You know, some of those things I'm not able. I don't want to try to
point out maybe some things that are not really factual issues, but it
seemed that we believed in work at Prospect School. I think this was one
of the things, and we believed in discipline at Prospect School. That's
two things, Miss Maynor, that I think kept us abreast, and kept us
motivated, and kept us going, and that eliminated a lot of other
frivolous things. When the parents would come I'd say, "Listen, this
teacher—."
Yes, there was another teacher that came to my mind. She's down the
Berry section way down below Lumberton. She came up there. She's still
surviving. I remember her too. These things are coming back. So actually
there was four whites. Yeah. Yeah. It might end up at five.
But anyway, there was one thing going back, good hard work and
discipline. Those two things kept Prospect aboard, kept us going, kept
us making, if I may say, progress. That was the
main objective. You come to school to get an education. You don't come
to school to put on no acts. You come to school to get an education, and
if you come you're expected to do your homework. And if you don't do
your homework, boy—and the parents knew this. In the PTA I told the
parents, I told them. They knew. I lived here all my life, and I taught
out there, and they knew if a kid came to my classroom—Miss Maynor, I'm
not boasting but any means. I'm just being factual. They knew if a kid
came to a classroom and didn't have his homework, he had had a bad day.
The paddle was going to go. He knew that. The parents knew that. They
knew that. They said, "You'd better not go in his class unless you got
your homework." They knew that.
And I instilled that in the teachers. I said, "I expect you to work. I
expect you to control your class. You don't send any kids to my office.
You discipline. If I have to go to the board," I said, "I'll lead you.
If you've got to go to court, I'll go with you, and I'll tell them,
'Listen, this is the policy we have here for education, not no action.
If it takes disciplinary action we're going to air it out.'" And I
believe this is the thing that kept a lot of parents, and they accepted
this, they knew this, and they had no objection as long as their kids
was being taught, and as long as their kids was being disciplined.
And most of the parents, I'd say ninety, ninety-five percent of the
parents believed in good, strong discipline. And they supported. I think
this is one of the things that kept the animosity, the ill-will feeling,
or the little frivolous things that surfaced, that's the two things that
I figure that was instrumental in making it go smooth. I really do.