CONGRATULATIONS, CLASS OF 1952!

Fifty years! Hard to believe, isn’t it? I have fond memories of your class. I know that I taught only those of you who took Spanish, but I knew others through your different activities such as sports, class officers, student council activities, etc. I am proud of you and I am glad to have been one of your teachers.

WHAT I HAVE DONE SINCE 1952

I knew that I wanted to be a teacher at an early age, and, after 46 years of teaching, I have never regretted my decision. I also am a BSHS graduate, Class of 1943. After finishing college, I taught my first two years in Midland. In 1949 I began teaching at Big Spring High School where I remained for 38 years.

I retired in 1987, but the superintendent at Forsan convinced me that I should take a part-time position teaching their two classes of Spanish, which I did for six years. In 1993, the year of our 50^th reunion, I decided that I was ready for full retirement.

During my nine years of retirement I have been a volunteer at Scenic Mountain Medical Center and will get my ten-year pin in 2003. I teach a Sunday School class at my church and do a few other worthy things, but I do enjoy being a little lazy and doing what I want to do when I want to do it. However, I remember my years of teaching with great pleasure (except for a few notable incidents).

Finally, Lane suggested we might mention some honors we have received. I’ll mention a couple of things of which I am proud. In 1963 I won a Fulbright scholarship to study at the University of the Andes in Bogota, Colombia, during the summer.

In 1980 I was very honored to be the Big Spring ISD nominee for National Teacher of the Year. I did not win anything, but I will always remember and appreciate the honor.

BEST WISHES FOR THE FUTURE TO ALL OF YOU.

Carinosamente,

[Editor’s Note: There is more to the story than the modest senorita admits to in the first person report above. Her father, an oil-field driller, brought his wife and three children to Big Spring from Kansas. Colleen was the valedictorian of that graduating Class of 1943 that she mentioned. She her brother Keith, and her sister Erma Jean (who taught history to some of our class) all graduated from college, and were the first generation in her family ever to go so far as to finish high school.

She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree, with honors, from Texas State College for Women in 1947, and received a Master of Arts degree from TSCW in 1950. She has done post-graduate studies at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, the Universidad de Puerto Rico, the Universidad de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia (the Fulbright scholarship that she mentioned), Sul Ross State University, and the Instituto de Fililogia Hispanica, in Saltillo, Mexico.

She has been chairperson of the BSHS Foreign Language Department, and sponsor of the Spanish club, with whom she has taken many trips to Mexico. She has been president of the local units of both the Classroom Teachers Association and the Texas State Teachers Association, and a member of the National Education Association.

She has participated with the American Association of University Women, has worked with the volunteer program of the Scenic Mountain Medical Center, has been a pillar of the First United Methodist Church, a member of the Big Spring Concert Association, and was even an election judge. Her personal acts of kindness to the ill and elderly, or the poor and helpless, will remain un-chronicled, but not un-noticed.

From the nomination package for the Teacher of the Year Award, come these quotes, taken from among many: "…one individual comes immediately to mind as personifying the ideal teacher." – Lynn Hise, Superintendent of Schools; "I do not know of any teacher more deserving of the honor than Miss Colleen Slaughter, a master teacher." – Harold Bentley, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction and Personnel; "When thinking of descriptive phrases for the perfect teacher, I find it much easier to just think of Colleen Slaughter." – John F. Smith, Director, Special Administrative Services……and on, and on, but she will be embarrassed at this much attention. – Lane Bond, editor]