The Twilight's Last Gleaming on Public Education

By H. Paul Roberts III

The Twilight's Last Gleaming On Public Education is an intriguing and socially relevant story which focuses on the ambitions and frustrations of the main character, Richard Robins. With nearly limitless options, this man of great consequence and professional achievement embarks on the noble path of educating adolescents at Sunset Middle School, where he quickly becomes aware of the challenges and obstacles that currently litter the public education landscape. The author constructs a fascinating and enlightening story, which possesses many of the elements commonly found in just about every school system throughout the United States. The plot contains more than a few strategically placed, unexpected twists and should maintain the reader's interest throughout. Navigating the plot to a well-conceived and logical conclusion, the author strives to leave the reader with a sense of time well invested in the reading of this story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 28, 2008
• ISBN: 9781469105741

H. Paul Roberts III

The Reverend H. Paul Roberts III is an ordained priest and former U. S. Army officer and helicopter pilot with service in The Republic of Vietnam. He has earned BBA, MBA,and MDIV degrees. He has served on the Administrative Committee, Public Relations Committee, and Education Committee for a distinguished private school. He has taught science and social studies classes to public middle school students. He also coached middle school soccer teams to two county championship titles within three years. Now retired, he finds writing to be an effective way to continue sharing lessons he has learned during his lifetime.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Richard Robins had successfully returned from many a mission. Oh, the stories he could tell. One might call him a worldly man, for the missions he had accomplished on behalf of his country were often conducted in corners of the world far removed from his native America. The government still refused to acknowledge some of the places he had visited. For example, his excursions into Cambodia before diplomatic relations had been established were not a preferred topic of conversation in diplomatic circles. He had seen his duty, willingly ventured into unknown waters, and had lived to tell about his adventures. In the process, he had gained a keen appreciation for the ways of other cultures. He had gained insights into human life while in foreign lands. These proved to be of great assistance when diplomatic challenges threatened his missions. Now in mid-life, he dared to venture on yet another mission, one perhaps more challenging than any he had ever before encountered.

Friends had been quite persistent in convincing him of the need to pursue this new challenge. They warned that many before him had been snared by pitfalls. They assured him he was particularly well suited for the difficult tasks that lay ahead.

The good of the country may very well depend on the success of your efforts, his friends had told him. They finally made him a persuasive offer he couldn’t refuse.

Nothing tempted Richard Robins quite so much as a perceived need to help his country in a time of crisis. He believed a real crisis now existed. The television talk shows and news programs daily revealed the growing predicament the country was facing. Pundits reported how the United States was falling further and further behind the accomplishments of other countries in a number of categories. The call went out for loyal citizens to come to the aid of their country. Under the circumstances there was nothing else in good conscience Richard Robins could do than agree to take on the great challenge of educating middle school adolescents.

The rising sun was just cresting the tops of the mountains a few miles to the East from the Robins’ ranch when Richard Robins opened his front door to walk Chopper. Chopper was a fine and loyal pet whose name had been selected by Rich’s daughter in veneration of his war exploits. He flew helicopters for the U.S. Army before she was born.

It has a masculine sound, she insisted. It is a most appropriate name for a male English Springer Spaniel.

Chopper’s formal registered name, of course, was much longer, but everyone at home called him Chopper. That was the name he answered to, at least most of the time. Once he detected a covey of quail he tended to ignore any human attempts to call him off the scent. He liked to trail deer as well, but quickly returned to his master’s side once he had rousted a deer from its hiding place in the woods. Chopper was smart enough to realize the deer could move through the woods more quickly than he could.

Chopper found it invigorating to revel in the new smells detected along the way when he and his master accompanied one another on long walks over the hills and past the streams that bordered the ranch. Chopper never missed an opportunity to jump into the water. He was, after all, a spaniel. Frolicking in the mud and water was great sport. During his puppy days he had learned his romps in the mud would result in another drenching when he got back to the house. For some reason he could not quite fathom, Mrs. Robins would not allow him into the house until he had first been thoroughly washed. He rarely visited the streams on early morning walks, however. They tended to be short and brisk, just long enough for Chopper to do his business and return to the house. There he would patiently wait for his master’s afternoon return.

