From the time she was an elementary student in a two-room, segregated school in a wooded area of rural Lexington County, Rosemary English knew she was destined to be a teacher.
Pre-K through third-grade students learned together in one classroom and fourth- through sixth-graders in the other. The teacher would start one group with their lessons and then move to the other children.
“When the teacher would finish working with us, then she would be explaining lessons to the other students – the fifth- or sixth-grade students – and I remember, thinking, gosh, I can see that child doesn’t understand that. If she had said it this way, the child might have understood.
“I knew then that I wanted to be a teacher. Even though I didn’t grow up with any brothers or sisters, I had a lot of first cousins, and I was always the one teaching them. I guess it’s just in my bones,” English said of her more than 40 years as an educator.
And education stayed in English’s bones. She taught high school for 21 years and was an assistant principal 15 years. After retiring, she taught for several more years in a critical-needs school in South Carolina’s so-called “Corridor of Shame,” a string of rural school districts along I-95 where students received inferior educational opportunities.
English also worked as a consultant for the South Carolina State Department of Education to help schools improve student achievement. She was on the Aiken County Board of Education for more than 20 years.
Today, English still works to educate her community through her civic work.
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, English came to South Carolina before she was old enough to remember – probably about 2, she guessed – to live with her grandparents, Adeline and Walter Brooks. Poor farmers, they lived in Dixiana in Lexington County, near where I-26 and I-77 intersect today.
“I had some amazing grandparents. They were so special to me,” English said. “They were the only parents I knew.”
English graduated from the former Lakeview High School, a historically segregated school for African-American students, in West Columbia. She received her teaching degree from Benedict College, an historically Black, liberal arts college in Columbia.
English came to Aiken in 1963 to teach – what else – English at the then segregated Martha Schofield High School. Her husband, Abram, taught social studies.
English still remembers an assembly for students and faculty on that first day of school.
“Mr. Bradby was the principal of Schofield at the time, and he was introducing all the new teachers. I remember we were sitting in the gym with all this mass of children around us, and he said, ‘And we’ve got a Ms. English, who will be teaching English,’” she said and laughed.
“And, of course, everybody just roared.”
English and her husband moved to Aiken High School in 1970 when Aiken High and Schofield merged – with ninth- and 10th-graders on the Schofield campus and 11th- and 12th-graders on the Aiken High campus – and school segregation finally ended.
In January 1985, after 21 years in the classroom, English moved to administration, becoming an assistant principal at Midland Valley High School in Graniteville for the next 15 years.
English loved teaching and being in the classroom and had not “aspired’ to become an administrator, she said. Because she had the qualifications, she always received postings for open administrative positions, but she always tossed them in the trash can. She was about to toss the Midland Valley posting when she looked up and saw Bill Clyburn, Aiken High’s principal at the time, in his office.
“I took the letter and went in and handed it to him. He read it and said, ‘You know, you ought to apply for that position.’ He got that far-off look on his face and said, ‘Yeah, you ought to apply for that position. You just might get it,’ and then he said, ‘Boy, won’t I be in a fix then,’” English said and laughed. “Just for the heck of it, I applied, and I got the job.”
As an administrator, English developed a reputation for being tough but fair, for getting to the truth when discipling students and for engaging parents in the discipline process.
“You can’t deal with all children – and I should say all people – the same way,” English said. “You have to deal with people differently but fairly. Some people think the rule says this. Yes, the rule does say that, but you’re dealing with a human being. Does it mean you break the rule? No. But do you have to adjust it? Yes.”
English’s success as an educator might be measured in the many stories she tells of former students – some maybe not her best – who thanked her later in life for the academic and life lessons she taught them.
When English went to pick up a breakfast order from a downtown Aiken restaurant several years ago, a former student had already paid her check.
“He was probably a teacher’s worst nightmare,” English said. “Even if you didn’t have him in a class, you knew his name.”
Another student recognized English while they were waiting in line at a local paint store.
“He turned around and said, ‘You’re Ms. English aren’t you?’ And I said, ‘Yes, I am,’” English said. “He said, ‘You failed me,’ and I said, ‘Well, I probably did if you didn’t do your work.’ He said, ‘I went to summer school, and you failed me again,’ and I said, ‘You really didn’t do your work then.’ I’m thinking, what is going to come next? But he said, ‘You know what, my grandmother told me you saw something in me that I didn’t know I had, and I want you to know that I’ve been out at the Savannah River Site for 10 years.’ You just cannot give up on a child. You cannot.”
English retired from Midland Valley in 1998, but just a year later, a fleeting thought and an unsolicited phone call brought her back into the classroom again teaching English.
While at home one day, English heard on the news that Allendale County had a teacher shortage.
In 1999, South Carolina declared a state of emergency in Allendale schools and took over the daily operations of the district.
“I sort of mused to myself: hmmm, I ought to go down there. I just might be able to make a difference,” English said. “That’s what I thought – just a fleeting idea. Then I let it go.”
But fate, perhaps, did not.
About a month later, English got a call from Dr. Leonard McIntyre, the South Carolina deputy superintendent of education.
“He said, ‘I was just wondering if you would be interested in going to Allendale to work.’ I said, ’Well, I might be,” English said. “He said, ‘Well, when are you coming in to sign your contract?’ I said, ‘You really are serious.’ He said, ‘Yes, I am.’”
After visiting the school, English was back in the classroom, her first love, in August 1999. She taught English for two years at Allendale-Fairfax High School.
“I tell you what. When I got to the school, I saw the school – nice looking building – but when I looked at the situation, I knew I needed to be there,” she said. “There were children. There were girls and guys, I guess, too, who were in high school and had children in elementary school. Many of the boys and girls looked like me. I said, you know what, this is the place I need to be.”
“Honestly, they were sweet children, and there was no doubt about the fact that they could learn; but they had to be instructed,” she continued. “I never had in all my years of teaching a student ask me, Ms. English, are you coming back next year? Miss English, are you coming back next year?”
English was Teacher of the Year in 1970 and a Teacher of the Month. She is a former trustee at Aiken Technical College and a former Aiken County Councilwoman for District 6. She was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention in 1988. In 2010, she received the Aiken Branch NAACP Honor for Outstanding Service on the Aiken County School Board.
When she’s not involved in community work, English likes to read and play games, especially Phase 10. She also enjoys cooking.
English and her husband, whom she met at church, raised three daughters and a son, but none of them became educators. Sherry is a medical records administrator; Crystal and Camille are mechanical engineers; and Chad is a chef. She has a granddaughter, Adeline, named after her grandmother.
Although it’s been many years since English knew in her heart she wanted to be a teacher while still a child in that two-room schoolhouse in Dixiana, the lessons she learned there and, especially, the life lessons she learned from her Granddaddy Walter and Grandmother Adeline stayed with her.
“I’ll tell you how big their influence was,” English said. “With people who really don’t know me, I’ll be talking about my grandparents, and they’ll say, ‘Are your grandparents still living?’
Read the full Aiken Standard Sunday Best article here.