History

Collections of Orville Armstrong Teachers meeting at an unknown date.

Bakersfield’s unsung heroes

Honoring our teachers through the years

By Julie Plata

» THE 2020-2021 SCHOOL YEAR IS CERTAINLY ONE FOR

THE HISTORY BOOKS, AND WHILE STUDENTS FACE THE CHALLENGES OF SCHOOL VIA ZOOM, ONE THING THAT HAS NOT CHANGED IS THE CARE AND DETERMINATION OF TEACHERS TO RISE TO THE TASK OF THIS RECENT RE-

ALITY. Although Teacher Appreciation Week is celebrated in May, there is no time like the present to look back at how the Bakersfield community has honored its teachers.

According to the National Education Association, National Teacher Day was created through the persistence and leadership of Eleanor Roosevelt when she persuaded the 81st Congress to proclaim May 7, 1953, as National Teacher Day. It did not become an annual national day until 1980 and was elevated to an entire week in May 1984 by the National Parent Teacher Association.

But it does not take a proclamation from Congress or a special week to honor Bakersfield’s dedicated educators.

As far back as Jan. 15, 1880, the editors of the then Kern County Californian stated that the “teacher is essentially a horticulturist whose chief duty it is to take the little radishes and keep them well weeded and watered until they develop into large plants and are ready for the market.”

In the 1920s, Bakersfield was home to many teachers from both the county and from all parts of the state. The Nov. 27, 1923, Morning Echo recognized the importance of honoring those educators as “in all the world there is not a more important vocation than that of the teacher. A competent, patient schoolteacher is a pearl beyond price.” As teachers are entrusted with the education of the children “let us honor those into whose care we hand them, and let us welcome every teacher we see — welcome them individually and collectively. The city and the county should be theirs.”

Through the years, Bakersfield’s teachers have been honored and appreciated on the pages of the editorials. A letter to The Californian from D.M. Matherly declared on March 31, 1944, “the teaching profession is one of the greatest of them all, and I sometimes think the least appreciated …Three cheers to the teachers of Kern county or anywhere else, they are the guiding spirit molding the character of the children of today into better citizens of tomorrow.” An editorial from May 26, 1969, declared “the classroom teacher, in our book, is that all-important bridge of knowledge — the unsung hero on the educational scene.”

The message in the May 10, 1972, Californian regarding Teacher Appreciation Day held at Sunset School sums up the appreciation educators deserve for all they do “in the line of duty and above and beyond the call of duty, such as the teacher who gives up a recess or noon hour to give a student some special help; the teacher who loans a student a personal book; the one who comes to school early to give a student a makeup test; the teacher who praises when work is good and counsels when grades slip and the teacher who loans the students lunch money.”