Draper, Sharon Mills 1952–

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Sharon Mills Draper 1952–

Educator, writer

As an author, poet, and master educator named 1997 U.S. Teacher of the Year, Sharon Draper has introduced thousands of children and young people to the world of words. Draper said that teaching has been her “calling and vocation,” describing herself as a teacher who “teaches because I must. It is in my heart and soul; part of the definition of me. I end up teaching wherever I am.” As a teacher who has also become a writer she has testified to the value of story and the power of words to generations of students. Her published work, including two young adult novels, a series of juvenile fiction, and two collections of poetry has been grounded in the conviction that books could and must speak to the lives and dreams of young readers. Choosing African-American male characters has been Draper’s way of giving the power of words to African-American young men.

Born to Victor and Catherine Mills in 1952 in Cleveland, Ohio, Draper was the eldest of three children raised in a close-knit neighborhood. Her father worked as a hotel manager and her mother as an administrator at the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Theirs was a family where education was a given. The question was not “would you attend college, it was where and to study what,” Draper said. In her home, books were part of everyday life. Reading and the learning that naturally flowed from written words surrounded Draper and her siblings. Schools and schooling were always considered an open door through which the three Mills children were expected to walk with success.

Taught Students the Value of Writing

Sharon Draper’s vision, in the classroom and as she wrote, has been to challenge young people to embrace learning without limits and without hesitation. She credited her family and early schooling with giving her the gift of an unlimited love of learning. Draper entered Cleveland Public Schools in the 1950s from a home where she had grown up surrounded by books. Her mother read stories, poems, fairytales, and nursery rhymes to Draper and her siblings from the time they were very young. She recalled a teacher who once “gave me O’s for outstanding, saying an A wasn't good enough.” A fifth grade teacher gave Draper and her fellow students poetry by Langston Hughes and Robert Frost. They read and

At a Glance…

Born in 1952 in Cleveland, OH; daughter of Victor Mills (a hotel manager) and Catherine Mills (newspaper administrator); married Larry Draper, 1971. Education: Pepperdine University, BA, 1971; Miami University of Ohio, MA, 1974.

Career: Cincinnati Public Schools, teacher, 1970-97; author, 1991-,

Awards: Coretta Scott King Genesis award for Literature, 1995; American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults award, 1995; Ohio State Teacher of the Year, 1997; U.S. National Teacher of the Year, 1997; National Board Certification, National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, 1995; Board of Directors, National Board for Professional Teaching Stan-dards, 1997; National Council of Negro Women’s Excellence in Teaching Award, 1997; Delta Kapa Gamma Honor Society for Women Educators.

Addresses: Office —c/o Janell Agymeman, Marie Brown Associates, lnc., 990 NE 82 Terrace, Miami, FL, United States 33138.

loved Shakespeare. “We didn’t know we weren’t supposed to be able to do that in fifth grade. She gave it to us and we loved it,” Draper said. “It was part of making me the teacher I am today.”

Draper completed secondary school in the Cleveland Public School system, taking advanced and AP course-work. She attended Pepperdine University as a National Merit Scholar, majoring in English. Upon graduation in 1971, Pepperdine offered the then-20-year-old a teaching position and opportunity to pursue a Master’s degree. She declined, returning instead to Ohio where she married and assumed a teaching position in the Cincinnati Public Schools where as of 2003 she still spent each day on the educational frontline. Draper knew even then that teaching at the high school, not the university level, was where she belonged.

In the classroom Draper soon became known among students as a challenging and no-nonsense educator likely to recite selections from The Canterbury Tales from memory or launch into a discussion of issue-laden contemporary books. Nearly half her senior English students went on to become teachers themselves. As an educator who saw joy and challenge as partners in the learning process, Draper looked for ways to capture and challenge her senior students, wanting them to stride away from high school with a sense of confidence and accomplishment. She assigned a lengthy, demanding research paper due in the last quarter of her students’ senior year. Designed as a test and challenge of skills in writing, analysis, and research, the assignment soon was dubbed “The Draper Paper.” Within a few years t-shirts were designed to be doled out only to those hardy survivors of Draper’s literary challenge. She once spotted a former student at the airport in London wearing one of these shirts. Who else would dare to sport an “I Survived the Draper Paper” t-shirt? Juniors “start to tremble just hearing about it,” Draper said. This master-teacher was as respected as she was in demand among students at Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati. She would not have it any other way.

Started Writing Career

Draper’s first personal venture into writing came when a student handed her a writing contest application and said, “Why don’t you write something?” The resulting short story “One Small Torch” was chosen from 20,000 entries as the winner of the 1991 Ebony Magazine Short Story Contest. According to an interview she did with Ebony magazine, the day after the magazine hit stands Draper started receiving phone calls and letters congratulating her on her story and her win. “Her most treasured letter came from Roots author Alex Haley. ’It was on his own letterhead and in his own writing…. To get a letter from Alex Haley, is that powerful or what?’”

