Dr. George started her talk by giving us a short history of her childhood.  She was born in a small town in Louisiana, the fourth of six girls.  Neither of her parents graduated high school, but they made certain that all six girls attended college.  Dr. George said that she felt that she grew up in a loving home but did not have the easiest childhood.  Her father was a functioning alcoholic, meaning he did not drink during the week when he worked, but from Friday evening until Sunday night drank heavily and became abusive toward her mother.  She and her sisters would frequently leave the house and stay gone as long as they could to avoid the scene at home.  Even though they did not have much money her mother always made sure the girls were properly dressed and clean when going to school.  She remembers that the teachers at school always hugged the dirty and poorly dressed kids because they felt they needed the hugs the most.  She felt that she could definitely have used many hugs over the years but got none due to the teachers’ perception of reality.  She vowed that, being put in the same situation, she would not discriminate on the sake of appearance as that gave no real indication of what was happening in their lives.

 

After graduating from high school, Dr. George headed off to college at Nicholls State University.  She was a smart kid, but had little self-discipline and ended up flunking out of school, mainly due to not showing up for her classes.  Her mother informed her that she would have to find someone else to pay for her education going forward, so she turned to the one person she knew who was willing to do that, which was Uncle Sam.  She joined the military and through her training learned the self-discipline she lacked along with how to be a part of a diverse team and learned to depend on others who didn’t look like her.  Through the G.I. Bill she was able to complete her education, achieving her Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctorate degrees.

 

She has no children of her own, but considers all the kids in her school to be her surrogate children.  She fell in love with and married a man 30 years her senior, and advised all of us to love unconditionally and never let others tell you who you can or can’t love.  After being named principal of Homer Drive Elementary, she wanted to find a way to reach out to her students beyond the classroom and came up with the idea for “Tucked in Tuesdays” where she reads a book on her Facebook Live account to all of her students who tune in.  She even wears a “onesie” pajama outfit while she reads so that it is like she is actually there reading them a bedtime story.  Soon after she started “Tucked in Tuesdays” people outside of her students and their parents found out about it and started to tune in.  She now has hundreds of people who tune in on Tuesday, many from other parts of the world.  So many people were impressed by what she was doing that she began to get offers for media appearances.  She appeared on “Good Morning America” and ”The Steve Harvey Show”.  Dr. George showed us a clip of her appearance with Steve Harvey which was extremely entertaining and very heart-warming.  Mr. Harvey surprised her by offering to pay for school uniforms for every student at Homer Drive.

 

Her star was rising and everything was going in the right direction – and then she received her School’s STAAR test results.  Homer Drive Elementary received an “F” rating.  She realized that it wasn’t enough for her to focus on the whole child, there needed to an organized community effort to raise the level of academic achievement.  Dr. George formulated a plan to involve parents and other members of the community to help improve the performance of students at the school.  This year’s results will be a gauge of how successful the new program is at making a difference.

 

Dr. George showed how someone could come from less than ideal circumstances and still achieve their dream and make a difference in a lot of lives.  She urged us to never give up on our dreams and to continue to push.  When questioned, she said the best way Rotary could help her kids would be to spend time with the students letting them know that they are valued and that people care about their dreams.  Dr. George received a rare standing ovation from the Rotary group.