The beauty of the morning sunrise seemed to offer the promise of more glorious events to come as Richard climbed into his automobile to begin the half-hour drive to his new job. He marveled at the beauty of the distant mountain range his route paralleled, now exuding a mysterious blend of mist and color into the early morning air. Few cars hindered his journey. He had left home early, not knowing how much traffic he might encounter on the way to work, for he did not want to be late on his first day. Given the lack of traffic, he anticipated he would arrive well before the school doors opened, which would allow him time to drink a cup of coffee in the school parking lot before entering the building.

The Rev. Richard Robins, former war hero and soccer star, was filled with excitement as he journeyed toward Sunset Middle School. Even the dilapidated homes he passed along the way failed to dampen the enthusiastic feeling he enjoyed this glorious morning. The closing of the textile mills had delivered quite a blow to the local economy. It was no wonder the now unemployed mill workers allowed their houses to fall into disrepair. For sale signs identified homes of occupants anxious to depart for opportunities in other communities. As he approached one of the traffic lights along the narrow town road he was traveling, it quickly turned green, as if to offer him a special welcome. How wonderful, he thought, that inanimate objects like traffic lights should share his good mood this morning by urging him forward with their go signal.

He turned right onto the main road that connected the school grounds with the shops at the center of town. Outlying shopping centers, and their more affluent surrounding suburban residential communities, began to appear just a few blocks from the school. He suspected weekend afternoons would find many neighborhood kids enjoying the school playing fields. Crape Myrtle trees lined the sides of the long curving driveway leading to the main entrance of the school administration building. Parking spaces for school faculty were marked with bright yellow paint all along the entrance drive. School buses brought riders to a different entrance some two hundred meters from the school’s main entrance. This arrangement served to separate bus riders from students who rode to school with their parents. Students with parents were allowed to make a grand entrance through the school’s main access doors. Bus riders made their way through a maze of passageways to the student lockers outside their respective homerooms. Regardless of the route taken, all students eventually arrived at their respective homerooms for the beginning of the school day.

Students who arrived early in the morning were directed by class into holding areas, with younger sixth graders assembling in the school auditorium, seventh graders in the cafeteria, and eighth graders gathering in the gymnasium. This assembling by grade provided the students with early morning socialization opportunities. Richard noticed most of the students had assembled in their respective assigned areas long before the majority of teachers had arrived at the school. He had expected teachers would arrive before students in order to prepare their classrooms for the day’s lessons. Perhaps they had prepared their classrooms before they departed school the previous day. He, however, was a morning person who preferred to make last minute touch ups in preparation for the day’s activities before students made their mass exodus from the assembling areas to their respective classrooms. It didn’t hurt to check over preparations more than one time.

Sunset Middle School grandly touted its association with former students who had achieved success as professional basketball players. Autographed jerseys, which had been signed during public ceremonies when these former students returned to visit Sunset, still hung in the school business office. No mention was ever made about the types of behavior those former students had demonstrated off the ball court. Several had been involved in shootings outside local bars. School officials declined to speak of such activities. Only the positive contributions made in support of the school’s athletic program were emphasized. School administrators took pains to emphasize the positive, while minimizing the negative, thus uplifting these former students as role models for current students to emulate in spite of the lengthy police record some had accrued. Many had come from the same dilapidated housing development Richard had passed on his way to work. Some came from government sponsored housing projects farther removed from the immediate school area.

Richard Robins had agreed to take on the challenges of his new teaching position at the urging of friends who had listened to him preach invigorating words about spiritual sustenance in the face of depressing circumstances. Many of them had enthusiastically attended his Sunday school classes. He had dared to share some of his perspectives on life from the pulpit during more inspired moments of oratory. He had expressed his belief that every child of God can learn.

Poverty, he told his congregation, is not a barrier to learning. In fact, education may be the salvation that helps folks get out of poverty stricken situations. His audiences found his views inspiring, and had finally convinced Richard of the need for his insightful outlooks on life to be presented to a wider audience. They encouraged him to take on challenges from which others shied away. Such a challenge he now embraced as a newly hired teacher of science and social studies. He was grateful it would not be necessary for him to wear the stiff white collar that identified him as clergy while he was teaching middle school adolescents.

