Miss Newbell embodied best of best in teaching profession
More viewpoint
Minnie Elizabeth Newbell, a daughter, a cousin, a friend, and a teacher to hundreds of students, died last week.
When news of her death was posted on Facebook, I thought about writing a tribute in her honor. It didn’t take me long to decide to do it.
Miss Newbell wasn’t a wife or mother, but she was adored by her students at White Station High School a halfcentury ago. I know that’s true because I was one of them.
Miss Newbell, as students who admired her called her, was a remarkably good woman whose death symbolizes the passing of an era in which teaching seemed to be a lot easier and a more gratifying profession than it is today.
Like many of her students, I took three memorable classes under Miss Newbell’s tutelage. American history. Government. Economics. I remember falling asleep in math class; my grades proved it. And I remember counting the minutes until I was freed from deconstructing sentences in English.
But I couldn’t get enough of Miss Newbell’s explanation of our nation’s history. She taught me what good government was all about. And I devoured her simple explanation of why the stock market was important to my life.
It wasn’t just Miss Newbell’s competence or her sense of humor that made her a great teacher. She was good-natured and approachable, too. She challenged her students, and all she wanted was the best we could offer.
In my senior year at White Station in 1967, during the Civil Rights Movement and on the eve of the Vietnam War, I remember Miss Newbell encouraging us to further our education, to pay attention to current events, and to be independent thinkers.
I am certain she recognized the seriousness and the dangers of the world we were about to enter, and it was her duty as our teacher to make sure we were prepared.
I’ve always known that teaching isn’t easy, or I would have been a teacher and not a journalist. But for Miss Newbell, teaching seemed like the natural thing to do.
What made her a great teacher? I don’t know. But of one thing I’m certain: Miss Newbell loved being a teacher and she loved every one of her students. We knew it. And we loved her dearly.
Susan Adler Thorp is the owner of Susan Adler Thorp Communications.
For more commentary, go to commercialappeal.com/opinion/