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Joanne Blanton teaches one of her final classes at Caroline High School this spring. The longtime county educator retired in mid-June.
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Joanne Blanton has taught in Caroline for 48 years. The South Carolina native developed an affinity for the school system, and passed up offers to make more money elsewhere. |
BY PORTSIA SMITH
Joanne Tuck Blanton didn't have any children, but for the past 50 years she has claimed the thousands of students who
The Caroline High School social studies teacher, known for sending her students to local government meetings, is retiring this year.
"I've spent 48 years in Caroline and for a long time I was a 'come here,'" the South Carolina native said. "I hope I'm part of Caroline County now."
Although she's not a native of Caroline, the 71-year-old educator has taught three generations of students and has become a county icon.
After graduating from Erskine College in her home state in 1960, she taught at nearby Dixie High School in Due West, S.C., for two years.
Wanting to venture out, she looked at teaching jobs in Virginia, where her father was building bridges as part of the construction of Interstate 95.
In 1962, Blanton started teaching in Ladysmith as a social studies and physical education teacher at what was then called C.T. Smith High School.
In 1963, she married Haroll "Hack" Blanton of Caroline. They were married for 36 years until he died of cancer in 1999.
Blanton said she has wanted to be a teacher for as long as she can remember.
"Teaching is more than a profession for me, it is a passion," she wrote in a biography she prepared for her 50-year college reunion earlier this year. "If you find a job you love, then you'll never work a day in your life and I truly believe this because I love teaching."
What's been most enjoyable, she said, is teaching the second and third generations of students.
She recalled a time when a misbehaving student told her that she had taught his grandmother. She replied by saying, "Yes, and I know she wouldn't want to hear that you are acting like this."
A regular part of Blanton's curriculum for the past five decades has been to send students to the county government and school board meetings for extra credit.
"No matter what else these students become, they are going to become citizens," she said. "In order to be good citizens, they need to get out and see what's going on in their county."
Recent graduate Patrick Howard said he learned a lot in Blanton's class because she didn't just teach from a book, she shared some of her life experiences, such as living during segregation and Ku Klux Klan rallies.
"It helps us relate to what she's teaching," he said.
While teaching about wiretapping laws this past semester, Blanton mentioned a time when her parents' telephone was tapped because a cousin who had lived with them was suspected of robbing a bank in Missouri. She explained how that tapping was legal and it was the main piece of evidence that got that fugitive cousin caught and convicted.
Former student Debbie Hayes Jones said Blanton didn't just have an interest in what her students were learning, she cared about their lives.
Jones said she wouldn't have attended her senior prom in 1973 at what was then called Ladysmith High School if it hadn't been for Blanton, who convinced her and her boyfriend, Ellard, to make up.
Jones said Blanton attended the couple's wedding three years later, and the two have been inseparable ever since.
Blanton said it has been an honor for her to give back, because the school community has done so much for her.
She noted a time in 1993 when her house caught fire and the firefighters worked extra hard to "save their former teacher's house," and the support she received when her husband died.
She said she had a chance to teach in Spotsylvania County, where she would have made more money, but said she would have felt disloyal leaving Caroline.
She said the Caroline school system and the people in it have been so good to her, and it saddens her that she has to leave.
She said if she could cry, she would--and that's the main reason for her retirement.
"My eyes no longer make tears, and this leads to all kinds of complications," she said. "I can't read essays anymore. It's so stressful."
She keeps a bottle of eye drops in her pocket just to make it through the day.
Although she's retiring from teaching, she's not giving it up completely. She plans to continue teaching two nights a week for the GED program, something she has done for the past 32 years.
"I find this even more rewarding than teaching high school students, because they really want to learn and they understand the value of education," she said.
In her leisure time, Blanton said, she will travel with her family. Vermont and Hawaii are the only two states she hasn't visited.
But she will miss her children--those thousands of students.
"I hope I have had a positive influence on them, and I appreciate what they have done for me by allowing me to stay around this long," she said.
Portsia Smith: 540/374-5419
Email: psmith@fredericksburg.com
AGE: 71
EDUCATION: Bachelor's degree from Erskine College
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Blanton taught in South Carolina for two years before joining the Caroline County school system in 1962. She taught in a graduate program for teachers at U.Va. for 12 years. She won the Outstanding Secondary Teacher award from the U.Va. Alumni Association in 1996. She was named Social Studies Teacher of the Year by the Virginia Council for the Social Studies. She retired in June, but will continue teaching GED classes twice a week.
HOBBIES: She was an avid fan of the Richmond Braves, but she's not sold on the team's replacement, the Flying Squirrels. "I don't think I'll ever be able to root for a team with that name."
INTERESTING FACTS: In her 50-year teaching career, Blanton taught every subject except for math and foreign language. She taught three of the five current members of the Caroline County Board of Supervisors.
