A Standout Teacher
Who Also Stands Out
By MICHAEL WINERIP,
NYTimes on the Web, September 7, 2005
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. -- MS. RAY
stayed. Twenty-three years, Irene Ray has been teaching at Huntington
High, in this small city near the Kentucky border, and once again she was back,
for another first day of school. "They changed the hall-pass system
again," she said, leafing through a stack of first-day memos with titles like
"Asbestos Notification Form." It was 7:15, and she was rushing.
"They're going back to the way they did it five years ago."
Ms. Ray never expected to stay, and yet here she was again as the 7:55 bell
rang, sipping a Diet Coke, nibbling an Atkins breakfast bar, and greeting
students with her usual "Good morning glories." For years she had planned
to escape to the big city -- Washington, San Francisco, New York. "The
U-Haul would be here and I'd be gone," she said. "I wanted to leave so
bad. I had the exact date in mind."
In those cities, Ms. Ray could be invisible, but in this small, conservative
place, she's amplified. "I've always been different," she said. And
she is not growing more reserved with time. "The older I get, the harder
it is to hold it all back." Ms. Ray, 47, wore a brightly flowered skirt, a
pink jean jacket, flip-flops, silver rings on each finger and an eyebrow ring.
Her new students wanted to know how many tattoos she has ("just three") and
whether eyebrow-piercing hurt. ("It did not.")
"I got my nose pierced, so I was curious," said Stephanie Cody, a junior who was
excited about having Ms. Ray for Advanced Placement English. "Just walking
in, I could see her love for individuality." Ms. Ray's walls are covered
with her favorite sayings. ("Education is not the filling of a pail, but
the lighting of a fire." William Butler Yeats.) ("What is written
without effort is in general read without pleasure." Samuel Johnson.)
"She got new quotes," whispered a girl, reading the walls.
It's hard to be bored in Ms. Ray's class. She is a voracious reader and
not shy about her opinions. "I liked 'Poisonwood Bible' a lot more than
'The Scarlet Letter,' " she told the class. "What about you?" Ms.
Ray doesn't just say it's hot; she says it's hotter than the hinges of hell.
She never teaches the same way two years in a row. This year she added
"The Kite Runner" to the summer reading. Because she has had trouble
getting students to rewrite, she's introducing revision folders for each draft
of their term papers.
Ms. Ray is slick with a computer, teaching a media class that produces a weekly
TV show the whole school watches.
"I saw you driving yesterday," said Joe Bradley, a junior. Ms. Ray's hard to
miss. Amid the pickups and S.U.V.'s, she's in a Mini-Cooper, with the
license plate "PEACE." In the early 1990's, after a Young Republicans club
was formed here, students wanted Ms. Ray to sponsor a Young Liberals Club, and
she did.
In 2000, two boys and two girls asked her to form a Gay-Straight Alliance club.
Though Ms. Ray was mostly out of the closet, she described herself as being in a
"don't ask, don't tell mode." A late bloomer, she was raised here,
graduated from the local state university, married and had two children.
By age 30, she was divorced and open with friends about being gay, but not
public.
"I wanted to leave West Virginia so bad, I felt so out of step, but I made one
of these parent decisions, I'd let my kids finish school here." When her
younger child graduated in June 2001, Ms. Ray would go. "For a decade I
had that day in mind."
Then the two boys and two girls approached her. "I knew one thing would
lead to another," she said. "Am I really going to come out? Of
course I could still just be the sponsor and it didn't mean I'm gay. But
how could I avoid it publicly if I'm supposed to be a model for these kids?"
Why did she say yes? "It's hard for kids who are different here. I
saw I was needed." After two gay beating incidents in the community, the
high school club took part in an anti-hate rally. Ms. Ray spoke publicly
for the first time. "I said it," she recalled.
Her daughter went off to study in Ohio, but Ms. Ray stayed. "I saw I was
making a difference in this small place. I get notes in my mailbox from
kids I don't know. I've had kids walk up to me in the hall and say thank
you for being here. That's all they'll say."
Now, when local reporters need a quote on an issue like gay marriage, they call
Ms. Ray. "I'm at peace with it," she said. "I'm willing to be the
local character."
Ms Ray captivates kids of all types. Hayley Flesher, who says "I don't
believe in the homosexual lifestyle" and who favors a strict dress code, is
taking her third class with her. "I love her," Hayley said. "She
likes you to learn, which makes you excited as a student." Joe Bradley
knew of Ms. Ray from older kids. "I hear pretty much the sky's the limit
in Ms. Ray's class," he said. Harold White built his schedule around Ms.
Ray's media course. "She's not as suppressed as most people here," he
said.
No one was more excited about the first day of school than Ms. Ray. She
came in a week early with a vacuum cleaner and Windex to clean her room.
"I'm probably more worked up than they are," she said the night before school.
"They'll have on new clothes, they'll be excited, but they'll act like they
aren't."
NEW students learn that Ms. Ray may be wondrous but she's tough. Over the
summer they had to read three novels and write three essays, to be handed in the
first day. "What if I don't have it?" said a boy.
"Zero," Ms. Ray said. "You were warned." They had homework the first
night -- contrast two sets of song lyrics using a list of 67 rhetorical writing
devices she handed out.
To get to know the students, she assigned brief essays in class on how they are
unique. A girl wrote that she played eight instruments. A boy liked
anchovies. Another girl had just moved here. "Well, welcome to
Huntington High," said Ms. Ray. "It's a wonderful school. You're
going to love it here."
Yesterday, Ms. Ray met with her two clubs. She is always involved in some
cause, and is helping run the school's relief drive for Hurricane Katrina
victims. They planned to collect school supplies for the homeless
children. Ms. Ray told her young liberals and gay-straights that whatever
they did to help, no matter how modest, could make a difference in people's
lives.
E-mail:
edmike@nytimes.com
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