Her Story
Sarah Moss Pratt earned her B.A. in drama and speech from Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina, her English certification there in 1977, and her Master of the Art of Teaching from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1983. She grew up believing deeply in the power of education: her father studied mathematics at night after working days in a textile mill, and her mother, widowed, enrolled in community college at age fifty to earn both a high school diploma and an Associate’s Degree in Early Childhood Education. Her parents revered the teachers who had helped make that possible, and passed that reverence on to her — so she became a teacher herself, beginning a 22-year classroom career that took her from Salisbury City Schools (1970-78) to Pasadena Independent Schools in Texas (1978-79) to Durham County Schools (1979-84) and finally to McDowell County Schools in Marion, North Carolina (1984-93), teaching English, drama, speech, social studies, and driver’s education to students of every grade level and ability.
At McDowell County Schools, Pratt served as teacher and director of the Communities-in-Schools/Burger King Academy, an alternative program for at-risk students that she also applied for and secured grant funding to sustain for three years. In its first year, the Academy retrieved 30 students, grades 9-12, who had dropped out of school — and every senior who entered the program went on to graduate. She also established the Titan Pride Club, an academic incentives and awards program built because McDowell High School had no existing way to recognize academic achievement, and helped lead the push toward heterogeneous grouping across the school system, presenting the concept to teachers in two neighboring counties as well.
In 1993, Pratt was named North Carolina’s Teacher of the Year — an honor that required her to spend the following two years, 1994 through 1996, working out of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction as Educator-in-Residence. There, she served on a three-person team designing and piloting a performance-based licensure process for North Carolina teachers and conducted research on model orientation programs to support new teachers, work she planned to return from to the classroom once her term ended. Her other honors included Western Regional Teacher of the Year (1993-94), McDowell County Teacher of the Year and McDowell High School Teacher of the Year (both 1992-93), a Bryan Food for Thought Honoree recognition (1994), an Education Policy Program Fellowship (1993), a Governor’s Award of Excellence in Teaching from McDowell County (1991), student-nominated recognition in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers (1992), and two North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching Fellowships (1987 and 1990).
As North Carolina Teacher of the Year and then as Educator-in-Residence, Pratt chaired the Governor’s Teacher Advisory Committee under Governor James B. Hunt Jr., leading a series of Teacher Town Meetings held across the state and helping institute the Governor’s Entrepreneurial Schools Program. She served as an advisor to the North Carolina State Board of Education, the North Carolina Public School Forum, the North Carolina Parent/Teachers Association Board, and the Southeastern Regional Vision for Education Federal Laboratory, and sat on the North Carolina Teacher of the Year Review Committee, the North Carolina Teaching Fellows Evaluation Team, and the Teach for America Oversight Committee. She created the first North Carolina Teacher of the Year Symposium, helped launch “Just for Teachers,” a state publication explaining policy initiatives to teachers, helped establish a program providing teachers of the year with computers and training, and helped set up an electronic mail and listserv network connecting regional teachers of the year across the state.
Beyond the Classroom
Pratt sponsored the McDowell High School Junior Civitan Club, working closely with the McDowell County Civitan Club to double the club’s membership and renew its participation in district competitions; through the club, her students raised up to $1,500 each year to sponsor needy children at Christmas, played bingo with nursing home residents, ran a haunted house to help a local elementary school raise money at its Fall Festival, and tutored struggling students at the elementary level. Her students also wrote and produced original plays that toured every elementary school in each district where she taught — Salisbury, Pasadena, Durham, and Marion — and, through grant-funded projects she wrote herself, authored and hand-bound their own books of poetry and short stories for elementary school libraries, and researched and hosted literary banquets in period costume for their parents. Across her career, her successful grant writing brought in more than $400,000 to support these and other classroom projects.
An active member of local theater groups in both Salisbury and Marion, Pratt performed in numerous plays and served on occasion as technical director, and in Marion served for two years on the play selection committee. She was a co-den mother for two years and, for five years, a badge counselor and member of the Executive Council for Boy Scouts of America Troop 818 while supporting her son’s scouting, and her son’s interest in Spanish led her to sponsor exchange students from Costa Rica for two consecutive years. She served three years on the McDowell County Schools Education Foundation Board of Directors, including a term as chairperson during which volunteer membership and fundraising both grew significantly, and was president of both the McDowell County Newcomer’s Book Club and the McDowell County Supper Club, in addition to memberships in the McDowell County Hospital Auxiliary and Delta Kappa Gamma. An active member of First Presbyterian Churches in Salisbury, Durham, and Marion, she sang in the choir, taught Sunday school and Vacation Bible School, wrote a historical play for her Marion congregation’s 150th anniversary, and became the first woman elected deacon in that congregation’s 150-year history.
