Dr. Vivian Belcher: A Passion for Giving

The children line up silently, shortest to tallest, and walk quietly into class to stand beside their desks. At a signal from their teacher, they recite the Lord's Prayer. After a health inspection for infections or contagious diseases, they are finally given permission to be seated. They put away their lunch buckets and unstrap their copies of 'McGuffey's Eclectic Reader'. Round-robin reading begins. At recess they go out to play tug-of-war or snap-the-whip. When the teacher calls, they line up quietly and get ready for an afternoon of reading, writing, and 'rithmetic.

Today, the fourth graders in Charles County, Maryland are fortunate to be able to take this trip back in time to the Port Tobacco One-Room Schoolhouse, where they experience a typical school day over 100 years ago. Many are shocked to realize how different life was for children of that era. This educational program is available due to the efforts of many organizations and individuals, but the key educator behind this program has been Dr. Vivian Belcher. For her vision in creating the Port Tobacco One-Room School program, and her years of dedication and hard work on behalf of the teachers and students of Charles County, she has been awarded the NRTA With Our Youth! Award for Excellence for 2002.

While Dr. Belcher was a principal in Charles County, she had her eye on the Port Tobacco School, which stood rundown and abandoned. The Wade family, who owned the property, felt it was important to restore the school, so they approached the Charles County Historical Society. A deal was made, and the Historical Society and the Charles County Retired Teachers Association (CCRTA), then led by Mr. Jesse Starkey, agreed to renovate it. By 1994, it was transformed into a historical site and museum restored to perfection.

The One-Room School is currently the most popular historical site in Charles County. But, until 1997, the school remained mostly unused. That was when Belcher, two years into retirement and then President-elect of the CCRTA, stepped in with her excitement and commitment. She was determined to make the school a very special experience for the children of Charles County. Belcher worked zealously to bring to life this program, which is now so popular with teachers and students that there is a waiting list to participate. With the help of Lizzie Turley, a fourth-grade teacher at Arthur Middleton Elementary School, Vivian developed the curriculum, writing lessons and designing activities the children would experience at the school. She found artifacts, clothing, and antique desks, then trained other retired teachers and docents to help. And for a number of years, she actually taught the program herself. The unit, which she published, is now a required part of the fourth-grade social studies curriculum in Charles County. Each year, close to 1200 students learn about the one-room schoolhouse experience by studying lessons in class, and then living through a typical school day in the 1890s.

This would have been a Herculean task for someone healthy and strong, but Belcher accomplished much of this while battling cancer. Some days, when she was too sick to make the trip from her home to Port Tobacco, her husband Bob would go as her substitute. But her commitment was so strong, and her energy so fierce, she saw to it that the project was completed to her satisfaction.

To understand this rare commitment to children and their education, it helps to know more about Belcher. Born in West Virginia, the daughter of a coal miner, she herself began learning in a one-room school. She went on to become valedictorian of her high school and attended Concord College in West Virginia. But after two years of college, the lure of teaching was so strong that she took a job at a one-room school while finishing her college courses at night. Then, after falling in love and marrying an Air Force man, the traveling began. In every stop, from Japan to Turkey to upstate New York, Belcher taught. She taught science. She taught reading. She taught special education and worked with emotionally disturbed children. She taught every grade from K-12. While in Okinawa, she was single-handedly responsible for helping a group of special education students reach grade-level performance in one year. In the midst of all this teaching, she succeeded in earning a Master's Degree in Guidance and Counseling. By the time she and her husband moved to Charles County, he had retired from the Air Force and had become a teacher. She continued to teach while earning a Ph.D. in Supervision and Reading from the University of Maryland.

In Charles County, Belcher began as a guidance counselor, but was soon promoted to principal of the Mt. Hope Elementary School where she brought students' test scores up from the 13th percentile to the 43rd percentile in three years. After 12 years as a principal, she became an elementary supervisor. In every school she served, she was a role model for teachers and students. A firm disciplinarian and a loving mentor, Belcher was that rare and dedicated individual who could inspire her students, her fellow teachers, and even her superintendent, Jim Richmond. "I don't give out compliments easily, but she is an outstanding human being."

For More Information

Port Tobacco One-Room School
Dr. Vivian Belcher helped transform a neglected local landmark into her county's most popular historical site. Learn more about the Port Tobacco One-Room School, and then find out how you can shed light on hidden cultural treasures near you.
URL: http://www.ccboe.com/ccrta/school.htm

National Park Service, Teaching with Historic Places
Find a classroom-ready lesson plan on a historic place in your area. Or create your own, with help from a leading history educator, by digging into this teacher-friendly site's wide variety of resources.
URL: http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/authors.htm

Save America's Treasures
This organization is dedicated to saving America's amazing variety of historic yet endangered places and artifacts. Learn more about its special programs, which just might be protecting a cultural treasure near you.
URL: http://www.saveamericastreasures.org/index.html

National Archives Digital Classroom
Find out how your school's old yearbooks, student newspapers, photos and even lunch menus can open a window not only into your district's past but that of your community, state or country as well.
URL: http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/index.html

World Monuments Fund
Seeking a cultural landmark to study outside of your neighborhood (or our country)? Check in with the World Monuments Fund. Since its founding in 1965, it has worked with local communities and partners to help save more than 300 irreplaceable works of art and architecture in 70 countries.
URL: http://www.wmf.org