Miss Nila McGinnis (Cont.)
Screen 3 of 3"Don't ever say that to me again," she once told a girl in my class who was claiming no ability in math. "Just use what's up there," Miss Nina added as she gave a "loving" but sharp knuckle thump on the girl's head, "and you can learn any mathematics taught in this school." After this, I heard few excuses in that class. Everybody certainly did not make "A's," but all of us soon learned it made more sense actually to work on those algebra problems than to complain or make excuses about them. And it is significant to note that the same girl who had been told by Miss Nina to "use what's up there," later majored in mathematics and earned a Ph.D. in that field.
I expect Miss McGinnis never took much--if any formal course work in pedagogy; but as I look back now upon the techniques she used in the classroom, I'm convinced she intuitively did things which caused her students to do their best. What more can any teacher do? I was never an outstanding student in Miss Nina's class, but I liked the work and made reasonably good grades, most likely because of her insight, sense of high purpose, persistence and sense of humor.
One day in class she said as she looked over my shoulder, "Chester, that's not the way to factor that equation." She had my attention because even though she was speaking quietly, she was at the same time almost lifting me out of my seat with a strong hand--a very strong hand under my arm. "I think you may very well be as smart as your mother," she went on, "but I really don't know, because I rarely ever see you using all the ability you just must have. Why don't you show me more of it in the future?" The incident was over in an instant but never forgotten. Since she had not said I was dumb or that I was not as smart as my mother, I began from that moment "to show her" and as a result made much better progress.
Miss Nina McGinnis--indeed a woman to remember. How she did it all, I don't know. Every semester while I was in high school she taught three classes each day--beginning algebra, second-year algebra, and geometry--graded and handed back regularly all the student papers required and turned in at the beginning of every lesson; carried out all her administrative duties and leadership responsibilities as principal; knew the names of all the students enrolled; and yet had the time and patience to stand at that intersection in the center of the building monitoring student movement in the halls between classes all through the year.
This exceptional woman died suddenly during my senior year--just before I graduated. Our class donated and installed in front of the building a sundial in her memory. Made of limestone indigenous to that area of Kentucky, I think it carried an inscription at its base--something to the effect that both time and Miss Nina's influence are without end. If such an inscription was not actually there, it should have been.
Chester C. Travelstead
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