Philosophy Into Practice
Pratt traced her philosophy of teaching directly to her family’s own story — to grandparents and parents who, like the phoenix of Egyptian mythology, rose from the ashes of the Depression and believed education was the means of that transformation. Drawing on years in the classroom, she distilled what she called her “Recipe for an Excellent Teacher”: years of intellectual development, developing organizational skills, and practicing classroom management, layered with ongoing professional development and community involvement, continual leadership roles, an abiding dissatisfaction with mediocrity, and, above all, a lifetime of focused love and caring for young people and the future of the country.
In practice, that meant a classroom she described as student-centered and interdisciplinary — built cooperatively with colleagues across subjects so that students could see the connections between disciplines and between their coursework and their own lives, individualized to accommodate different learning styles and paces, and always oriented toward giving students a real means of publishing or presenting the fruits of their own work. She called each student’s parents at the start of every semester to share good news about a completed assignment, kept an open-door policy for parent visits, and believed firmly that teachers do not simply teach a subject — they teach a whole human being.
“This young man taught me the meaning of courage and commitment, that I can learn as much from my students as they learn from me, that every child is valuable, and that I don’t teach subject matter, I teach human beings. When a teacher concentrates on the student, every day is special.”— from her essay, “Philosophy of Teaching”
“Recipe yields: An intellectual who cares deeply for his/her students and recognizes that they are the future of our country… When ingredients ripen over a period of years, the recipe also yields minor miracles, wonderful memories, personal satisfaction and a touch of immortality through the accomplishment of your students.”— from her essay, “Philosophy of Teaching”
In Her Own Words
“My father studied mathematics at night after working in a textile mill during the day. Shortly after his death, my mother, at age fifty, entered community college earning a high school diploma and an Associate’s Degree in Early Childhood Education. Because my parents felt that the key to a happy, successful life was an education, they revered teachers who could made the dream come true… And so I became a teacher.”— from her essay, “Philosophy of Teaching”
“Student centered and interdisciplinary best describe my approach to instruction… This allows students to see the connection between our curriculum and that of other disciplines and between what they study and their everyday lives.”— from her essay, “In the Classroom”
“I don’t teach subject matter, I teach human beings.”— from her essay, “Philosophy of Teaching”
“We must attack the problem on at least three fronts: curriculum, delivery of instruction and professional treatment of teachers, including high expectations for teacher performance.”— from her essay, “Educational Issues”
“Lastly, teachers are the key to successful systemic change. Therefore, professional treatment and high performance-based standards for teachers are essential.”— from her essay, “Educational Issues”
What Others Said
“In summary, I believe Mrs. Pratt’s strengths to be: a unique effectiveness in dealing with diverse audiences and clients; a special affinity for youth with special needs and challenges; insightful ideas for community partnerships that work; and, a demonstrated resolve to give the time necessary to achieve her goals as well as to inspire others toward high standards.”— John R. Birdsong, Executive Director, McDowell Chamber of Commerce
“I have seen many Teachers of the Year serve in that capacity, none with the effectiveness of Sarah. State Board members and observers have been impressed with Sarah’s ability to articulate passionately and clearly the concerns of teachers and with her great good sense in getting to the heart of problems and finding solutions.”— Karen Garr, Teacher Advisor to Governor James B. Hunt Jr.
“In her last year as a teacher at McDowell High School, Sarah received the highest score on her teacher evaluation that our administrative staff has ever given… I am certain that there is no one more deserving than Sarah.”— Dr. Gary K. Laney, Principal, McDowell High School
“In summary, Sarah Pratt exemplifies the best characteristics of teachers. She has become one of the most influential advocates for teachers and school improvement in North Carolina. She deserves the honor of induction into the National Teachers Hall of Fame.”— Dr. David L. Ricketts, Superintendent, McDowell County Schools
“Mrs. Pratt is a good spiritual leader, is determined to help her students succeed, is warm and loving and teaches her students the skills they need… She took me to my doctor appointments, helped me get supplies for my baby and even paid my baby-sitter until I could make other arrangements. There was no excuse for not coming to school.”— Dawn Lynch, former student
“She truly exemplifies the ideal teacher and all that teaching stands for. Her philosophy that all children can learn has certainly been obvious in her career in McDowell County.”— Ralph McKinney, Board of Education Member, McDowell County Schools