U.S. veterans find new ways to serve
Richard Boone spent his career training young airmen on handling emergencies both in the air and on the ground. Now, after 26 years in the Air Force, the retired senior master sergeant calls teaching real-life skills to 13-year-olds his dream job.
Boone found his path from Tinker Air Force Base to nearby Choctaw Middle School through the Troops to Teachers program, a national organization created to place veterans in classrooms.
Thanks to a $1.2 million federal grant awarded this spring to the Troops to Teachers program at the Oklahoma state Department of Education, Oklahoma hopes to see an influx of former military personnel pursuing second careers as schoolteachers over the next five years.
Troops to Teachers streamlines the teaching certification process for anyone with a military background wishing to transition into K-12 public education. Through the program, veterans are eligible for certification testing fee waivers, reduced certification filing fees and more flexibility in meeting professional development requirements.
Jon Parker, program coordinator of Oklahoma Troops to Teachers, said military personnel are trained to be leaders and teachers.
“At some point in time in the military, everyone is expected to teach a class or provide training. Those duties multiply with years of service,” Parker said. “I think that’s why our veterans start out a step ahead. They’re going to have a competitive edge because they’ve already had to teach.”
Real-life skills
Soft ambient light and a cascading waterfall greet students each day as they file into Boone’s family and consumer sciences classroom at Choctaw Middle School. Antiques influenced by his travels around the world adorn the walls and cabinets. Boone, whose unexpected career change to a class that used to be known as home economics, turns more than a few heads.
Boone organizes each class much like a small squadron, dividing students into groups to conquer tasks they might face in the real world. One of the first lessons his sixthgraders learn is how to cook an over-hard egg sandwich.
“They’re going to cut it in half, and there should be two color yellows in there. But it’s more about the team. Can you communicate? You put the egg down; you put the toast down. Who’s buttering? Who’s cutting? Are you all working together? It’s the teamwork. That’s your grade,” Boone said.
Boone has seen success building confidence and enthusiasm in his students by treating them like young adults and challenging them to take on more responsibility and independence.
Boone, who was nominated for his school’s Teacher of the Year honor in his first year of teaching, isn’t strict. In fact, his students describe him as having an easygoing temperament, but he does have high expectations and brings a self-disciplined approach to his class. Five times a year, he requires students to deep clean the kitchen. Students scrub the corners of every cabinet and drawer, and produce them for inspection.
In addition to instructing students on cooking simple, economical dishes, Boone is always looking for lessons on values and ethics, and he focuses on reallife skills, including balancing a checkbook, sewing on a button, addressing an envelope, interviewing for a job and buying a car.
Lillian Shumway, a seventhgrader, aspires to be a chef and says Boone’s well-managed class has made her feel more independent.
“I think his having Air Force connections makes him able to control the kids better. He’s just better at teaching the curriculum than what we’ve had in the past. I enjoy his class a lot,” she said.
Military ‘mom’
It’s been 15 years since Jennifer Leck last wore the uniform of a U.S. Marine, but when she entered an Oklahoma classroom for the first time in October, she leaned heavily on those values that the Marine Corps instilled in her during her three-year enlistment.
“When I think about a Marine, I think about someone who is motivated, disciplined — honor, courage, commitment — and being true to what you believe in. You’re not going to give up. You’re going to do what you need to do no matter what. Just having that motivation and self-discipline, that’s what I need to push through,” Leck said.
Tuttle High School was in dire need of a geometry teacher midway through the year before the Troops to Teachers program connected Leck with the school. Principal Pat Ragsdale said he is thrilled with Leck’s performance and is quick to point to strengths attributable to her military background, such as organization, self-discipline and professionalism.
Leck, who trained fellow Marines to inspect Humvees as part of maintenance management operations in Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, always wanted to be a schoolteacher but instead pursued a sociology degree and went on to work with children in trauma at the Department of Human Services. Now, she is calling on her life experiences to pursue her true calling in the classroom.
“This is the first job I’ve ever had that I look forward to every day,” said Leck, who makes a two-hour round-trip commute from Piedmont.
Not many of Leck’s students know she was a Marine, but the ones who do are impressed. They also have responded to her teaching style, one that is rich with encouragement and allows students to learn at their own pace.
“She’s like a mom who’s really good at math,” said Sara Price, a freshman who wants to go into psychiatry. “Math was always a wall I couldn’t get past. I always thought I was bad at math, but now, I can understand it. Math was always scary, but it’s not scary as long as you understand and know what you’re doing.”
With the addition of the $1.2 million grant to Oklahoma Troops to Teachers, Parker’s goal is to place 70 new veterans in the classroom by fall.
“I hear it over and over. These veterans found a love with teaching in the military, and now they want to help make a difference. They want to give back. They serve. And we’re asking them to serve again,” Parker said, “this time in the classroom.”
For more information on Troops to Teachers, go to www. sde.ok.gov/sde/troops-toteachers.
Annette Price is communications and constituent services specialist at the state Education Department.