Evening star. [volume], August 23, 1959, Page 50, Image 236

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
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A. S. 'Pop) Millicon 'George Washington High School)
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Irving Lindsay 'George Washington High School)
"Teaching the same subject for 30 years doesn't become boring—you never stop learning,
and each class is different."
50
SUNDAY. THE STAR MAGAZINE. WASHINGTON. D C . AUGUBT \M. 1958
Memorable Teachers
THE WASHINGTON area has many teachers who radiate some
thing of the love of children and teaching that made James
Hilton’s “Mr. Chips” a shining symbol of his profession. Like him,
they’ve had thousands of children—you may be one of them.
Space wouldn’t allow introducing them all, but just to present
a few:
ARCHER S. (POP) MILUCAN was going to be a doctor. Irving Lindsay
planned a career in chemistry.
In the midst of their respective educations, they accepted interim teach
ing jobs.
The interims have stretched to 44 years for Mr. Millican and 38 for Mr.
Lindsay. For the last 35 years, the two have been teaching colleagues in
Alexandria.
Mr. Millican is head of the science department and Mr. Lindsay head
of the mathematics department at George Washington High School. Mr.
Lindsay also is principal of the summer school and has been sponsor of
the senior classes for the last 30 years.
Virtually everyone who has spent his high school years in Alexandria
during the last 30 or 40 years has been a pupil of one or both. Many have
sent their children to them.
"The first time I see a grandchild come in here, I’m quitting,” threatens
Mr. Lindsay darkly.
Friends as well as co-workers, the two teachers have different person
alities. Mr. Lindsay, a bachelor, is known as a strict disciplinarian. “Pop"
Millican, a family man, might be described as more “folksy.” Both have large
“fan clubs” of former pupils.
They get Christmas cards from one-time students they haven’t seen in
20 or 30 years. Mr. Millican recently heard from a girl he taught in 1916.
Mr. Millican and Mr. Lindsay have kept well abreast of developments in
science and mathematics, but they have not been impelled by the furor
over the Russian system to make radical changes in their teaching which
might undermine a solid foundation for higher education.
“This atomic age has increased interest in science," says Mr. Millican,
“but we still have to teach the old science to get the students up to the new
developments. We are putting a little more emphasis on atomic and nuclear
physics where time will allow.”
“We were conscious of the importance of mathematics before sputnik,
and we are just as conscious of it now," says Mr. Lindsay. “The students,
however, are more conscious of the importance of math.”
If the compensation of their work from a money standpoint has been
low, particularly in past years, the two teachers consider themselves well
paid in other rewards.
“Counting the friends we have made,” says Mr. Lindsay, “we have
become very, very wealthy.”
NOT ALL successful teachers are the products of life-long ambitions to
stand at the head of a class.
An example of one who does date her teaching aspirations back to her
childhood is Miss Lucy Eastham, instructor of English and literature at
Western High School.
As a little girl, after she started school, she gathered other children in
her neighborhood to teach them all she had learned.
Now a veteran of 20 years’ professional teaching, Miss Eastham likes
her work just as much. A highlight in her career so far was the year
<1953-4) she spent teaching English in Holland on a Fulbright Fellowship.
Miss Eastham is highly respected for her knowledge. She also believes
in keeping good order. She was pleased when the comment, “She's hard,
but nice,” got back to her.
“I believe students really want to be taught,” she says. “They may not
admit it to their friends, but I think actually they want to learn.”
As much as she likes teaching English, Miss Eastham gets even more
enjoyment from acquainting students with great works of literature and
their potential for enriching a life.
With television and movies, she says, “it is easy to grow up and become
a non-reader.” On the other hand, she adds, fine plays and news programs
stimulate thinking and offer added impulses toward building knowledge.
ATOPNOTCH tennis player who’s just as sharp on current events is
Dunbar High School's Frank H. Perkins, teacher of history and economics
“I really think much of the inspiration for my majoring in social studies
came from him as a teacher," says Charles Lofton, now principal of Dunbar,
and once a pupil of Mr. Perkins. “He is such a good teacher, he made history
live. He went beyond the facts and connected them with some current
happening, rather than just teaching a lot of dates and names.”
“I suppose my philosophy is to try first to project myself into the
adolescent point of view,” Mr. Perkins says. “Once I understand that, I try
to combine it with the adult point of view to show the students that you go
through this period when things seem this way or that way, but as you go on,
your attitude and ambitions change.