Teacher Appreciation Week
by Alice French, Director of Education
Most of us have been fortunate to have been influenced or mentored by that one very special person in our lives, who helped us imagine and direct life-changing views. Those people often happen to be teachers, and this week we would like to pay tribute to the teachers who not only taught us to read, and write and solve problems but who also formed new schools and who were always there, even in the middle of a pandemic.
In this rural part of Virginia within the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula, education has always been valued. Even Menokin served as a Boarding School at one point in its history. I would also like to pay tribute to some of the other outstanding educational institutions created in this region over the years, in addition to the local county schools throughout this region.
Montross, Westmoreland County is the location of the Armistead Tasker Johnson High School. The building, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998, is now a museum. ATJ was built in 1937 and served Black Americans during the days of Jim Crow and segregation. The school was named after Armstead Tasker Johnson (1857-1944), a prominent community leader and teacher for over 30 years in Westmoreland County. There, the multitude of classes learned their academics, skills in industrial arts and home economics and engaged in theater and camaraderie.
Armstead T. Johnson High School, courtesy of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources
The Holley Graded School in Northumberland County is one of the earliest schools still standing, established in 1868 as a school for freedpeople, with the purpose of teaching African Americans emancipated at the end of the Civil War. A National Historic Site and Virginia Historic Landmark since 1996, the Holley School continues as community center and museum site.
The school was founded by two abolitionist women, Sallie Holley and Caroline Putnam, who were dedicated to make the teaching of Lottsburg's freedpeople and their children their life's work. Upon Putnam’s death the school was deeded to an all-Black board of trustees who took responsibility for the continued operation of the school now, by law, segregated. In the 1920s the Black community of Lottsburg, having outgrown the original structure, raised money and provided the labor to begin building in stages the four-room schoolhouse that now stands. These days, Holley School continues to have an educational role in the community, as its continued presence serves to remind and educate passersby of a history not so long past. To learn more about Holley School and its history, visit the Holley School Histories website.
Holley Graded School, courtesy of Virginia Department of Historic Resources
Thank you teachers, for all your leadership and resourcefulness. You are the foundation of American society.
And finally, let us know below, who one of your favorite teachers was and please tell us why.