Teachers Count

Tavis Smiley and Janet S. Oatess

Tavis Smiley was born on September 13, 1964 and grew up in Bunker Hill, Indiana. The talk show host, author, political commentator, entrepreneur, advocate and philanthropist is most recently known for his radio talk show, “Smiley & West” with close friend Dr. Cornel West and the PBS weekday broadcast “The Tavis Smiley Show.”

In the late 1980s he worked as an aide to Tom Bradley, the mayor of Los Angeles and in 1991 he became a radio commentator. In 1996 Smiley started hosting the talk show BET Talk on BET television and went on to host The Tavis Smiley Show on NPR in 2002 to 2004.

In 2006 The Smiley Group and Third World Press published The Covenant with Black America a collection of essays by black scholars and professionals edited by Smiley. The Covenant with Black America is a national plan of action to address the primary concerns of African Americans today—from health to housing, from crime to criminal justice, from education to economic equality. The book became the first non-fiction book by a Black-owned publisher to be listed as the number-one non-fiction paperback in America by the New York Times Best Seller list.

Smiley’s advocacy efforts have earned him many awards and recognitions including the Mickey Leland Humanitarian Award from the National Association of Minorities in Communications, NAACP Image Award for best news, talk or information series, named by Time magazine as one of America’s Most Promising Leaders and then later Time also recognized him as one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World.”

Janet Oatess has spent the last four decades with an insatiable passion to teach young people. Perhaps this drive could be traced to the genealogy on her mother’s side, where teachers amply fill the branches of the family tree, or perhaps it is just because Mrs. Oatess has stood up in front of countless classrooms and has just been herself, a unique combination of humor, straight talk and practicality.

Earning two degrees with honors from Indiana University and multiple “Who’s Who” among American Teachers’ awards, Mrs. Oatess served as English Department head at Maconaquah High School in Bunker Hill, Indiana for thirty-two years in public education. Retiring from there in the spring of 2006, “to read all the great classics she never had time for,” she remained content until the fall of that year when, according to Mrs. Oatess, “I saw the first yellow bus filled with kids headed back to school, and I was overcome with grief that I was not following it.”

These past five years Mrs. Oatess has been an adjunct lecturer in education for Indiana University at Kokomo, as well as one of their student teaching supervisors. “Everyday in the classroom across our nation there is a live performance going on, and as a teacher, regardless of whether your words to your students come forth as inspiration or as mundane dribble, you must get over yourself and try again, because it’s not about you; it’s all about them.”

This candid assessment of the role of an educator has throughout her career garnered Mrs. Oatess with a respected following of appreciative graduates. Now numbering in thousands, Mrs. Oatess cannot visit a neighboring town without running into former students. “When they come up and hug me and say, ‘I remember a time when you said this and it changed my life,’ you feel so validated. For a teacher, knowing that you made a difference in a person’s life, well it just doesn’t get any better than this.”

Reflections on Tavis Smiley

A tall and thin young man always selected a seat in the front row of my classroom in the early eighties. His name was Tavis Smiley, who, decades later, would not only produce his own television talk show for the Public Broadcasting Station, but would also become a prominent national figure in his own right. For those who taught him, however, this commendable feat was of little surprise, in spite of his modest beginnings in a small Midwestern town. Tavis always possessed a restless energy which sent him scurrying down the hallways of Maconaquah High School in constant pursuit of achievement and inquiry, whether it is his winning student body president or putting a different twist on a story for his school’s yearbook.

Regardless of which club office he was attempting to attain or which school activity he was organizing, Tavis’ formula for success was inherent in his own genetic DNA. Work hard and give much were traits derived from his stern and loving mother, who sent him and his siblings marching in single file off to church on a tri-weekly basis and into an environment where he was trained to listen. This regimented skill was further developed in high school where he placed an attentive ear on the utterances of his teachers whose sagely words of advice on the workings of government and on achieving success sent Tavis later packing up his suitcase full of dreams in a car whose engine was less confident of making it to California than its determined young driver.

The present day Tavis Smiley is not much unlike the Tavis Smiley of his youth. He is still ardently listening. The faces may have changed from teachers and administrators to dignitaries and celebrities, but nonetheless, he approaches his craft with the same heightened energy and wonderment as when he was behind different desk years ago. He is also still giving back to those who helped him prepare his way.

Returning to Maconaquah High School in 2006 to give the commencement address, Tavis informed his audience that Mrs. Oatess had shaped his commitment to academics by remarking, “If you don’t know the answer today, Mr. Smiley, you’ll know it tomorrow.” “Those words so resonated with me,” reflected Tavis, “that I built an entire corporation on them.” Therein lays the allure and true reward of being in the teaching profession. Reassuring words and simple gestures can actually transform lives.

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