A Tribute to My Friend

Washington would have enjoyed Mike Adkins' Rough Rider re-enactiment

As I have traveled across the state as the George Washington Oklahoma Teaching Ambassador many educators have asked, “How were you selected for this ‘dream’ job?” Although many experiences in my life have led to this opportunity, I can trace the roots back to an encounter with an early mentor and friend, Mike Adkins.

Washington stepped onto the page of history in his early twenties and I met Mike at about the same age. During my first year of teaching in Oklahoma Mike was the head of the Social Studies Department. The students were always eager to attend his classes and that made me curious…What was this guy doing in school that made the teens so enthusiastic? I asked if I could observe his classroom and Mike agreed. What a wondrous experience that was! Mr. Adkins was portraying a Union soldier from the Civil War, complete with tent and supplies. The students and I were mesmerized. Mike was a natural storyteller and he hypnotized his students (and me) with his re-enactment and his vast knowledge of the details of history. He brought history to life! That day changed my life as a teacher.

George Washington became a leader of our country as both General of the Continental Army and as our first President. Mike became a leading educator of our state. Mr. Adkins was selected Oklahoma’s Teacher of the Year and he is now Director of Education at the Oklahoma History Center, one of the partners of the Oklahoma Ambassador Program. Although we only see each other occasionally, Mike and I still have that connection as educators and friends from the 70s. I have run into him at Oklahoma’s History Day Contests, the Oklahoma Council for Social Studies Workshops, and the Oklahoma Department of Education’s Social Studies and Art seminars. At these events he has portrayed a cowboy on the Chisholm Trail, a fur trapper, and, my personal favorite, a Rough Rider.

When he depicted one of Theodore Roosevelt’s famous Spanish American War troops his mannerisms changed, his enthusiasm became more intense and, in my eyes, Mike became that “bully” Rough Rider. George Washington, I believe, would have valued Mike Adkins for our first President appreciated drama. Washington enjoyed attending the theater and his favorite play was Cato by Joseph Addison. The play is a classic lesson in selfless leadership (James C. Rees). Noble leadership is also a characteristic of Mr. Adkins.George Washington was a celebrity in his own time or as historian Joseph Ellis put it, “He was the foundingest of the Founding Fathers.” In Oklahoma Mike Adkins is also a legend, especially among those students and teachers that he has touched during his lifetime. George Washington was courageous and so is Mike Adkins. Mike has been battling cancer the last two years but, like Washington, his strength and courage are a force to be reckoned with! Both George and Mike remind me of one of my favorite quotes from Teddy Roosevelt:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Mike Adkins, Thank you for being in the arena of education, touching many of us with your courage, and sharing your special gift of teaching.

Your Friend,

Jan

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 7:24 pm and is filed under George Washington. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.