The Loving Touch
Mrs. Irene Davis will always
be an influence in the lives of many of us. She taught in
the Fayette County Schools for many, many years. She was my
teacher in the seventh grade. Later when I was principal of
Fayetteville Elementary School we worked together and she
continued teaching for many years after that. She also
taught Sunday School at the Fayetteville Methodist Church
when I was a child. Although I was never a member of her
church, I frequently attended her Sunday School class.
She was a gifted storyteller. In her classroom, she always
started the school day with a story that taught a special
moral value and she told it with such passion and emotion
that often the girls would cry and the boys would hide
their faces.
In the seventh grade I’m sure we studied all the subjects
that you study in the seventh grade for she was an
excellent teacher; but mostly I remember her stories. All
these stories continue to be interwoven within my thinking.
Sometimes when I’ve been at my wits end, I remember the
story about the little boy that wouldn’t give up under
overwhelming odds and how he mastered them with his
courage, and gained strength to continue. I’m sure that my
tolerance and concern for others were also influenced by
these stories.
Discipline was never a problem in her room because she
required her students to respect one another and she set
the example. She never condoned pettiness, dishonesty, or
self pity.
There was a boy in our seventh grade class who had been
with us since we started the first grade. I had learned
that he would lie, cheat, or steal at his convenience. I
was stunned when she started using him to take the
lunchroom money to the office. Didn’t she know how he was?
But she let him know how important this job was and how
much she appreciated his doing it. This was probably the
first time anyone had ever trusted him and he took special
pride in taking the money to the office. I even started
trusting him more and as we entered high school he became a
well-liked, trusted member of the class. She touched our
lives and changed many of us.
I can say from first hand experience that all of us who
knew Mrs. Irene are better people because of her loving
touch. Her influence lives with Us.
Carol Sweatman
sent me this email after reading this story:
What a wonderful story about Miss Irene. My favorite memory
is about a boy in our class. He was older than I was and
wanted to quit school. She sent him on an errand and told
us that she needed our help. She said that he smoked and
did not want to stay in school because he couldn't smoke.
She said that she had made a bargain with him to keep him
in school. She would let him go across the street next to
the Nations' house and smoke at recess and after lunch if
he would stay in school. She said that she wanted to teach
him to read enough to take the driving test. She did not
ask us to lie about it, but just not to go home and talk
about it. She told us that as long as no one called Mr.
Sams and complained, she could use that time to help him.
Do you know how grown-up this made me feel? I would never
have talked about it to anyone. I was helping Miss Irene
help someone get a job. How important was that! Weren't we
lucky to have people like that?