MTC Reunion weekend

For this to be the Mississippi Teacher Corps first reunion, it was actually organized really well. Even though there was a LOT of dead time, but I figured it was because it gives the people coming from out of town a chance to visit the schools in the Delta that they used to teach at.

Will I come back in 5 years for the next reunion in 2010? Probably.

The event that I enjoyed the most this weekend was the dinner on Saturday night with the former Governor of Mississippi Mr. William Winters. Everything he had to say was helpful and insightful. He kept my attention the entire time he was on the mic. He was first introduced by Dr. Andy Mullins. Gov Winters speech was awesome. He first talked about him being homeschooled by his mom who had no high school diploma and having to pick cotton during cotton picking season. He reinterated the fact that "Raise the income gap in Mississippi you have to rais the quality of education in the state of Mississippi"and that the only way out of poverty is education- this is something that my dad has instilled in me and something that his mom instilled in him. He said that MTC teachers are known for raising the standards of their students and that they give the students who feel like they have been forgotten about a feeling of hope. He told the story about a girl whose father had left her, her mother and her siblings at a young age and whose mother eventually ended up on drugs. They were homeless and living in a checken house and she sold drugs to make money, was eventually busted and sent to foster home (somewho I think it was probably The Lord watching over her want to help her turn her life around). She ended up at Jim Hill HS in Jackson and when asked by the Gov how she made it? She responded, "because I had ONE teacher that cared and say qualities in me that would make me successful oneday." She ended up going to Tougaloo College, Brown MEdical and is currently at Northwestern for her residency. She has plans to return to MS to open up her practice. The Gov also amazed me when he said he has had Myrlie Evers Williams (the wife of the late slain Medgar Evers a field rep for the NAACP) as a dinner guest at the governor's mansion. He told her that at the dinner all Mississippians over her for her husbands death because he set us all free!!! The current Morehouse College president, Dr. Walter Massey, has also been a guest at his governor's mansion. At the time of his visit he was VP of the University of Chicago. He is from Hattiesburg, MS and an internationally known Mathematician. When the Gov asked him the same question as he asked the girl who is now in her residency, he also replied, "because I had a teacher who convinced me I could do anything". He gave the new MTC teachers a charge...TO AT LEAST CHANGE THE LIVES OF ONE CHILD A YEAR WE TEACH WHILE IN MISSISSIPPI.