Education: April 2024 Archives
Once upon a time, encouraging patriotism and an appreciation for our country's blessings was considered a fundamental aim of public schools in America: "84 Freedom Awards Go To Tulsa: National winners of the 1967 Valley Forge Freedoms Foundation Awards were announced Wednesday with 81 awards going to Tulsa schools and educators and three to Tulsans who helped 'promote a better understanding of the American way of life.' Winners were selected by a 34-member panel of judges. Tulsa received the largest number of awards of any city in Oklahoma. Dr. Charles C. Mason, superintendent of schools left Wednesday for Valley Forge Penn. where he will receive the school awards Thursday -- George Washington's birthday. For the past 16 years Tulsa schools have received many of the awards in various categories.... Verl A. Teeter, 4020 S. Sandusky Ave., received a George Washington Honor Medal Award in the public address category for his speech on "Protecting and Preserving Our American Heritage," delivered before the Broken Arrow Rotary Club last fall. An identical award in the sermon category went to Rev. G. E. Gotoski, 5324 E. 46th St., for his sermon on 'A Christian Manifesto.'" Mason was the namesake of Tulsa's 10th and short-lived high school. Teeter was an educational consultant, former school superintendent, and prolific letter writer. Gotoski was pastor of Bethany Lutheran Church in Tulsa, a congregation of the American Lutheran Church, a merger of Norwegian, German, and Danish Lutheran denominations that would later be merged into the ELCA.
Fascinating to read the names of long-lost school districts and schools. This was just after the peak of Tulsa Public Schools enrollment, before round after round of closures, with 10 high schools (including Mason), all accredited by the North Central Association, 21 junior high schools (including Carver Middle School, the only school in the district to carry the middle school designation), and 76 elementary schools. Dependent districts Mingo (4 teachers) and Leonard (12 teachers) still existed, as did Red Bird (3 teachers) in Wagoner County. I see Verl A. Teeter listed among the publishers and publishers' representatives; I remember him as a consultant at Catoosa Public Schools who tested me when I was in kindergarten.
