Charlene Smith - on her teachers providing mental health support (clip)
Interviewed by Bob Gilgor on February 21, 2001
RG: Well, let's graduate from Northside - not Orange County Training School - and go on to Lincoln. I may repeat some of the same kinds of questions, but I want to understand what you remember about the characteristics of the teachers at Lincoln.
CS: The characteristics that I remember of - the majority of those teachers were teachers with high expectations of students. And making sure that students had information, new information. There was always a sense of respect, that the teachers gave to students, and in turn students returned that to the teachers. The teachers had a business, and you felt that their business was education, and educating students. That was their business. As in every building there was the teachers that some students would always want to have, who went that extra mile, did interesting things in the classroom, and then of course, as in any building, there would be one or two teachers who would not be as strong. But there was always a feeling that whatever the teacher taught, they were really giving it their best. And they knew their subject area or their specialty.
RG: Did the teachers get further education? Do you know anything about their credentials, and their continuing education?
CS: My assumption would be that all of the teachers, or the majority of the teachers had masters', because that was an important requirement for persons in education, and for blacks in education at that time. So all of them would have had some kind of advanced training.
RG: Did they keep up along the way? Did they have other classes or summer updates that they had to attend? That's tough because you were a student then.
CS: Right, I was a student, and I don't really know how their summers were and all that. My assumption is that it was just a given that teachers had masters;, that was just a given. And it would probably be very few who did not have that.
RG: What about counseling at the school? Who did the counseling? If you had a personal problem -
CS: The teachers.
RG: They didn't have a counselor for counseling; the teachers were the counselors.
CS: From what I can remember, yes.
RG: Were there particular teachers who were known to be sensitive to counseling, and that the students went to?
CS: I don't know if there were certain ones that students went to. However, in a particular class, most of the time you were, you related to the teacher, whichever grade that might have been. So the teacher would just take care of the students in that particular grade. If there was a problem or an issue that a student would have. But no guidance counselors or special to us that way. The teachers were there for the students.
