A teacher with many talents has taught at Carter High School for twenty nine and a half years: Mr. Cunningham who currently teaches Contemporary Issues. He’s a stunning and fun teacher to have in class. He makes the class interesting through demonstrations of battles by using students as examples of soldiers.
Jacob Clifton, a senior, remarks, “Mr. Cunningham has killed me in every war or battle example in American history, Civil War to modern day.” He began laughing as he recalled this.
It is just one of the ways Mr. Cunningham has gotten the students engaged and made them feel like they were part of the action. Many students that had his class previously take his other class, Americans at War, just to be in his classroom again. Jacob Clifton is just one example of the variety of students that were entertained by his bizarre stories and fun ways of learning. If you had him for third block, you would find yourself practicing Kung Fu during the twenty minutes of activity time. He would grade you on participation and how well you executed the movements. Kaitlyn joked, saying that “It’s almost as if he’s training his own army for battle.”
Before being a teacher he was in the army. He was stationed in Germany during the Vietnam War. He explained that being in the army is not something you forget, when he was asked what he enjoyed most about it, he said, “Driving through Europe in the tank.”
After the war, Cunningham decided to teach. One thing he got from the army was the excessive use of nicknames. He commonly renames his students; when he was asked why, he smiled and said, “To give them something special, that somebody cared enough to name [them].” He then went on to name off some of his students. “Giggles, Smiley, and Jack Rabbit”: aka Kaitlyn Oliver, Aliyah Trammell, and Jacob Clifton.
“It’s a name that represents me!” Says Kaitlyn Oliver, a senior. Every day, a handful of students will walk up to him and he will address them by their nickname. Most students have never heard him call them by their real name.
He’s an extraordinary teacher that deserves to be recognized. He’s done a lot for his students and managed to gain respect from them. There is no teacher like Mr.Cunningham.
“He’s living history,” said Jacob.
Carter Corps News 