APA Pre-Collegiate Teaching Awards 2000
photo right: award winners Ann Criswell and Richard J. Beaton
Robert W. Cape, Jr., Austin College
Chair, ACL/APA Joint Committee on Classics in American Education
APA Plenary Session, January 5, 2001
On behalf of the American Classical League / American Philological Association Joint Committee on Classics in American Education, it is an honor to report the winners of the APA Pre-Collegiate Teaching Awards for 2000. This is the second year the APA has offered these awards to recognize outstanding teaching at the pre-collegiate level. Let me say that reading the dossiers of the teachers nominated for this award is an experience both exhilarating and humbling at the same time. These teachers Herculean efforts to make the ancient world come alive for their students, their devotion to high standards in the classroom, and their selfless dedication to our profession deserve to be more widely recognized and celebrated. These teachers are indicative of why Latin at the high school and earlier levels is thriving; at least where there are teachers to teach it.
First, I would like to thank the many people who recommended and wrote letters of support for the nominees and coped with our revised guidelines. I would also like to thank the Committee members who evaluated this years group of truly superlative nominees, Sally Davis, John Hershey, Elizabeth Keitel, Mary Pendergraft, and one of last years Award winners, Christine Sleeper. Thanks are also due to last years Chair, Eddie Lowry, and special thanks to Minna Duchovnay for all her work on behalf of the Committee this year, and to Ken Kitchell for his continuing advocacy in the APA to support the teaching of Classics at the pre-collegiate level.
I will name the winners in alphabetical order.
Richard J. Beaton
Hercules is in many ways an appropriate hero to describe Latin teachers, and our first honoree has called teaching The Thirteenth Labor of Hercules. Dr. Richard J. Beaton, or Doc to his students and friends, took his AB from the Catholic University of America, and his MA and PhD from the State University of New York, Albany. He began his teaching career at Griffin High School, Griffin, Georgia, in 1976. In that time he has turned a small program with 24 studentswherein he also taught English, German and Greekinto two full-time teaching positions serving 200 students. His colleagues at Griffin and throughout the state indicate that it did not take long for Dr. Beaton to assume a leadership role at the local, state, regional and national levels.
Students offer glowing testimonials of Dr. Beatons teaching and of his willingness to go the extra mile, or, as one student put it, 500 extra miles. An impressive list of students with high scores on state and national exams testifies to the high quality education his students receive. A colleague who has worked closely with him speaks of the quality of work he expects from his students and the quality of instruction he gives: He has high expectations for his students, and they meet them.
And this instruction is delivered with verve and with wit. Doc Beaton is a man known for his Shirley Temple impressions and is called one of the funniest, and most fun, people I know. His love of teaching is cited as an inspiration to his colleagues at Griffin, and a parent writes, Dr. Beaton has taught thousands of students, but his magic is his ability to touch each one thoughtfully and individually. He has been honored for his teaching many times by the students and faculty at Griffin High School, by the Foreign Language Association of Georgia, the Georgia Classical Association, the Southern Conference on Language Teaching, the Classical Association of the Middle West and South, and by other organizations.
Dr. Beaton is a tireless promoter of Latin and foreign language education in general. When he won the 1990 ACTFL-National Textbook Company Award for Building Community Interest in Foreign Language Education, it was said, Dr. Beaton has built a foreign language program in Griffin that rivals the high school football team in the amount of community support that it receives. He has given presentations to many civic groups and community organizations, including the Elks, Moose, Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions Clubs, and Veterans of Foreign Wars. We have evidence of milk cows sporting the letters JCL, and lest it be thought enough to promote Classics in the pastures of Georgia, the caption to the photograph states these cows were stationed at the edge of the road for the pleasure of many viewers.
Richard Beaton is also well known for the workshops he gives for other Latin teachers, full of creative approaches to teaching. He is a successful teacher and teachers teacher, Magister Magistri, which is also the title of one of his workshops. His co-presenter at some of these workshops offers high praise for the quality of his work with students and colleagues and for his generous spirit: He is the best and constantly helps others to become their best.
We therefore honor for his achievements, Richard J. Beaton.
Ann Criswell
Ann Criswell is a legend. She is the definition of a good teacher. So begins one of the many laudatory letters in support of her nomination from students, colleagues, students who have become colleagues, alumnae, administrators, and parents. And it is not the only letter to refer to her status as a legend. Ms Criswell took her BA in Latin with Honors at Mary Washington College and her MA at the University of Kentucky. She has just retired after 43 years of teaching Latin, 29 of which have been at the Castilleja School, Palo Alto, California. In her time at Castilleja she is credited with playing a key role in the approximately 400% increase in Latin enrollments. She is known to several generations of students as, quite simply, Magistra.
Ms Criswells students testify eloquently and repeatedly to her enthusiasm for Latin, her passion for the Latin language, and her love of the ancient world. She lists a variety of developments in recent years, including computer programs, CDs and videos, saying all make Latin teaching today incredibly exciting. Her excitement is palpable and contagious. A glance at her innovative projects, from hi-tech and narrative versions of ancient ABCDaria, to linguistic activities and classical literary references in Dr. Ammondts Elvis Songs, shows how she keeps Latin alive in her classroom. An alumna writes, she made Latin and the Roman world live for her students, and inspired us to continue our interest in the classics long after we left her classes.
She says that over the past 43 years she has always desired to achieve a balance between making Latin fun...and giving it the substance, depth, and range that as a valuable pursuit it requires. Her supporters concur that she sets high standards in the classroom and challenges students to challenge themselves. The many medals, certificates and outstanding honors her students earn from a plethora of national competitions bear witness to the quality of her teaching. Her students have participated in the NJCL/ACL National Latin Exam every year since its inception in 1978, winning medals every year, and four students achieved perfect scores last year. In the mid-1980s she began offering Advanced Placement courses and her students have scored consistently in the 3-5 range on the examinations. One of her students, an Olympic gold and silver medalist in gymnastics, has commented on how similar the requirements are to succeed in gymnastic competition and in Latin.
She expects high quality work from her students, but she is also compassionate: caring is an adjective used of her again and again. One student writes, You liked me in spite of my poor grades in Latin. You let me know that I was a person worth caring about even if I wasnt the A student in your beloved topic. You sent a message loud and clear that I could take on anything (including Latin) and succeed.
Ann Criswells teaching colleagues also praise her boundless energy and generosity in helping new colleagues learn how to become better teachers. One writes, She models professional growth for us all. She has received an impressive number of grants and fellowships for professional development and growth, ranging from summer study grants to major national awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Fulbright Foundation. Many of these were for study abroad, and she has traveled extensively throughout Italy and Greece, often leading student groups. Back in California, she shares her experiences in presentations to other teachers and at conferences.
And her boundless energy for teaching students, developing herself, and mentoring younger colleagues has continued up to retirement. One supporter writes that Ann Criswell is maintaining to the end [of her teaching career] an enthusiasm and commitment for the language and culture that would stretch many teachers at the beginning of their careers.
We therefore honor for her achievements, Ann Criswell.
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