THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 18, 1994 TAG: 9411170056
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Staff writer Vanee Vines
LENGTH: Long : 107 lines
In honor of American Education Week, which ends today, we asked four prominent area natives who their favorite teachers were and why.
Here's what they had to say:
MARC D. BASNIGHT, president pro tem of the North Carolina Senate, Manteo native
Basnight was in 10th grade in the early 1960s when integration came to Manteo High on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. One teacher showed everyone that it could work: Jerry Cahoon, typing teacher, history teacher and football coach.
``There was an acceptance there immediately for Jerry,'' Basnight said. ``Manteo was small at that time. He brought us together as a people. He respected anyone, white or black. And he demanded respect from us.''
Cahoon, now 59 and retired in Manteo, made sure Basnight didn't pass up his chances to succeed.
``He really affected my life in making certain that I understood authority and respected discipline,'' Basnight said. ``I was a poor student at best, and there wasn't any magical change from him with that effort.
``But as a person, he demanded respect, and he was able to achieve that with not just myself but with others. He cared about students.''
The football stadium at Manteo High is named for Cahoon, who coached at the school for 26 years.
- Staff writer Elizabeth Thiel
ATHELIA KNIGHT, Portsmouth native, staff writer for The Washington Post
A framed copy of the Dec. 4, 1964, edition of her junior high school newspaper daily reminds Athelia Knight who her most influential teacher was.
Knight says English teacher Althea J. Cherry, adviser to the Clarke Chronicle at what was then S.H. Clarke Junior High, first introduced her to the idea of journalism.
Knight was an eighth-grader, given the title ``inquiring reporter.''
``At the time, to be honest with you, I never thought about being a newspaper reporter'' for a career, Knight said. ``I just think Mrs. Cherry, at that point in my life, had an influence on me because she advised us on this newspaper that we put out that was very well done.
``Thirty years ago, there weren't a lot of black people in newspapers that we could look up to. So I was going to be a teacher.''
Cherry insisted on discipline from her students. Deadlines had to be met. Writing had to be exemplary.
``As an eighth-grader, I probably didn't appreciate all the things the teachers were doing,'' Knight said. ``But at least I can look back on that time, getting the ink in my blood . . . giving me some idea of what a newspaper life was all about.''
ALF J. MAPP JR., Portsmouth author, historian and eminent scholar emeritus at Old Dominion University
Alf J. Mapp Jr., who is in his 60s, still finds the time to drop her a letter or give her a ring.
That's because Ms. Roper, now Mrs. Sue Roper Pace, always had the confidence that can never be mandated by a principal. It was the confidence that Port Norfolk Elementary School was a good one and that its students counted.
Pace, now living in Roanoke, was Mapp's fifth-grade teacher.
She wasn't the sage on the stage or the stereotypical prude. She simply ``conveyed the impression of enjoying teaching very much,'' he said. ``We had a feeling that she loved us.''
She peppered her lessons with interesting tales. She expected all students to excel.
``We always had her undivided, sympathetic attention,'' he said. ``We knew we were important to her. It was almost as if she were our hostess in her own living room.''
Louise Fontaine was another star. Fontaine, who died in 1983, taught Mapp's history and sociology class at Woodrow Wilson High.
She mastered the art of helping students relate to the unfamiliar, he said.
``I cannot walk past a building that has a Doric, Ionic or Corinthian style and not think about Greek civilization and architecture. She made things come to life. She talked about human characteristics of leaders of that time, she didn't just give us dates and lists of achievements.''
- Staff writer Vanee Vines
HOPE SPIVEY-SHEELEY, 23, 1988 Olympian and Suffolk native, college senior at the University of Georgia and full-time gymnastics coach.
What math teacher Nancy H. Jones did was a major blow.
She refused to give Hope, a junior at what was then Forest Glen High in Suffolk, the one point she needed to pass algebra class. Hope had recently returned from a gymnastics tour that kept her away from school for several months.
``I'll never forget it. She said, `I really don't feel you have a grasp of the material for me to do this.' I was like, `Omigosh! I don't believe this!' ''
Hope took the class again the next year and recalled getting a B. She graduated in 1990 and later earned an A in algebra at the University of Georgia. She said she appreciated the teacher's ``concern for my well-being.''
``She could have said, `Go ahead. I'll give you one point.' But she felt I needed a better understanding,'' Hope said. ``I really thank her for that.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos
Athelia Knight
Alf J. Mapp Jr.
Hope Spivey-Sheeley
by CNB