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My Teacher, My Hero

The true story of how my fourth grade teacher saved my life.

Bill MacWithey

As a young boy growing up in a poor neighborhood, it seemed everyone I knew was doomed to poverty. Many days, I went to school without breakfast and went home to a meager lunch. At the time, I really didn't know the difference. I was as happy as a kid could be under the circumstances.

Our house was built around a home-made trailer my father built and pulled from St. Louis to Springfield, Illinois. He just squatted on an empty piece of property, alongside the Wabash Railroad. I don't know why my father finally decided to settle down in Springfield, Illinois, but settle down he did. He then slowly built a house of sorts around the home-made trailer. That's the house I remember and grew up in.

There are so many stories to tell about growing up during that time, it would fill a book. But the story I wish to tell here is of the love and dedication of one of my elementary school teachers and how profoundly she affected my entire life for the better.

Her name was Aline Bateman, and she taught fourth grade at Dodds Elementary School, which was just four blocks from my house. When I entered the fourth grade in 1945, Aline was a young, pretty teacher, with whom I immediately fell in love. At the time, I didn't realize it was just her second year of teaching, and she had been assigned to perhaps the worst school in the city. Not the worst by way of the physical plant itself, but rather the worst because of the neighborhood in which it was situated, along with all the attendant problems associated with a very poor neighborhood.

When I started the fourth grade I had the usual supply of pencils and paper that each of us seemed to somehow manage to get our hands on at the beginning of the school year. And, we somehow had the book rental fees paid. I was not aware at the time that Aline had paid my book rental fees, because when it came down to the deadline they hadn't been paid. This would be the first of many times she would help me not only with money, but with real emotional propping up.

I was always fortunate enough to be a straight "A" student throughout my eight years of "grade" school, and I always excelled in such things as spelling bees and math competitions. The academic side of grade school was never a problem, but there were, of course, always the problems of the neighborhood which intertwined with attending school. Just as we have school bullies today, there were many of those back then. I did my best to avoid a confrontation with these bullies, but there were times when it was impossible. It was after one of these confrontations that Aline first helped me avoid real trouble.

We had one boy that I’ll just call "Billy", who was a holy terror. He was about the meanest of the group close to my age. At that young age, I was carrying newspapers before school each morning, and I gave most of what I earned to my mother, but I did save a small amount each week toward what was a dream for me at the time. I wanted to buy a navy "P" coat. I don't remember how long I saved, but the time finally arrived when I barely had enough money to buy my dream.

The first day I wore it to school I was, of course proud, and I suppose I did some bragging. Billy didn't take kindly to me having such a fine coat! As I was leaving school and walking down the street toward home, I heard a noise behind me and turned around. Billy was urinating on the back of my new coat. He laughed and said, "Well, it's a "Pee" coat, ain't it?"

I flew into a rage I had never before experienced. I jumped on him, forced him to the ground, then sat in the middle of his back smashing his face into the street over and over, until his face was a bloody mess. When I finally let him up there were many small bits of tar-covered gravel imbedded in his face. He ran toward home, crying and bleeding.

He had to go to the hospital to get his face repaired and was not seen in school the rest of the week. The fact that he had been such a bully and had beaten up on so many kids seemed to make no difference to our principal. He was getting so much heat from Billy's parents that he was considering expelling me from school.

That's when Aline came to my rescue in a big way. She argued with the principal that I was well within my rights to defend myself. She finally won out, and I loved her even more than before.

She continued to buy my pencils and paper and pay my book rental as I progressed on through the next four grades. At the time, I thought Aline was doing all this for me alone. I was to find out later she did it for many of the children at our school.

All during the last five years of grade school my mother had been in and out of the hospital being treated for cancer. My father, who was charged with trying to earn a living for ten children, finally gave up and left my mother to finish raising seven of her children on her own. It was a traumatic experience to suddenly be without a father, but thanks to the love of my mother, we managed to handle not only the economic side of his leaving, but also the emotions associated with it. Now, things really got tough, and two of my older sisters went to work to help us survive. We were also receiving aid from the state and many good neighbors.

