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A Class of Her Own, Highlands History
Written By: Donna Rhodes | Issue: 2018/03 - March
They don’t tell you this in college, but the best teachers are those who learn as a child how to put one over on an adult. You can’t out-rascal an accomplished rascal.
The young Ethel Calloway, later to become a legendary Highlands schoolteacher, excelled in mischief. As a student at Shortoff School, she started a rumor that the local water supply carried typhoid fever. People took it seriously and students started bringing bottled water to school.
The jig was up not long after. Her sentence – incarceration in the book closet. And, like Br’er Rabbit, she protested as though it were the world’s end. But as soon as the door closed, she dove into a closetful of books, reading being her favorite pastime.
On occasion she’d help the town librarian, Gertrude Harbison. Harbison was a moralist. If any new books came into the library that had an inkling of impropriety, she’d hide them behind a green curtain.
Ethel said, “She didn’t want to contaminate the community. I used to ask Miss Gertrude if she would like to get her mail while I kept the library for her. Then I’d grab a book from behind the curtain to take it home, read it, and bring it back. Gore Vidal was one of those who landed behind the curtain.
Yep. No kid could do anything Miss Ethel hadn’t tried three times already. That explains those eyes-of-experience that sprouted on the back, top, and sides of her head when she ruled a classroom.
In her later years she proclaimed that she either taught or paddled half the leading citizens of Highlands, among them – Neville Bryson, Jack and Doyle Calloway, John Cleaveland, Jamie Keener, Steve Potts, and Earle Young. She never acknowledged which got what however.
To learn more of Ethel’s childhood and teaching exploits, reference Ran Shaffner’s “Heart of the Blue Ridge.” Or visit highlandshistory.com, email [email protected], or, during the season, check out The Highlands Historical Museum, 524 North Fourth Street, for more information.
