Sunday Interview with Jeanella Pendleton

Jeanella Pendleton spent 40 years working as an educator in the Muscogee County School District, and she currently heads the local Retired Educators Association.

Pendleton has received numerous awards and was recognized as one of the community's Women of Distinction. She also sits on the Board of Commissioners for the Housing Authority of Columbus.

Pendleton sat down with reporter Alva James-Johnson and talked about her childhood, career and the current state of education in Muscogee County.

Here are excerpts from the interview, with the content and order of the questions edited slightly for length and clarity.

Tell me about your childhood and what it was like growing up here in Columbus.

I think I had a wonderful childhood, as I reflect now. I lived in downtown Columbus, on Seventh Avenue. In fact, I was born at home, in the house, and it was a very nice, tight-knit community that I grew up in. My mother owned her own business. She was a beautician. My father worked civil service. There are only two of us: my brother and myself. He's younger, and he lives up in Pennsylvania now.

... I grew up in Friendship Baptist Church; there were activities through them. ... It was just a good experience. I think my parents shielded me from a lot that was going on in the '50s and '60s as I was growing up.

You grew up in the Liberty District?

Yes, in that you could sit on our front porch and look at the back of the Liberty (Theatre).

What was the educational system like for you, as a black child growing up here in Columbus?

Well, it was, of course, segregated at that time. I attended Fifth Avenue Elementary School from kindergarten to fifth grade, and then Second Avenue opened up. I think it's a halfway house now. ... We had wonderful teachers, teachers who did home visits, and that was a good thing because they got to know the parents, and to know each child's situation. And I don't know if that was required then, or it was just

what they did. Of course, you always saw your teachers at church, and so you didn't have a hard time behaving in school, because you're going to see them at your house, and you're going to see them at church. I think I had a wonderful education, with teachers who really took an interest in their students.

What inspired you to become a teacher?

In a roundabout way. I started out in nursing. And, actually, I went to Tuskegee on a band scholarship, and then I had another scholarship for nursing. After one semester of nursing, it was not for me. And it was so funny that my dad said, "I knew that you weren't going to finish your nursing." He said, "You don't like sick people." I said, "Well, why didn't you say that?" He said, "No, I needed to let you find out yourself and make your own decisions." That's how I turned to education.

How has the profession of teaching changed since that time when you entered the field?

The major change, I think, has been the increase in the number of students that you have in your classroom. Classrooms were relatively small, and with me being a special educator, initially, I would always have a smaller class. But when you integrate the special needs children into a regular ed classroom, that has an impact. ... And when I started teaching at J.D. Davis -- that was my first teaching assignment -- we had, not only para-professionals for support in the special needs class, you had them in the regular classroom, as well. So there was more on-task teaching going on, because you had those two adults in that classroom to provide support.

The amount of testing has just been overwhelming. Even though I've been out of the profession for three years now, I still keep in contact with teachers that I have mentored over time, and they are really stressed with the amount of testing. There may be some relief coming with the House passing the modifications for the No Child Left Behind, and for the ... Educational Success Act, ESA. ... When we were coming up, your grandma, everybody, was a part of that school, and they were a part of making sure that we had what we needed through PTA and the band booster club. They were involved, and they knew the teacher, they knew the principal, because it was the community that we had.

It sounds like there's been a breakdown in society.

Yeah, we have no control over (it). ... Like I say to people all the time, the demographics have changed, the mobility and housing -- all of that has changed over time. So with that comes, then, an impact on the education system.

What was it like being the principal at Reese Leadership Academy?

It was really a wonderful experience. ... My first teaching assignment was J.D. Davis, and then I moved to Marshall Middle School. Then I was an assistant principal at Reese and at Muscogee, which was just a very challenging four years working between two schools. And I was just honored and humbled to be selected principal at Reese Road.

What year was that?

1992.

Was it a charter school prior to your leadership?

No. ... Education is reflective. You have to look at your data all the time. You have to look at what's surrounding your school. You have to look at all different kind of factors. And the leadership team that I had put together at the school, we were looking for something to boost our children, improve the educational setting for them, and we researched a lot of things, one of which was a university connection. We looked at -- because we were in close proximity to Columbus State University -- that perhaps we could make a connection with them and go to a university connection-type setting, modeled after one that was in North Carolina.

