Around this time of year, Ruby Rice comes to mind because April is her birth month. On her 96th birthday, I wrote a
tribute about the overwhelming influence she had on my teaching style and
skill, explaining how I knew Mrs. Rice for my whole life. Finally, I told of how we shared a deep commitment to Jesus. This blog
posting, She Taught Me Almost Everything
I Knew About Teaching Third Graders can be accessed at
Recently, as we approach her 98th birthday, I recalled so many
faces of third graders impacted by her. During our stint of teaching third
graders together, she read aloud to all third graders daily as I taught first
and second grade music. This resulted in her developing a bond with all third
graders each year.
This week while feeding cattle and thinking about Mrs. Rice
reading daily to the students, I remembered how much she valued students
enjoying her shared reading time. The face of a member of a nationally-recognized
roping team popped into my memory. He loved to see Laura Ingalls get the best
of Nellie Olsen!
Many of her students are vital forces in our communities of
Fairfax and Ralston today. Mrs. Rice taught our district's elementary principal as well as
so many of my former teaching colleagues at Woodland Elementary School. Our
pastor was taught by Ruby Rice. Business owners in our communities reaped the
benefits of Mrs. Rice’s rigorous expectations insuring learning basic math
facts, necessary reading and grammar skills. Throughout our area, there are upstanding
citizens in healthy marriages, raising good kids and making this a good place
to live. A myriad of them spent their third-grade year in Mrs. Rice’s classroom
at Marlin Crowder Elementary School.
I recalled a group photograph of our combined third grade
classes. Pulling it from its storage envelope, I saw several fresh-faced third
graders in the photo. They produced children who proved to be excellent
students in my third grade classroom.
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| The Group Photo that Triggered This Blog Posting. |
As I slowly perused the children standing between Ruby and
me, I calculated the collective success among that class of third graders. How
many more groups of third grade students had Mrs. Rice taught? Many of those
students matured into adults whose successes ripple and echo through the
decades that have passed over these 35 years. It is astounding how many people,
in various parts of our nation, have been influenced for the good by these former
students taught by Ruby Rice.
Mrs. Rice valued her life-long marriage to her husband, her
much-loved four children, her cherished grandchildren and her extended family.
With diligence, she worked conscientiously as she taught each group of third
graders. Yet to her dying day, Ruby esteemed, as most-treasured, her
relationship with the Lord. As life ebbed from her, she clung to the promises
in His Word until she saw Him face-to-face.
Jesus said in Luke 6:40, The student is not above the
teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher. I have had face after face “scroll” through my mind. So many of Mrs. Rice’s students
have followed the principles she taught. She would look at each of them
sideways with her kind brown eyes and with her slight smile and comment, “I’m
not surprised at how well you’ve done.”
Those of us whose lives have been impacted by Mrs. Rice, as mentor and teacher, have
a mandate to carry on her legacy. The world has changed so much since her days of
teaching, but her powerful God and His Word are unchanging. For that reason,
may we embrace and live out King David’s words in Psalm 31:24:
Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart,
All you who hope in the Lord.
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