Beech Tree News Network

March is Women in History month and the Butler County Chapter NSDAR recognizes Mrs. Christine Cox as our 2016 Woman in History. Mabel Romans Boone, Women’s Issues chairman shared some thoughts about Mrs. Christine.

Rarely in life are you lucky enough to have the same amazing elementary school teacher that your Mother and your sisters had. However, our whole family was blessed to have Mrs. Christine Cox as our teacher in Butler County, Kentucky.

Mrs. Christine taught Mama and some of her family members in the Eden, KY one room school.  Mrs. Christine taught in the Morgantown, KY Elementary School when Charlotte, Lavern and I had her as our second grade teacher.

She was always wearing a smile and overflowing with patience, so spending each school day with Mrs. Christine was a treasured experience. She dressed very classy as well, many of her outfits being designed and handmade by her. While visiting her home after her retirement she showed me many of the sets of earrings and handkerchief sets that children gave her as gifts through the years.

Mrs. Christine taught like a Montessori Teacher before most people had ever heard of the Montessori Method of teaching. It is said that 'Play is a Child's Work.' Schoolwork in Mrs. Christine's class was like play. She knew how to create a learning experience out of plain old everyday life experiences and she made it Fun!

For reading class in second grade we not only read the book but created the landscape for the book from papier Mache and powder paint mixed with water. The Great Plains and the great mountains in the West with towns in between covered long tables in the back of the room. Unfortunately I was sick and missed 40 plus school days that year so when I returned to school almost all of the creation was complete. I was so sad I missed those days.

We experienced our first Tasty Party in second grade. Mrs. Christine would take food or treats and break them into little pieces so we could all have at least a 'Taste' of something new or an everyday food. I tasted my first wheat germ at a Tasty Party. She incorporated Health into these Tasty Parties. She taught us the importance of Iodized salt in our diets so we wouldn't develop a goiter.
Riding to school one day from Doolin's Lake Farm in the truck with Daddy I yelled "Stop!" There was a dead Snake in the road. Daddy stopped and we put the snake in an old cap that was in the back of the truck. I was so excited taking that snake to school. Mrs. Christine had a gallon jar. She put the snake inside and then poured enough alcohol in to submerge the snake. He was on display in our room for months. That was a great Science Lesson. She told me many years later that there had been a little child in class that didn't like coming to school. After the snake arrived he didn't mind coming to school anymore. Amazing what a dead snake can add to a classroom!

Sometimes I would put my pet guinea pig in a brown paper bag and bring it to school. Mrs. Christine never seemed to mind. She would put him in a big cardboard box for the day so we could observe him. Then he would go back in the brown paper bag so I could get him home on the bus.

I bought my first Kodak camera that year at Forgy's Drug Store. I still have pictures of Mrs. Christine and my schoolmates taken on the playground at recess. Hula hoops were popular then so we would have so much fun at recess practicing. I also remember getting my first pair of pink flip flops that year. Memories are sweet. Many of my classmates and I continued together until we graduated from high school.

The holiday parties were so much Fun! Our Room Mothers gave neat parties. I especially remember a Beautiful Cake that a Room Mother brought at Easter covered with green coconut
grass and Easter Eggs. And Mrs. Christine always had decorations that we could color and then display in the room.

Mrs. Christine always encouraged Good Behavior because she was such a positive role model. She wanted us to live by the Golden Rule and she encouraged church attendance as well.
If we were able to go to church on Sunday we could stick a toothpick in a little round piece of modeling clay. I guess the clay represented a church pew.

Many years have come and gone since my year of second grade with Mrs. Christine. Some teachers are blessed with Gifts that Inspire and Lift us not only while we are in their class but their Gifts to us keep Blessing us all the days of our Lives. Thanks to Mrs. Christine Cox and many more Teachers in my life that still continue to bless me every day.

Anna Christine House was born on 27 October 1912 as one of 8 children to Rufus Bunyon and Nancy Josephine “Nannie” Goodall House. She lived in the Eden community and then moved to Morgantown where she married Tom Stanley Cox. Her students were her children as she had none of her own. She taught many years in the Butler County school system where she also served as guidance counselor at Morgantown Elementary before her retirement.