I had a few things I would like to say, even though I could not be with you in person. First, I want you all to know that the time I spent in Rhine, Georgia, was one of the greatest and best remembered years of my life.
This was my first year to teach. I am sure I made some mistakes, but you taught a very green beginning teacher many things. From you I learned that all people do not learn at the same rate. I learned that encouragement and praise for good student work goes a long way in helping students to learn. I learned that students are sometimes smarter than the teacher and that student comments and suggestions can be extremely valuable to a beginning teacher.
Some interesting things happened while I was teaching in Rhine. I will never forget opening the door of my classroom and seeing Guyton Bowen leading a horse down the hall. The horse was a show horse and did tricks. Guyton had him at school for an assembly program.
I remember being in the gym, and Chester was winning the ballgame. I thought the Rhine boys team would certainly lose the game, so I walked over to the classroom building to get some papers I wanted to grade. When I walked back to the gym, the Rhine team had not only won the game, but they had won it by a good margin.
I had the good fortune to teach with some seasoned teachers. I learned a great deal about teaching from Mrs. Zesta Hilliard, Mrs. Mary Horton, Mrs. Conley, and Mr. L.D. Bowen. These people, along with my students, guided me through my first year of teaching.
Had it not been for my students in Rhine, I might have had a bad year and might have gone on to do something else besides teaching. Because my year in Rhine was such a rewarding experience, I went on to teach for another 40 years.
It makes me very proud to know that those four high school classes that I taught went out to make good citizens who were proud to be from Rhine and from Georgia, and a citizen of this great country of ours. I salute you, and I thank you for letting me be a part of your lives for a short time.
I came to Rhine in 1952 and had a room in the home of Mrs. Hilliard, just a block from school. I spent a lot of time in the afternoons visiting in the store owned by Belvin Conley, and I ate some of the best hamburgers ever made in a café operated by Mrs. Shug Hilliard. I must say that the people in Rhine treated me like a prince, and I will always be grateful for the hospitality and many kindnesses extended to me while I was a member of the Rhine faculty.
I might have spent my life teaching in Dodge County had I not been drafted during the Korean War. After I was discharged, I began teaching at East Central Community College in Decatur, Mississippi, where I taught for 40 years. My wife and I have three children, all of whom are grown and all of whom are involved in the field of education.
The house where I lived at Godwinsville is gone; Chauncey High School where I graduated is no more; I have no living relatives in Dodge County; but I have some wonderful memories of teaching at Rhine High School. Today there is a stone marker where the Rhine High School stood, but that marker represents a place where there once stood a great school staffed by great teachers. That marker also represents all those who graduated from Rhine and went on to make a contribution to their town, county, state, and union.
Ovid Vickers
