Her Story
Debi Barrett-Hayes never set out to become a teacher. She was an art major, happily spending four to six hours a day in the studio, when a snowy February evening changed the course of her life. An art professor at her college had broken her leg, and the dean called on Barrett-Hayes, then a junior, to take over the professor’s art-methods course for education majors while she recovered. What began as an emergency assignment became a calling: by the time she was asked to cover the same classes again during her senior year, teaching had become her path.
That path led to the Florida State University School, where Barrett-Hayes has spent twenty years building and chairing the Visual Arts Department for grades K-12, teaching everything from two- and three-dimensional art to drawing, painting, and Advanced Placement Art. Along the way she pursued graduate work toward a Ph.D. in Art Education, taught university courses at Florida State and Florida A&M, and became one of the earliest art teachers in the country to earn National Board Certification — one of only 22 in Florida at the time.
Her accolades reflect a career built on relentless innovation: the Milken Family Foundation’s National Educator Award, selected from 142,000 teachers statewide; the Florida Art Educator of the Year award; Southeastern Regional Teacher of the Year from the National Art Education Association; and a “Christa McAuliffe” Fellowship, whose proceeds she donated back to her school so a qualified art instructor could cover her classroom while she trained fellow teachers. She has personally written and secured hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants for her district, and has mentored dozens of teachers toward National Board Certification, both locally and across the country.
Beyond the Classroom
Barrett-Hayes built her department around the conviction that a classroom’s walls should be porous — that art belongs everywhere. Her “MagLab Alpha” project sent students to work alongside scientists and engineers at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, developing a nationally distributed, professionally published curriculum on magnetism, complete with a cast of original characters. Her “P.L.U.N.G.E.” project repurposed twelve donated Macintosh computers into a summer technology lab where students researched real-world social issues — teen relationships, censorship, drug abuse — and presented their findings at the International Conference for Computer Graphics.
When the feminist artist Judy Chicago brought a retrospective to Tallahassee, Barrett-Hayes’s students built a website and teacher packet around the exhibition and helped arrange a satellite-broadcast interview with the artist. Her “Food for Thought” program partnered her high schoolers with a socioeconomically challenged middle school, where students worked with a visiting Jamaican artist to create ceramic bowls, silent-auctioned to feed fifteen to twenty families over the holidays. Her students have also built Habitat for Humanity houses, cooked for local shelters, and organized canned-food drives — all of it, in her words, proof that “the classroom is not a place or a space but a frame of mind.”
In the wake of a promising student’s death just before graduation, Barrett-Hayes and the student’s classmates founded the Amelia Allen Memorial Scholarship Fund, auctioning the young artist’s own work to build a lasting scholarship in her name for future art students.
Philosophy Into Practice
Barrett-Hayes’s philosophy grew out of her own experience as a student with a learning disability, one she never let define her limits. She sees teaching and learning as inseparable, describing herself not as the authority at the front of the room but as “the oldest student in the class” — a fellow traveler on a shared journey of discovery.
“I feel less like a teacher and more like a ‘traveling companion’ on what I hope will be a pleasant and exciting journey… We can help each other along the way, give a lift, share a shortcut or enjoy a more scenic route.”— Debi Barrett-Hayes, Philosophy of Teaching
That philosophy shows up in her insistence that the arts are not a luxury subject but a core literacy — a way of decoding culture, history, and each other. She has spent her career fighting what she calls “the disconnectedness of human beings” and the isolation of subjects into separate silos, arguing instead for an inclusive curriculum where math, science, and art inform one another.
“There are no mistakes, only opportunities. There are many solutions to a problem, some are just better than others and I only need to find one! If I believe I CAN’T, no one can convince me otherwise. Celebrate the ‘U’ in Unique.”— Debi Barrett-Hayes, Educational Issues
In Her Own Words
“My father convinced me at an early age that I could do anything I set my mind to and I have never seen limits as boundaries.”— Professional Biography
“If I had let learning difficulties get in my way, I don’t know where I would be today… I believe that each child has a unique and personal gift or talent to bring to our lives and it is my job to help them find it themselves.”— Who Are You
“For me ART is the record of human life as we know it. Our desire to make a difference, to understand and to be understood. Art is also our connection to each other, to other times and places.”— Educational Issues
“I also like to be a rebel, a maverick and surprise people with unordinary solutions. I like to ‘break boundaries,’ ‘think outside the box’ and create something that is unique and meaningful.”— Who Are You
“Teaching keeps us young, active and creative and best of all… it provides a CHALLENGE and opportunity to impact the future.”— In the Classroom
What Others Said
“It has been said that hardship and handicaps can stimulate our energy to survive them. In Mrs. Barrett-Hayes’ case, life’s challenges have been the fuel that has enabled her to accomplish great things.”— Jesse L. Jackson, Principal, Florida State University School
“I can think of no finer example than veteran teacher, Debi Barrett-Hayes. Debi is a dynamic teacher who brings history, science, and culture to life through the visual arts.”— Glenn Thomas, Director/Superintendent, Florida State University School
“I know Debi is truly National Teacher Hall of Fame material… Debi is a great friend, mentor, and role model, I’m proud to have worked with her so closely at state, regional and national levels.”— Laura L. Hunter Null, Art Teacher/Coordinator, Florida League of Teachers
“I count myself blessed because there is such a person in my life. Her name is Debra Paige Barrett-Hayes… It is no wonder that the accolades she has received, from the Teacher of the Year in her district, to being named a Milken teacher, have been bestowed upon her.”— Susan Leff Weinstock, President, Florida Art Education Association
“There has never been a more deserving educator nominated for The National Teachers Hall of Fame.”— Steven M. Ash, FSUS Math Chair/Florida League of Teachers
“How can I be so sure Ms. Barrett has been successful in her mission? I am full-blown living proof of her teaching success… The impact of her influence remains immeasurable.”— Yun Bai, Former Student, Agnes Scott College Class of 2001
“Debi Barrett-Hayes is truly a heroine who should take her place in the National Teachers Hall of Fame.”— Phyllis Bosco, Colleague, Barry University