Great African-American Teachers and Mentors of My Development.

This article discusses outstanding African-American teachers and mentors, those from the author's formal education whom he regards as the greatest teachers and mentors. At the elementary school level of his education, the author states that he would have to choose Alverta P. Cook because of the master teacher that she was. Cook made learning interesting and easy. She demonstrated an all-out effort to teach each child and attend to individual needs of each child. She used every opportunity to foster learning and to teach guidelines for living. Cook would not allow a single child to shine alone when she could illuminate two or more worthy children within the same light. An example of this was her challenge to award the role of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, in a school play sponsored by our sixth-grade class, to the first boy who memorized Lincoln's Address at Gettysburg. The author states that Richard Hadley was noted as having one of the best high school choruses in the state of Florida. As many African-American teachers did in drafting students into extracurricular activities during the 1950s and 1960s, Hadley simply drafted the author into the high school chorus.