Then, in April, just a month and a half before my birthday and my graduation from the eighth grade, tragedy struck. My mother finally succumbed to the cancer that had been slowly killing her for so long. We kids were all devastated to one degree or another. I suppose I took my mother's death as hard as anyone could ever take a loved one's death. I was immediately in trouble every day at school and went out of my way to cause myself problems. I was totally mad at the world and what it had done to me, and I was wallowing in self pity and hurt. This resulted in my being called into the principal's office at least three or four times a week. I still did my school work, but on the playground I was a real menace.

I cannot remember the specific incident that required me to report to the principal that day, but as I was on my way to his office, Aline stopped me in the hall and told me to wait there for her. She went to see the principal, returned a few minutes later, and led me to the small teachers lounge in the basement. Then, she sat me down and started what I thought was going to be a lecture. I would like to share with you the conversation that took place. It was all one sided, and I realize she used a lot of very good psychology on me, but it totally changed my life. I remember her words as if it was yesterday when this pretty brown haired, blue eyed, petite lady changed my life.

"Bill, I know you've had things really hard all your life. I know life has been very unfair to you, and you have every right to be mad at the world. You have every right to get into the trouble you've been getting into. I wouldn't tell you, you don't have every right to be mean, but I also want to tell you, you have the ability to rise above all that. You're too bright and too good a person to let all of this ruin your life. I know your mother would want you to make something of yourself - do something with your life. You need to show everyone how good you really are. You need to show them you're stronger than revenge against the world for all it's done to you.

"You don't have to live in this neighborhood or be poor all your life. Of all the students I have ever had here at Dodds, you've been a great hope for me. I've always thought, and I still know, you'll do something worthwhile with your life. Do you know how disappointed I'd be if you didn't?"

She took my hand in hers and said, "Bill, I truly care about what happens to you. I'll always support you and be your friend. I'll always be here for you to talk to. I feel we're much more than teacher and student - we're friends. I talked to your mother a while back, and she, too, said she had great hopes for you to do something with your life. You may not know how much she wanted you to get out of this neighborhood and do well. I beg you to please do what's right even though you have every right to be angry. It will not only make me very proud, but you'll be able to be very proud of yourself. I'm looking forward to you graduating June first and seeing you go on to better things, but you have to rise above all this and accept what you can be. Accept what you are destined to be."

She hesitated a moment, moisture in her eyes, then said, "And, there is one other thing you have in your favor, Bill, God will always be there by your side, guiding you, just as he helped your mother cope with all the hardships she endured. That's where she found her strength, Bill - in God. And you can count on his strength to guide you, too."

I remember this much of the conversation as vividly as if it were yesterday, and I realize how much a teacher can influence her young charges for the rest of their lives. I did change after that conversation. No one had ever told me I could get out of that poor neighborhood. No one had ever told me I needn't be poor the rest of my life. I think the key to my changing after that conversation was the fact that I cared about and respected Aline very much. I didn't want to disappoint her.

Many times, throughout my life, I've thought about Aline and how much she changed my outlook, and ultimately, how much she influenced my thinking through all these years. There have been times when I have asked myself, "Would Aline approve of this?" If she gave me nothing else, she gave me a very positive attitude about myself and my abilities. I eventually became an officer in the United States Army and found myself in dire straits many times. These were the times I relied on God and the wisdom of Aline to see me through… and it worked."

With the big uproar in education today, and while teachers face many problems that are vastly different today than those at the time when I was a child, they still face many of the same situations and problems. Children being poor, lonely, and frightened are things that I guess will never go away. Unfortunately, teachers may have problems if they try to inspire children to trust in the Lord to look after them, but they can still inspire them the way Aline inspired me to go on to a better life. I have absolutely no doubts that she saved my life. It's hard to say what direction my life might have taken without her consul, but I know it would not have been good.

With the breaking up of families, the drug problem, the fact that only about forty percent of children today go to church, today's teachers face having children who need positive role models more then ever. I think this is the most important part of a teacher’s job; to show these young children how much they care about them, and how much they want them to succeed. While it is vitally important to teach children the basic subjects and give them the intellectual tools they need, it is of paramount importance to inspire them to do well and do something worthwhile with their lives! To tell them there is something better for them out there. The teacher who can inspire her charges to learn and become somebody deserves to be called "Hero", right along with Aline Bateman, because they, too, will have saved a life.