Fix your thoughts on what is true and good and right.

Think about things that are

pure and lovely, and dwell on the fine, good things in others. (Phil. 4:8 TLB)  

A Legacy and a Good Book

Her name is Barbara Henderson, but no one calls her Barbara. Everyone, even her twenty-nine
year old principal, calls her Mrs. Henderson. She is an icon at Biltmore Elementary, just outside of
Asheville, North Carolina, who has taught at the same school for twenty-one years. Each year, many
parents of incoming third graders try to lobby the school principal to get their children into her class.
What the parents don’t know is that the lowest achieving students are placed in her class because she
accelerates and promotes these students’ academic and moral development faster and better than any other teacher in the school.
When the principal goes into her class to observe, he often learns previously unseen original strategies, programs, and
instructional ideas which he later shares with struggling teachers. When the principal is having a stressful day, he will randomly pop in
and observe and participate in the instruction, often playing learning games with the class. He leaves ten or fifteen minutes later
refreshed, refocused, and encouraged about what “real” education is truly all about.
Mrs. Henderson is a “legacy” teacher, the kind of teacher who leaves a lifetime impression and sometimes eternal impression
on her students, their parents, and the staff members she serves. Mrs. Henderson is the Master’s, Jesus’, teacher. God is first in her
personal and professional life and this is reflected in everything she does in and outside the classroom. She has facilitated a staff
prayer group at Biltmore Elementary for 15 years. She has an ongoing relationship with God and continually inquires of Him while
planning instruction and teaching. You never know what you might see or find when you go into her classroom because it is so
creative. You can be guaranteed, however, that the students will be engaged in learning, smiling, having fun most of the time, and
working harder than they have for any other teacher in their lives. The students know how much she cares for them and she holds
them strictly accountable for both behavior and academics. The students know the standards and boundaries expected of them. They
fear disappointing her more than they fear any negative consequence for not meeting standards or going beyond the boundaries.
Mrs. Henderson makes learning fun and she believes that laughter, comfort, and targeted appropriate instruction are what
most anxious fearful children need to help them focus and achieve, not more medications and ever higher unrealistic standards. She
starts each day with a written joke or riddle of the day which promotes and exercises higher thinking skills. Character education,
integrated with academics, is the foundation and highest priority in Mrs. Henderson’s class, even now in the midst of high pressure
accountability testing. She systematically teaches character education concepts and has created her own curriculum guide in this area
though it is not required. She specifically teaches and tests her children on their understanding of dreams, work, wisdom, love, peace,
courage, patience, honesty, discipline, creativity, joy, and teamwork. She masterfully weaves these concepts into every aspect of her
classroom. Daily she orally reads the Chicken Soup for Children’s Souls book to her students which truly feeds their souls with biblical
concepts. The students learn that reading touches and nourishes their spirits which motivates them to want to read more.
One of the ideas the Lord gave Mrs. Henderson eighteen years ago was the creation of Good Books based upon the
passage from Philippians 4:8. Each day in writing class the students first open the journals they have decorated with magazine
pictures and markers. They have five minutes to write three good things that happened to them the previous day using complete
sentences. She then selects three students to stand and read their journal entries, which she types on her computer and projects on
the smart board for all the students to see. These she illustrates and makes into class books. On Fridays, students are encouraged to
write fiction, make-believe good things that have happened to them, many of which usually are quite grandiose and often very funny.
Some of them are heart rending as a student may share on Friday that his/her parent was just released from jail. Much laughter and
sometimes tears fill the writing class on Fridays. Students cannot wait to write on Fridays and their ideas often became the springboard
for the writing lessons that follow. Mrs. Henderson gives them class Good Book gifts each year at Christmas, Easter, and on the last
day of school. She has the group responses bound and printed with attractive color covers.
This one simple idea the Lord gave her years ago, which takes just seven minutes a day, has helped positively transform her
students’ attitudes about school and life as well as sparked a passion for writing. The students and teacher come to know one another
personally through this activity. Her students are the best writers in the third grade classes at Biltmore Elementary.
Thank you Mrs. Henderson for being a bright light on an academic hill, not glorifying yourself but your Father in heaven!
 

Prayer: Lord, help us focus in education on what is good, right, and true and help us lead students upon this same bright path.
Reflections: Am I a legacy teacher? Why or why not? What is one thing the Lord wants me to start doing to become one?
Getting Real: Inquire of the Lord. Ask the Lord in prayer what His agenda is for you in your profession. Write down at least two
concrete things He wants you to begin doing. Share these objectives with a Christian co-worker. Post them at your desk. Do them.
CLASSROOM LIGHTHOUSE SERIES: The Great Race (For info or prayer contact ceaihouston@sbcglobal.net.) WEEK 13

I Image “Smiling Model” courtesy of David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.