Richard Robins had also agreed to serve as Sunset Middle School’s new soccer coach. Maybe he could help shift the school’s infatuation towards something other than basketball. After all, the fast break familiar to basketball fans was also employed on the soccer field. The only difference was that fans could better see players moving into position because of the larger playing area. The coaching responsibility he had agreed to take on was certain to place more demands on Richard’s time, but offered the potential of helping him develop rapport with students. During his lifetime he had gained a measure of wisdom, and he was eager to do what he could to impart some small part of the wisdom he had gained to the adolescents soon to be entrusted to his care. He was not overly concerned with conflicting perspectives in this southern bible-belt community regarding theories of evolution versus creation. He perceived his mission to educate, to help students to think more critically, to search for the truth in all things, to be compatible with his own religious beliefs. He was dismayed by news stories bemoaning the heightened flow of teachers from classrooms to other more lucrative endeavors, for he perceived teaching as a noble profession. He also perceived a crying need for more teachers in classrooms. He was quite unaware of the myriad of hidden agendas that threaten to impede efforts conscientious teachers make daily as they strive to educate public school children.

Rich, the name he preferred to be called, was six feet tall. At one hundred eighty-five pounds, he was a physically fit man who knew something about teamwork. His schooling in teamwork had strongly influenced his decisions to fly his helicopter into enemy fire in the Republic of Vietnam in repeated attempts to rescue downed pilots. He had even been given a medal for his efforts. He had been awarded the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry for his actions in disrupting the flow of information between Viet Cong insurgents and North Vietnamese regular army forces just over the border in Cambodia. While flying high overhead to provide command and control capabilities for a United States Special Forces unit he was assisting, he had spotted, and subsequently captured, a Viet Cong courier trying to escape the area. He literally landed his helicopter on top of the fellow, enabling his door gunner to take custody of the prisoner. A few minutes ride by air later he handed the captive over to the custody of Special Forces Command Center personnel for interrogation. Subsequently, his green-beret friends informed him much valuable information had been obtained. They were especially appreciative for the documents Richard had paused long enough to pick up when he landed near the camouflaged sampan the captured courier had been using. A few weeks later he was invited to attend a special meeting. He stood straight and tall while the Vietnamese commander for the region pinned a medal on his uniform, one of the few foreign medals the United States government had authorized its servicemen to proudly wear. Richard cared little for medals. He did not believe doing one’s duty required medals. Still, it was nice to be appreciated. Richard did what he did out of a sense of loyalty to others serving with him. He was first and foremost a team player.

Yes, Richard Robins knew a little something about loyalty to one’s teammates. He had also gathered more than a little knowledge about effective techniques designed and tested to assure students learned and retained instruction presented to them. Most of those techniques had been directed at him. He had been subjected to the efforts of no less than three of the nation’s leading educational institutions. The Military Institute taught him about leadership, teamwork, and self-discipline, so important for success in later adult life, whether in the classroom, one’s place of work, or on the soccer field. The Church Institute taught him introspection, the will to reflect upon his beliefs, feelings, and actions. Such introspection facilitated timely adjustments in light of changing circumstances. The University Education Department taught him all the professional courses of instruction the state deemed necessary for certification as a public school teacher. Rich learned his lessons well, receiving straight A grades at the university. The schooling he received at the Military Institute facilitated his promotion from entry level Private to Captain in less than five years of military service. The Church Institution saw fit to recommend him for ministry in pursuit of human souls very much in need of repentant forgiveness. The elaborate ceremony at which he was ordained emphasized his duty to souls entrusted to his care.

Academically armed with a Bachelor degree and two Masters degrees, intestinally fortified, and reflectively sensitive, Richard Robins seemed to many to be more than qualified for the task at hand, namely helping middle school students become better educated, responsible citizens. It was a daunting task, indeed. Richard had no idea just how daunting a task it would turn out to be. No one had warned him of the degree to which political interference hindered efforts to successfully educate American children. But then, as the Old Testament so eloquently reports, even God had trouble fighting the Roman version of city hall as administered by Pontius Pilate.

Sunset Middle School, located in a small southern town a few miles to the West of a major metropolitan center in the piedmont of the Carolinas, was in a state of decline. The graffiti decorating the school walls, not to mention the rest room stalls, was indicative of the spiritual and cultural atmosphere present at Sunset Middle School. Indeed, as Myrtle Whisenhunt, the school Guidance Counselor related to Richard in her most eloquent southern drawl shortly after his arrival, Sunset Middle School had been in a state of decline for several years.

Just look at the state of the building. Have you ever seen such neglected repair? Myrtle liked to compare the physical facilities of the school to other prominent buildings around town.

Have you ever noticed the stately appearance of the surroundings when you enter one of the banks? she inquired. "Look closely at the polished wooden desks and railings, the clean marble counter tops. What initial impression do you get when you