Sarah Wilbanks had no idea what to expect when she arrived at St. Michael School in West Memphis in 1969. She had been called to interview for the first-grade teaching position, which came as a great surprise considering she was Baptist and had never applied for the job.
“A good Catholic friend” of hers had secretly submitted Wilbanks’ name to the Catholic Schools Office in the Diocese of Memphis. Somehow her name was passed along to St. Michael, which is part of the Diocese of Little Rock.
Then school principal R.G. Goodfellow called her in for the meeting and the late Father Thomas Donahue greeted Wilbanks at the door.
“I’ll never forget it. He said, ’So you’re going to be the new schoolmarm,’” she recalled using a strong Southern drawl on the word “marm.”
The priest’s hospitality and the school’s willingness to hire someone so “young” and “green behind the ears” won her over and she never regretted her decision.
Today the 61-year-old grandmother of six still teaches at the school she loves. “I love what I do, and I love the kids,” she said.
She doesn’t complain about the 45-minute drive from her home in Olive Branch, Miss. She explained that many of her fellow teachers have similar daily commutes to teach at St. Michael.
Wilbanks and her husband, Kenneth, have been married for 41 years. He is retired from the Memphis City Schools’ Board of Education. They were “high school sweethearts.”
Through the years she said she did have other teaching opportunities but never pursued them. She left St. Michael’s employ twice when her other two children were born, but returned each time because the school needed her.
When she began at St. Michael, she already had her 2-year-old son, Kenneth Jr. When her daughter, Christy, was born in 1972 she quit and wasn’t planning to go back.
One year later, St. Michael called Wilbanks and asked her to come back to teach fourth grade. She taught this class for 13 years and was surprised to find out she was pregnant at 41.
Wilbanks said her husband called the unexpected news, the result of “Catholic influence.”
She left again when Courtney was born. A year later in 1989, St. Michael School called and asked her to teach first grade again and she has been teaching this class ever since, she said.
“I love my first graders. I wouldn’t trade them for anything,” she said.
Her only experience before St. Michael was as a substitute for the Memphis public schools. Wilbanks said she benefited greatly from the “wonderful nuns who were real mentors to me.”
In addition to a strong academic foundation, Wilbanks said she teaches the children responsibility and that choices have consequences.
Using the “STAR Student” program, she said she likes to teach discipline “in a positive way. I will not brow beat them.”
STAR stands for “Stop, Think, Act Right.”
Students who go all week without getting their name written on the board earn a star in their “good work” folder. After earning four stars, they can redeem them for a prize from the classroom treasure chest.
“That way everybody will sooner or later get to be a star,” she said.
Wilbanks wants her students to get a solid foundation in reading, English and math. She teaches them tools “so they can be successful learners” in the future.
Most important, however, is getting her students to love reading.
“If we can hook children on reading, and let them see what a wonderful experience it is for them at an early age, then I feel like we’ve got them for life,” she said.
Wilbanks does this by giving the kids their own special place to read in the classroom. A few years ago, she had a floor-to-ceiling tree house built inside her classroom. Under the tree house is a bright yellow cast iron claw-foot tub with throw pillows inside for kids to lie in.
When students finish their assignments they are allowed to go up to the tree house or get in the tub to read.
“I don’t believe in children having to sit in their desk all day,” she said. “I don’t like to sit in my desk all day and I want them to … have somewhere to go so they know when they finish their work they have something fun to do.”
“I feel that every child can learn and I think it’s the teacher’s responsibility to find a way to help that child learn,” she said.
Michael Beauregard, current St. Michael principal, is himself a product of Wilbanks’ teaching. She was his fourth-grade teacher at St. Michael. He said she was a big influence on his decision to become an educator.
“She made teaching fun and she made learning fun,” he said. “She was the type of teacher, in my opinion, who modeled teaching so perfectly; you couldn’t help but want to think about education.”
Beauregard returned to St. Michael in 2001 as a teacher and was named principal in 2006.
“After all these years, she still makes teaching and learning fun. Children are very excited and always look forward to being in her class,” he said.
He estimated that Wilbanks had taught more than 700 students in 36 years of teaching. These days she is teaching the children of her former students. “I consider her one of our matriarchs,” he said.
“Good heavens” was her response when she learned of Beauregard’s estimate.
“You know what, I’ve never really thought about it,” she said. “A lot of those little children have touched my life.”
She is a firm believer in Catholic education. All three of her children attended St. Michael. She said they also feel confident about the education they received at the school.
At a Catholic school, Wilbanks said, children learn far more than just “book sense.” “They learn values. They learn to be good thinkers. They learn that there are consequences. And they learn that God is so important in their lives,” she said.
“Our school is like home away from home,” she said. “It’s so family oriented, and everyone cares about all of the kids.
“I think this is what has kept me at St. Michael’s for so long, because it is such a family, nurturing and caring environment, not only for the children, but also for those of us who teach there.”
Click here to return to the 2008 Back to School section index.
