentality.
Thanks for the great post, Sioux!
Oh, Teri--
DeleteI'm going to stop reading the comments (just kidding) because each one makes me hit my head and think to myself, 'Why didn't I include THEM?' You gave me three more to angst about... ;)
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ReplyDeleteFirst, I'm putting Stone Fox on my reading list. And heroes...gosh, that's hard. But Mother Teresa's on the list and Father Damien who worked with lepers and eventually died of the disease. Rodger Young, a WWII soldier made famous in a Burl Ives song...Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce, Martin Luther King, and Victoria Woodhull who ran for President (I just read a children's biography of her that your students might like!).
ReplyDelete