Do The Right Thing
When John Calvin brought his high school history students to Washington, D.C., from Scottsdale, Ariz., they couldn’t understand why there wasn’t a marker commemorating Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic speech at the Lincoln Memorial. They decided to do something about it. After some digging, they learned that it isn’t possible to place a memorial to one person on one to another, so they came up with an idea for a museum beneath the Lincoln Memorial celebrating the First Amendment. With the support of the National Park Service, Calvin and his students pushed the idea through Congress. This fall, 20 students chosen from around the country will meet in Washington to help design the museum, which is scheduled to open in 1993, the 30th anniversary of King’s speech. Calvin’s school district is so enthusiastic about the museum that it is letting him work full time on the project and other community-service activities involving students.
From Kevin, With Love
Some teachers get apples from appreciative students, but 7th grader Kevin Long’s teachers at Tuckahoe Middle School in Richmond, Va., received a more stylish thanks. On the last day of school, Kevin had two chauffeur-driven limousines waiting to take them out to lunch—on him. Kevin earned the money, almost $400, mowing lawns, doing yardwork, and babysitting. He treated his 6th grade teachers to lunch the year before and plans to continue the tradition through middle school.
Jackpot
David Dunlop is one teacher who no longer has to moonlight to augment his salary. On June 16, he won $2.26 million in the New Hampshire Sweepstakes. A math teacher at Kearsarge Regional High School in New London, Dunlop says his top priority for the money is sending his children to college. “I found it ironic,” he says, “that after teaching for almost 20 years, I had to worry about how to pay for my own children’s education.” Did his acumen in math help him devise a winning strategy? “I’ve always told the students that numbers were important,” he says, “but this was pure luck.”
An Educator In The Statehouse?
Teachers’ unions have wielded increasing power in state legislatures in recent decades, but few—if any—of their leaders have ever had the clout to seek the state’s highest office. In Alabama, however, it’s a different story. In June, Paul Hubbert, the leader of the powerful Alabama Education Association, won the Democratic nomination for governor. Born to a family of poor farmers, Hubbert went on to become a schoolteacher and superintendent. He has spent the last 21 years as executive secretary of the AEA and has built it into a 70,000-member political force. Hubbert will face incumbent Guy Hunt in the November gubernatorial election.