We got close to getting that passed, but at the time Dr. Frank Brown was president, and he didn't tell us that he was going to be retiring in the next six months. So he didn't want to make that commitment, because it was a major commitment from the university, and then he (wouldn't) be there, and then it's in the hands of the person who was replacing him. So, of course, we were disappointed. But we were very resilient. We went back to the drawing board and we came up with the leadership concept for a charter school.

... It wasn't like the start-up charter. We were conversion charter school. We still had to abide by some of the rules of Muscogee County, but we had our own governing board, our own set of expectations for students. We still had to participate in the testing, but we had some flexibility, like in textbooks we used, programs that we implemented at the school. And we felt that the skills that the children would get from Pre-K to fifth grade, using the Franklin Covey (company based on Stephen Covey's book "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People"), would serve them well past their high school years. It would help them in life.

Is that still the model that the school is using?

The school is still using the leadership habits. However, the charter was not renewed. They had a struggle with those math scores. ... This was after I left, but the math scores were the challenging things that kind of led the leadership at that time not to renew.

What was it like on the inside, when you're a teacher, you're a principal, you're trying as hard as you can with the children, and scores don't come out the way you'd hoped?

It feels like a ton of bricks dropped on your head. And when you know that your teachers are working so very hard, the kids are working hard, and everybody's doing their part, and then the results are not where you'd like to see them be. And so you go start thinking and get back to the drawing board. What can we do differently? What can we do better? How can we improve these test scores? I think that teaching to the test is not the best thing, but you've got to do something. So we had to work very hard.

What was the demographic makeup of the school at the time?

It was about 50/50 when we started the charter, minority and majority populations. ... It had shifted. Originally it was predominantly a majority school.

When you say "majority," you're saying a predominantly white school?

Yes. ... But we always had a diverse population. We've had students from Japan. When Panasonic was in its heyday, (we) had a lot of families here, working at the Panasonic plant. So we've had students of Indian descent...

Let's talk about the Georgia Milestone statistics, and what was released recently.

Yes, it made me tear up.

Tell me about that.

Any time you have a new assessment, of course it's new to the students, it's new to the teachers. The training that the teachers get for different curriculums is like this -- (she snaps her fingers three times). They're just in there, pushing it, pushing it, pushing it. And by the time that they can get comfortable with that way of teaching, changing how they teach, sometimes something else comes up. They change in the midstream, and something else comes down the pipe. Teachers, I don't think, are given enough time to really assimilate into a new curriculum, to make sure that they know how to reach every child, so that child is comfortable with the change, and the way the teacher is teaching the change in the curriculum.

I think we're going to see better results this next administration of that test, much better, because now we are aware of what the ... milestones are all about ... and how the teaching has to adapt to what is expected so that children will be more successful.

Do you think, with all that pressure, that the teaching profession is still an attractive field to enter?

I would hope so. I hope that there would be those warriors that want to see children successful, that want to make sure that the education system -- especially here in Muscogee County -- is a sound one. I think that sometimes our legislators don't hear us as educators when they come up with some of the things that they have come up with in the past couple of decades. ... How do you know this is going to be good for children, and you've never set foot in the classroom? You've never even come to visit, and sit down and see what goes on day-to-day in a classroom? That's something that kind of irritates me when there are so many changes, and the people who are making the changes are not listening to educators. Yes, we are a business ... but the business model is not always the right thing for children, and you have to find out what's going to be good for children, and have that heart for kids so that you know that you're going to give it 110 percent.

You grew up in the segregated South. And we all know the history concerning the integration of the schools. That was supposed to improve the quality of education for black children. Why do you think we're still struggling with this issue?

The struggle, I think, is much as history repeats itself: The pendulum swings this way, and pretty soon it's going to swing back the other way. ... Like, the housing patterns have changed, everything has changed demographically for our city... and the struggle is very real.

Some people have even begun to say that maybe integration was not a good thing for black children.

That is an opinion that has been voiced in theory. And in most practice, I think it was good. But then, on the other hand, for some children it might not have been the best thing.

It has also been pointed out that we are back to segregation in a lot of ways.

