Wednesday, October 15, 2003
|
Wednesday, October 15, 2003 |
|
Fayette's longtime & 'visiting teacher', witness to 45 years of change After working with Fayette County students for nearly half a century, Lettie “Boots” Ashworth has retired from the county school district to start the next chapter of her life. A native of Crawfordville, a small town in Taliaferro County midway between Augusta and Atlanta, Ashworth came to Fayette County in 1958 fresh after graduating from Forsyth’s Tift College, a Baptist liberal arts college for women that closed several years ago. It was while a student at Tift that Ashworth developed a close friendship with a classmate from Fayette County. She often came home on visits with her friend and immediately fell in love with the community and its people. “It never crossed my mind to go anywhere else but here,” she said. Her first job was at Fayette County High, where she taught history, government and sociology for seven years. “Those seven years were the best years I really had,” Ashworth recalled recently. “I just really loved that job.” A fire in 1954 that gutted the old high school building (at the site of the current Board of Education offices) meant Ashworth began her career in a modern, new Fayette County High — now known as the “C” building of the LaFayette Educational Center. “When I first started teaching, Fayette County High was just one wing with grades 8-12 on the top hall and the lower grades, 4-7, on the lower hall,” she explained. After the class of 1965 graduated, the high school underwent changes that resulted in some teachers being displaced, including Ashworth. Although not a native of Fayette County, she had fallen in love with the community and knew that she wanted a job that would keep her close to Fayetteville. She had heard about an opening for a “visiting teacher” which is similar to a truent officer, acting as a liaison between the home and school to address attendance problems. She inquired about the job and got it. She loved the position so much that she continued to work as a visiting teacher until her retirement last month. “The Lord answered my prayers. I wanted to stay and He saw fit to find a way for me to do just that,” said Ashworth, a longtime member and Sunday school teacher at Fayetteville First Baptist Church. Needless to say, Ashworth witnessed many changes and transformations since beginning her tenure with the school system 45 years ago, watching the county grow from a rural, poor community off the beaten path into the affluent and important Atlanta suburb it is today. In fact, she is somewhat of a walking history book for Fayete County schools. Ashworth worked under seven superintendents, starting with the legendary F.A. Sams, father to physician and author Ferrol Sams Jr. and for whom the F.A. Sams Auditorium in Fayetteville is named. He was followed by Herman Bowers, Merlin Powers, Jerry Stinchcomb, Trigg Dalrymple, Dave Brotherton and finally the current superintendent, John DeCotis. She has seen many advances in education aimed at making students smarter and more learned. But with all the newfangled gadgets and techniques, Ashworth says it will always be the teacher who makes the difference. “I would put any of my graduates up against those of today and feel confident that they would prove to be just as smart. It is not wonderful teaching aids that make for wonderful students. It is the teacher that brings it all about,” she said. Now that she is retired, Ashworth plans to spend more time camping in the Adirondack Forest in New York state and visiting family and friends in Crawfordville. “Although I’m going to be away more, this place will always be my roots,” she said. “I had friends who would tell me that there were better and bigger things out there and that I was in a rut. I would tell them that there may be bigger things, but not better and I may be in a rut but I like the rut I’m in,” Ashworth concluded. “I wouldn’t take anything for the friends and memories I have made here. It’s been good.”
|
||