Rachel took hard road to the classroom

EDITOR’S NOTE: Fourth of eight profiles of the Dougherty County School System’s 2018 Teacher of the Year finalists.

ALBANY — At a young age, Kanese Rachel discovered she had a desire to learn. Her grandparents, neither of whom could read nor write very well, however, could not assist her with her assignments.

“Relying on the assistance of my grandparents did not make education easy to achieve,” Rachel, a teacher at Lincoln Elementary Magnet School, said. “Since I did not have much help at home, I was basically self-taught. Despite my circumstances at home, I always worked to excel in class. My desire was not to be at the top of my class, but it was due to my paralyzing fear of being called stupid or lazy.”

Rachel said school opened doors for her.

“School was an escape for me so much that rather than staying home when our kitchen caught fire, I bounded to the bus to get away from my dismal environment. I thrived off the love of my teachers, who taught me it was okay to make mistakes,” Rachel said. “My best memory of school was when one of my elementary teachers gave me an old teacher’s edition of a reading text. It became one of my prized possessions.

“I would gather my stuffed animals and my chalkboard every afternoon when I returned home from school. Eager to isolate myself and demonstrate the love my teachers showed me, I repeated the lessons and used my teacher edition to assign schoolwork (to my stuffed animals).”

Rachel added that her family members often say that her early instructional experience was her pathway to the classroom, but she said she disagrees.

“I was playing school as a refuge from constant criticism and verbal jabs,” she said.

Rachel went on to get a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education from Albany State University and later obtained her master’s degree in the discipline and as a specialist of education from Georgia Southwestern State University.

The other DCSS TOY finalists are William Wright III, Albany Middle; Sequaous Walker, Robert Cross Middle; Carol Boges, West Town Elementary; Jane Maples, Lake Park Elementary; Timothy Hardwick, Radium Springs Elementary; Docoras Robinson, Turner Elementary, and Jillian Lockette, Alice Coachman Elementary

Dougherty County’s 2018 Teacher of the Year will be announced at a banquet at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Merry Acres Events Center.