By Sudie Eisenbarth

For alumna Shirley Chafin, ’60, coming to Berea College in the late 1950’s was the beginning of many enriching experiences--exposure to the arts, to literature, to new ideas about life and to people from different countries and cultures. The lessons she learned at Berea helped to broaden her thinking about life in general, enhanced her understanding of the world and improved her ability to communicate.

Shirley Chafin teaches Honors English III and English IV and Standard English III and IV at Johnson County High School in Paintsvile, Ky.

Today, in her 39th year as an English teacher at Johnson County High School in Paintsville, Ky., Chafin perpetuates her love of learning and continues the philosophy of her favorite professors' always to be learning and to pique students’ intellectual curiosity through mutual sharing of ideas and genuine caring." I show my students patience and kindness and allow them to have a respectful voice in whatever we are discussing," she says. "I encourage them to express themselves and challenge them to give their best work."

Last year Chafin received the 2000 Wal-Mart Teacher of the Year Award and a $500 grant for her outstanding work. She is also a published poet, musician and amateur photographer. Over the years Chafin has had poems published in the English Journal and recently in an anthology published by Zephyr Press in Arizona called Bearing Witness. She has also been published in Appalachian Heritage and Kentucky Writing.

Chafin remembers three faculty members that had an especially strong effect on her while attending Berea College--Dr. George Noss, Dr. Rolf Hovey and Dr. Jerome Hughes.

Through example, Dr. Noss showed her what it meant to defend your rights and to push to the limit in a responsible way. Chafin explains how she had wanted to drop a class and pick up a philosophy section taught by Dr. Noss. He agreed and said he would tutor her on what she had missed.

Through no lack of trying, Chafin was unable to set up a required meeting with the dean and ended up having her request denied. Professor Noss stood up for her and she felt, even put his career at risk with his perseverance in the matter. In the end she was given approval to make the change. "He really made an impression on me about standing up for what you believe in and becoming a strong individual," remembers Chafin.

Dr. Hovey in the Music Department impressed Chafin early on with his positive attitude towards life and his ability to encourage others. "I took voice lessons from him, and I worked for him part of the time," she explains."He had such a love of life, and a love of music...he had a vigor and vitality that was very unusual."

In the field of English, Dr. Jerome Hughes influenced Chafin the most. His love of reading, wide vocabulary and knowledge of characters and authors made literature come alive for her. "When he said something in class--a word I didn’t know--I would go home immediately and look it up," Chafin recalls. "He definitely instilled in me the love of reading."

These professors along with others had a strong effect on her and helped to instill what she considers to be one of the most important things for a teacher to genuinely care about students. She also feels that parents need to help by showing a sincere interest in what their children are doing, spending quality time with them, encouraging them and becoming involved in their schoolwork and activities.

"This could make a difference in their performance, in their self-concept . . . they need to be complimented when they do well, but corrected when they do wrong,"states Chafin. "Two of the biggest things I think we are lacking is that (students) need to be taught responsibility and self discipline."

One of Chafin’s former students, Rebekka Cantrell, ’02, an education major at Berea, thinks her former teacher did a good job preparing her for college and made it clear she wanted all her students to succeed. "I can certainly say that Ms. Chafin cares about her students,"she says. "I’ve always felt that the respect was on a mutual basis. I don’t remember her ever shooting down the ideas of her students, though she did challenge some."

Born in Johnson County, Chafin has only been away from the area a few times, beginning with her time at Berea College and then for graduate work at the University of Illinois, where she received her MA in 1966. She has also done summer work at the University of Kentucky and at Indiana University.

Chafin laughingly recalls a story about her roommate, Lois Vinton Byrom ‘60, who was deathly afraid of dogs. One evening after a rabid dog rumor circulated campus, she and Vinton were walking towards the library from Anna Smith residence hall. As they passed near Boone Tavern Hotel, Chafin decided to play a prank, saying, "Look! There’s the mad dog!" Vinton immediately jumped the hedge and climbed the pillar at Boone Tavern. "I got so tickled," says Chafin. " I’m glad she had a really good sense of humor!" The roommates continued their friendship, writing letters and visiting one another until last year when Vinton passed away.

Chafin believes her years at Berea College were "a good time for me. I really believe that the kind of education that Berea College gives enables you to go into a job or go to graduate school and do well. It was the best four years of my life."