Teachers are not paid enough

For the nine-year-old fourth grader the fight on the school bus was just the latest in about four years of them. However, with one exception, it was his last. Mr. Newton Whatley saw to that. He had an “Any Man” sort of look and the glasses and skinny arms made him a person no one would notice on the street. However, he was THE Principal and an assured leader, so a student summoned to his office for something like fighting usually did not experience anything pleasant (they paddled in those days). Mr. Whatley didn’t give James (never Jim) what he expected that day, but the encounter was a life-changing experience.

Mr. Whatley was the principal of a new elementary school in a new (in 1954) subdivision of a small town in the northwestern part of the state. Light manufacturing companies were the primary wage producing industries but children still were allowed a  “Cotton picking excuse” when their family’s crop came in. Most of the kids James went to school with had fathers who were WWII veterans like his, and mothers who worked as hard as their men, but at home. Just about everyone he knew there had been born and raised in or near the town. James was one of the few exceptions.

The new school was the fifth one for James. Kindergarten in Milwaukee, Wisconsin was in a tough Polish neighborhood. One day, he came home crying because several older kids had jumped him. Dad’s response was some version of: “If you come in here crying like a baby again because you got beat up, I’ll really give you something to cry about.” At four years of age James took on every kid close to his size just so he could walk down the street without getting hit by a rock. At the first grade school in Florida, James was prepared to deal with being the new kid and quickly developed a reputation as the boy who would not back down, ever. And so it went.

At nine, James didn’t go looking for fights, nor was he a bully. But provocations came easily and the violent responses were even faster. The place or the opponent’s size did not matter at all. A morning school bus was as good a place as any for a fight and he must have felt justified. Mr. Whatley did not agree.

Mr. Whatley talked to James for a long time but his exact words were lost in time. Whatever was said, the boy walked out of that office changed forever, understanding that while standing up for yourself and being proud and brave are fine, a quick temper was something to get rid of and personal fights rarely accomplished anything. It just was not a proper way to behave.

Years later, when James came home from his war on leave, he went to visit a then retired Mr. Whatley wearing an Army officer’s dress uniform adorned with the medals recently awarded for bravery during combat service as a Cobra helicopter pilot.  Mr. Whatley did not remember the “Conversation”, but accepted James’ thanks with his usual grace and dignity. James absolutely believed what Mr. Whatley taught back then and still does today. James tried to instill those same lessons in his own son when the time came.

Mr. Newton Whatley is now gone, but never forgotten. What he did over 50 years ago occurs every day in our Tarrant County schools, to the betterment of all of our lives. Whatever compensation they earn from us is not nearly enough.

For more info: Underpaying Texas Teachers, Supporting Teachers, Teaching- The Job