Nineteen eighty eight would become a momentous year for me and my family. I would officially enter my forties in November, but before that my eldest daughter, Maryellen, would graduate with honors from high school and be accepted to the University of Texas in Austin. Younger daughter, Catherine, would enter high school and I would accept a job at the intermediate school where both of the girls had studied. Change was doing its inevitable thing.

For this Mama who had cut her teeth on Texas A&M lore it was a bit shocking to learn of Maryellen’s decision to forge her future at the arch rival UT campus. She had wisely studied the business schools at each university and had come to the conclusion that the University of Texas was better suited for the course of study in Finance that she had chosen to pursue. I had to quickly toss aside all of the stories about Texas that had been ingrained in me from the time I was born, so I decided to enroll in a parent orientation to find out for myself what the school was all about. 

Luckily the parents of one of Maryellen’s high school friends were both planning to attend one of the sessions and they suggested that I accompany them. Danny McSpadden was a University of Texas alumnus and almost as rabid a supporter of the school as my father had been with Texas A&M. I knew it would be good for me to get his perspective about the place and I was already good friends with his wife, Jackie, who was an incredibly wise and gracious woman. The two of them helped me to navigate the world of University of Texas and its dominian over the Austin scene. 

I had to admit that I was impressed with the campus and with its open, freedom of speech vibe that I sensed immediately. It seemed to be a place where everyone was encouraged to be themselves. It was also home to some of the best learning opportunities in the country. I found myself feeling more and more comfortable with each session designed to help me understand the goals and culture of the school. Danny’s stories and enthusiasm about the place assuaged my misgivings as well. 

By the end of the orientation I was certain that Maryellen had chosen the right place to continue preparing for her future as an adult. In many ways the University of Texas seemed to be in line philosophically with my own education at the University of Houston. At the end of the proceedings when we were all asked to hold up our fingers in the “Hook Em Horns” salute and sing “The Eyes of Texas” I reluctantly stood with the other parents hoping that my Aggie father was not looking down from heaven wondering if I had lost my mind. As a parent I knew that I need to wholeheartedly support her and Danny and Jackie had helped me to overcome any fears that I may have had.

Meanwhile Catherine gingerly began her studies at South Houston High School. She became even more enthralled with science when her Biology teacher proved to be a masterful educator. It became clear to me that Catherine had a both a gift and a passion for science and under the tutelage of outstanding teachers at the school she would soar academically, but to my horror her Algebra teacher was a dud. Maryellen had immediately warned me to insist that Catherine be switched to another teacher or she would be ruined. I laughed at the hyperbole and decided that it would be best for Catherine to learn how to navigate difficult situations.

I sensed that Catherine was struggling with Algebra immediately but she was working hard to overcome the problems that she had. Each afternoon she sat at our kitchen table completing her homework while I prepared dinner. Sometimes she would ask me questions about a particular problem but when I offered to check her homework and give her additional tutorials she insisted that it would not be fair to the other students in the class if she used my knowledge when they were unlikely to have an Algebra teacher at home to assist them. I honored her wishes even though my instincts told me that she would have benefitted from additional tutoring. 

Just before Christmas Catherine became very ill and a trip to her doctor confirmed that she had scarlet fever. She was unable to attend school for well over a week, but she managed to return to classes shortly before the Christmas break. to her horror the Algebra teacher gave her a major test on her first day back in class and demanded that she turn in any homework assignments that she had missed. I was livid because I knew that the school district rules were clear that students who had been absent for legitimate reasons were supposed to have time to ease back into the situation. They were certainly not expected to return armed with homework and ready to take tests on material they had not even been taught. 

Soon after I received a failing notice from the Algebra teacher. Catherine had bombed the test and had received zeroes for the homework that she had missed. I had to calm myself enough to sound reasonable when I contacted the teacher. I presented myself as a professional just as I knew she was. I pointed out that Catherine had been very ill and that she had not been given sufficient time to make up all of the work she had missed. The teacher was unmovable in her resolve, insisting that the grades would stand. 

I was so livid that I abandoned my politeness and spoke to her not as mother but as an educator hoping to push her to see my point of view. Things only got worse. That’s I when I learned about the teacher’s grading system which was bizarre to say the least. She would assign a certain number of homework problems each day. When the students turned in their work she randomly chose two problems from the twenty or thirty that the students had completed to provide a grade. If the students missed one of the two problems they received a fifty. If they missed both of the problems they got a zero. Never mind that they had worked on as many as thirty problems. The only way to get a passing credit for doing the homework was to get both problems correct. 

At this point I had lost patience with the teacher and had already decided to contact the principal to have Catherine changed to another teacher for the spring semester. Nonetheless I had to shoot across the teacher’s bow before letting her off the hook. I demanded that she automatically put one hundreds in her grade book for Catherine’s future homework because as an Algebra teacher I would check her work each evening going forward and she would never again miss a random problem. I also told her that I was calling the principal and that she should be ready to retest Catherine on the material that I had taught her once I saw that she was not making any effort to help. 

The long story short is that the principal admitted that the teacher had been a problem for years but he was happy to report that she had begun filling out the paperwork to retire at the end of the school year. I nonetheless insisted that it was time to sever Catherine’s ties to this teacher and he complied. He also commanded the teacher to provide Catherine with another test and to remove all of the homework zeroes from the time that she was so ill.

Catherine ended up doing well in Algebra when she moved to a new teacher, but there would always be a little ding on her transcript that she and I both knew was undeserved. We both learned the importance of speaking up right away rather than holding back when we knew that something was wrong. Catherine especially became a warrior who to this very day insists on justice whenever she witnesses wrongs. In 1988 we were schooled in how real the world can be.