Husband and wife teamwork gets teacher message delivered
As Marla Cowherd helped her choir students line up on the steps at the state Capitol on Thursday, she flipped her songbook open to the first page and was struck by the message.
“‘Listen to the sound of my voice’ is the very first line,” Marla Cowherd said. “It just felt very much like something that was meant to be heard that day.”
Marla Cowherd is the vocal music teacher at Summit Middle School in Edmond. Her husband, Shane Cowherd, is the head boys basketball coach at Edmond Memorial High School.
For years Marla has been there to watch Shane and his basketball teams play, cheering them on from the stands through big wins, bad losses and everything in between.
But this week the two are experiencing a movement and moment together like they’ve never quite done before.
They have combined their skills and expertise as a coach, musician and as teachers to demonstrate at the state Capitol alongside thousands of others as teacher walkouts continued for the fourth consecutive day.
“It’s really taken a lot of teamwork,” Marla Cowherd said. “Thankfully we have a really great team.”
The song “Give us
Hope” by Jim Papoulis, which was sung by a giant combination of choirs from around the state, also features lines like “Listen to the questions I have,” as well as “It’s very simple, to see what we need.”
Marla Cowherd taught it to her students in the weeks leading up to the walkout, but even then her students felt like the message of the song should be heard by state legislators.
“They kept telling me, ‘We gotta sing this at the Capitol,’” Marla Cowherd said. “They recognized the first time they sang it that it was perfect for that situation.”
For Shane Cowherd, the transition from the end of basketball season to walking out and being at the state Capitol has been jarring. His Edmond Memorial team made a great postseason run to make it the state tournament before losing in a 2-point heartbreaker to No. 1-ranked Broken Arrow in the quarterfinals.
But Shane Cowherd said he’s felt invigorated being among the crowds at the Capitol, meeting with legislators and trying to get answers to how funding for Oklahoma schools can be restored.
One thing he didn’t expect when meeting with politicians?
Coach speak.
“The job for us is to get beyond those rehearsed lines,” Shane Cowherd said. “We have to ask specific and detailed questions because we deserve to understand the vast amount of resources that have been ripped away from education.”
While Marla Cowherd hasn’t done much face to face interaction with any politicians, she has taken charge of giving daily briefings and updates via social media.
In several daily posts, Marla Cowherd has shared with the public the struggles and moments of joys the teachers have experienced this week at the Capitol.
“The feedback has been incredible,” Marla Cowherd said. “We just want people to know this is no longer about the teachers, this about the students and the future of education here in the state.”
Shane Cowherd said seeing his wife step out of her comfort zone to take an active leadership role has been inspiring to him.
“The way she communicates lets people see the soul of this thing,” he said. “In that way I’m supporting her voice to get out because she says it better than I can.”
As an Edmond Santa Fe marching band streams by with signs that say “March On” and playing fight songs to encourage the teachers nearby, Marla Cowherd smiles while grabbing the arm of her husband.
“This gets me up everyday,” she said. “We are here for the same things this week. We are not talking about sports or state music competitions, we are here for our students.
“In the end we believe this will all be worth it.”