The Value of Education

The Dean’s List

My father was a native of Youngsville, Louisiana who never finished the third grade. He was orphaned before he was two years old. In 1909, at age 11, he boarded a train to Houston to run away from his grandmother who was raising him. He lied about his age and joined the army when he was 16 and served in France during World War I.

The fact that he spoke French as his first language likely saved his life in the war because he was too useful as a translator to be allowed to make the murderous charges against the German machine guns. He returned to Louisiana in the 1920’s and became a very successful New Orleans business owner in the 1940’s and 50’s despite the fact that he was only marginally literate.

My mother, who did not complete her second year of high school, was from New Orleans. She worked in my father’s laundry and dry cleaning business most of her life.

Perhaps because they felt the need for more education on many occasions, my parents often said their greatest accomplishment was that both of their children graduated from college - the first one from LSU and my younger brother from USL.

That was quite an achievement for two people who learned the value of education the hard way. My dad would say nearly every day: “You have to get an education because that is the one thing they can’t take away from you.” And I will never forget the time my mother drove all the way from New Orleans to Baton Rouge just to take me and all my friends to eat at the Village Restaurant when LSU sent her a letter saying that I had made the dean’s list. That was a really big deal!

I think of those days when I see what is going on in Zachary and Central. My parents worked very hard for the money it took to send their children to college. The Superior Laundry was among the hottest places on earth in the summers before air conditioning, and we lived in a very small apartment upstairs on top of a 25-horsepower steam boiler.

But that’s the way it is in Zachary and Central too. Both cities have voted to tax themselves heavily, and parents in both cities are determined to provide superior educational opportunities for their children. The people are committed to working very hard toward better lives for the next generation.

In Zachary the stands in the football stadium recently overflowed with people who came out not to see a football game but to celebrate the fact that for the fifth straight year their school system has been named to the top spot in Louisiana based on actual test results of their children.

In Central they have raised a million dollars with Cooking for Our Kids and the stands at the recent homecoming game overflowed with people in pink t-shirts who set a fine example of support for their school and for the fight against breast cancer. Two brothers who play on the Central High football team have lost their mother to breast cancer and the response to the fund raiser last month was absolutely awe inspiring.

Louisiana is a long way from first when it comes to education, and that makes what is going on in Zachary and Central all the more noteworthy. As a matter of fact the daily newspaper frequently tells us our state ranks near the bottom in education in a whole lot of respects. But for young people in Zachary and Central that kind of news is meaningless. That’s because their parents, like my parents, believe in the value of education.

More importantly they put their money where their mouth is, and their involvement in overseeing the day-to-day management of their schools is a wonder to behold. You take that kind of commitment and add in that kind of effort and miracles can happen. I am a living example of that fact.