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Someone with a passion for their work can really affect many lives. I realized this when I talked recently to Lula Hoskins, who has been in education since 1942.

“Teaching is a profession,” Hoskins said. “One that should encourage human dignity and pride.”

I met Hoskins when I was a beginning teacher with the High Point Public Schools. She was supervisor of elementary education. She would travel from school to school visiting the new teachers, making suggestions and offering help with students.

Hoskins graduated from high school in Pittsboro and then from Woman’s College at the University of North Carolina in 1942. She was 20 years old.

Her first job was in North Wilkesboro as third-grade teacher. In those days, most schools were in session for eight months. North Wilkesboro schools had a nine-month school year, so this was an additional month of pay. Teachers’ salaries were paid by the town of North Wilkesboro.

Back then, copies were made on a hectograph machine, which used a special jelly that was melted in a pan. When the gel set, a special pencil was used to transfer the printed page to jelly. Only 10 or 12 copies could be made at a time.

She came to High Point in 1945 to teach second grade at Ray Street School. When she went back to work a few years after her daughters were born, she worked in a private kindergarten at Jack and Jill School, which was near the location of the present High Point Public Library.

Marie Cummings was the principal at the school. There were no public school kindergartens at that time.

Private kindergartens stressed social skills, creative play and literature. Finger plays were taught with an emphasis on literature, choral reading and creative writing.

When Northwood School opened in 1960, Hoskins went there to teach a combination of third and fourth grades.

When High Point Public Schools received a grant for reading teachers, Hoskins, Elaine Carter, Gilda Scott, Melba White and Zalia Fowler were the first reading specialists in the system.
From 1971 to 1979, Hoskins taught reading at Northwood School and Johnson Street School on alternate days.

Hoskins remembers the first year the High Point Public Schools were integrated. She was sent to Leonard Street School, a formerly all-black school. She wanted to go, and remembers her husband saying “I’m so glad you said yes, and I would have been disappointed if you had not.”

Thinking back on those days, she remembers it was a change for everyone: parents, teachers and students. Hoskins taught third grade that first year at Leonard Street.

She remembers one student in particular who meant so much to her and says she would really like to talk with her today.

“This little girl was so kind to me. She accepted me as a person and as a friend. This young child had such compassion. She told the other students in the classroom, 'This is hard for her (Hoskins) too. We all need to get along and work together.’” At Christmas that year, this child collected pennies from her classmates and the class gave Hoskins a punch bowl set with 48 pieces. Hoskins still treasures that gift.

When she retired from the High Point Public Schools, Hoskins did not leave the education field. She has worked as an adjunct professor at Greensboro College, High Point University and UNCG.
She worked with the N.C. Department of Public Instruction as a credit renewal instructor. She has traveled and been a program presenter in the areas of education and reading.

Hoskins has seen many changes in the education field. She remembers in her first teaching years, teachers did not get sick leave or personal leave. Class size might be over 40 students. Each teacher was required to make a “home visit” in order to know her students and their families better.

Those first years she made $98 a month.

She says two constants in education are “joy in seeing children achieve and acknowledgment that children learn in a multitude of ways.”

She believes strongly in lifelong learning and in volunteering.
As evidence of her feeling about lifelong learning, Hoskins has continued her own education with study tours, often traveling with another High Point educator, Becky Burroughs. She has traveled to Paris, Ireland, Sweden and Italy and has participated in at least 12 interhostels in this country.

She has learned there must be continuous learning for teachers. She is convinced that “student-earned positive reinforcement” is the best way to increase learning.

Hoskins has roots in education that go back to her grandmother, who taught in Pittsboro. Her two daughters are educators. Cathie Thompson is at a Montessori school in California. Joanna King teaches art at an elementary school in Charleston, S.C.

Hoskins is still busy today with volunteering and participating in her church activities. She is also busily doing genealogical research about her family.

“I think some record should be kept so that people understand about the struggles and joys of their ancestors and how people lived in other times,” Hoskins said.

She looks back on the joys of teaching and loves seeing evidence of learning in a child’s life and also in the lives of the adults she has worked with.

“I love life. I love High Point. I still get up at 5:30 every morning. I am thankful for my health and go to the fitness center at the hospital three times a week.”

Karl Menninger said, “What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches.” It seems Lula Hoskins’ whole life is an example of this.

Contact Kathy Johnson at mjohnson2@triad.rr.com