Yeah. When you look at the demographics, like, my first teaching job was at J.D. Davis, and it was a mixed student population, as well as faculty. And now, I think, it's back to 99.9 percent minority. But the housing patterns, that has a lot to do with that, because people can move wherever they want to. ...

But it still boils down to what that teacher does in the classroom, regardless of who's sitting in her classroom. And if that teacher doesn't have a heart for children and a heart for teaching and learning, who's going to suffer? The kids.

So tell me what makes a good teacher.

Teachers like Marie Massey, Sherida Brannan, Sally Ware; teachers that I had that are still with us now -- Janie Brown, Mae Washington. They were teachers who cared about students. They put 110 percent into that classroom. They poured 110 percent into every child that walked into that classroom door. Teachers, a 40-hour week? No ma'am. We don't do 40 hours. We do just about 60-70 hours, when you've really taken the time that you have to do your plans, make materials. And it is no untruth that teachers spend a lot of money out of their own pockets to make sure that they have the right kinds of materials for their classrooms, to help their kids learn.

A good teacher's going to be able to establish relationships, not only with the students, but relationships with the parents, and grandparents, because we have a lot of grandparents that are raising children now -- establishing those relationships and making sure that they stay up on the latest trends of education.

Do you think that's the biggest problem with education now, is the quality of teaching?

We don't have as many of the best and brightest people going into education now. And I think sometimes the colleges, the schools of education, or the number of students in them, are decreasing. ... I'm not sure if they still have the Teacher Cadets in Muscogee County, but that was a conduit for high school students to actually have some time in a classroom, other than the one that they were students in. ... They would be able to observe teachers teaching, and really set the stage for them making that as a career choice.

What responsibility do you think the home has? And how much of a factor is it in how a child performs in school?

I strongly feel that the parent -- mom or dad or grandmother -- is that child's first teacher. In utero, that child should be read to, when they're born they should be read to. And every opportunity, there should be reading going on so that language is developed, and the sound of that voice, that caring person ... is heard. And that child knows that this is important, and Mama cares about me, because she's taking the time to read to me. That's important, and parents and caregivers need to make sure that they convey the importance of doing well in school.

The other factor, I think, should be addressed, is that if a child is not doing well, that a parent should not be reluctant to get support for learning. It's not taboo or something to be ashamed of if a child needs support for learning. I think a lot of times parents are reluctant to do that.

Do you think that teachers should be held more accountable?

They're held accountable. I am totally not in agreement with teachers' salaries or incentives or bonuses, or whatever tied to their students' performance. I totally think that is just wrong.

Why?

Because, as a principal, we're responsible for setting up a heterogeneously mixed class for every teacher. That's the only fair way you can do that. ... In Miss X's class, you might have students who are gifted, you might have average students, you might have some struggling students, and you might have some students with special needs. All of them are not going to perform -- no matter how much that teacher worked -- at the same level. I think it's just unfair to say to that teacher, "You're not going to get a (salary) increase because your students didn't perform well." Knowing the teachers that I know, they work hard.

What do you think about Superintendent Davis Lewis?

Well, I have not had the opportunity to work with Dr. Lewis, other than through our Retired Educators group. I think his vision ... it's an excellent plan. I think he should be given the opportunity to see it through. Of course, when you are like me, I worked under every superintendent -- from William Henry Shaw to John Phillips. So if you're ever in the education building and you see all the line of superintendents, think about me. I've worked under every last one of them in my career. Each one has brought something unique and different and a vision to Muscogee County that they were passionate about, and I believe Dr. Lewis is very passionate about improving education.

BIO

Age: 65

Hometown: Columbus

Job: Community volunteer and head of the Retired Educators Association

Previous Job: Principal of Reese Road Leadership Academy, retired since Nov. 30, 2012

Education: 1968 graduate of Spencer High School; bachelor’s degree in physical education from Tuskegee University, 1972; master’s in special education from Tuskegee, 1973; specialist certifications in special education and leadership from Auburn and Troy universities respectively

Family: Howard, husband of 41 years; two daughters, Crystal and Christine; and a grandso

This story was originally published December 12, 2015 at 9:50 PM with the headline "Sunday Interview with Jeanella Pendleton ."