The giant, granite carvings of Mount Rushmore National Park in South Dakota honor four presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. Work on the project began in 1927. The sculptors were father and son, Gutzon and Lincoln Borglum. Lack of funding concluded the project in 1941; the initial plan had called for representations of each figure from head to waist.
Clif CleavelandConsider how you would construct a personal equivalent of Mount Rushmore that would honor four teachers, from kindergarten forward, who had a unique or special influence upon the person that you are today.
My teachers through high school were almost all women. They were underpaid; most were single. At least two of my elementary teachers lived in boarding houses during the school year, taking on other work during summers – vacations for us, labor for them.
Throughout my public schooling, my teachers were demanding, intolerant of any inattention or misbehavior in class. Shape up or go to the principal’s office.
Miss Patti Parker at Dreher High School in Columbia, S.C., was my teacher for senior English. She took my classmates and me beyond the words on the page and into a new relationship with literature. I can recall her asking more than once, “But what does this mean to you?” When we read “Macbeth,” with many passages delivered aloud by students, she led us into consideration of the language, the setting, the motives of the characters. Under her guidance, I realized that reading deeply was a skill to be pursued and a privilege.