That first success was impetus for Draper to combine her love of teaching with her love of words and story as an author and poet. Her first novel, Tears of a Tiger, grew out of Draper’s recognition that powerful, once-timely works by authors like Dickens were missing the mark with her students. She wanted to create a contemporary book of literary quality to reach the cultural, ethnic, and daily realities of students in today’s high school classrooms. Her novel’s main character, Andy, was the drunken driver in an accident that killed his best friend. Draper encouraged young writers by telling the story of rejection by 24 of 25 publishers to which Tears of a Tiger was sent. Once published, this book was affirmed as “strong, vivid, and ringing true” in School Library Journal. It was embraced by young readers and received both the 1995 American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults and Coretta Scott King Genesis Awards.

A 1997 sequel, Forged by Fire was her second novel. It was the second novel in what would become the “Hazelwood High” trilogy. Forged by Fire was about Gerald, one of Andy’s—the main character in Tears of a Tiger —basketball teammates. The conclusion to the trilogy was Darkness before Dawn, which followed Keisha, Andy’s ex-girlfriend through her last year of high school. Her first volume of poetry for children was accepted by Boyd’s Mills Press.

As a classroom teacher and mentor to novice educators, Draper knew that even the best contemporary titles often failed to draw young boys into the world of reading. Fewer books still were written with young African-American boys in mind. Her next venture, the Ziggy and the Black Dinosaurs series, was written for those young readers. “I know what interests kids,” Draper said. “I know what will catch them and make them readers in spite of themselves.” In Lost in the Tunnel of Time, Ziggy and his fellow clubmates, the Black Dinosaurs, discover a tunnel once used as a station on the Underground Railroad. Always the teacher, Draper filled the book with history, knowing students would absorb the information effortlessly because of the strong, interesting story. “I tell my students that if they learn nothing else in my class, I want them to understand that a powerful connection exists between historical and cultural events and the literary creations of the time,” Draper told the Ohio Department of Education upon her selection as Ohio Teacher of the Year in January of 1997.

Her next book was “Double Dutch,” a story about a girl, Delia, who can not read, but has somehow managed to make it to her ninth grade tests before she thinks she’ll be found out. She’s worried about being discovered because it would mean that she could not continue competing in the Double Dutch jump rope contests that she loves. In 2003 Draper published “The Battle of Jericho.” In this novel, according to Publishers Weekly, Draper “conveys the seductive power of teen clubs and the dangers of hazing rituals.”

Became Teacher of the Year

While her writing continued on, Draper was also named both Cincinnati and Ohio Teacher of the Year, and in 1997 Draper was awarded the highest award a teacher can acquire, the coveted U.S. Teacher of the Year Award. She was given the award in 1997 by President Clinton at the White House. Being named U.S. Teacher of the Year brought diverse facets of Sharon Draper’s life and personal gifts together. As a master-teacher and mentor of other educators, Draper was an able spokesperson for her profession. As a creator of fiction of interest to hard-to-reach students, Draper was an able model for high standards and innovative teaching. As a teacher “by calling and vocation” she was a spokesperson for the value of teachers and teaching to every child and every community.

As Teacher of the Year, Draper spoke to and on behalf of educators across the country. “I was singled out, but there are thousands of teachers doing a wonderful job who receive no recognition,” she said. “Teachers who work all year with a class of 25 or more. At the end, every child is confident, loves school, and is ready to move on to the next grade. Does that teacher get her picture in the paper? Is he invited to speak because of an excellent job done? My privilege and challenge as Teacher of the Year is to speak for and about those teachers. The ones teaching in every school and every community who are just doing their jobs.”

As spokesperson and master-educator, Draper encouraged school systems and communities to re-think the place and contribution of teachers. “Teachers need affirmation and validation,” Draper said. “They deserve respect and support. They need space… time to think and reflect… and to learn.” Draper called the teacher-student connection a spark where true education happened. “We must find that spark, wherever it occurs and fan it into a flame. We need to ask ourselves where and why true education is happening and try to duplicate those conditions, increasing the probability of its happening again and again.”

Teachers and students in every state in the U.S. meet each fall for Ready, Set, Goal conferences. Evaluation of past achievement is discussed. Goals for that and subsequent years are set. What are Sharon Draper’s goals? Having long-since completed a Master of Arts degree in English at Miami University in Ohio, Draper engaged in ongoing post-graduate study. Completion of doctoral studies was in her ten-year plan. Personal and professional goals also included making time to write more poetry and add to her Ziggy and the Black Dinosaurs series. Draper was interested in further literary experimentation with the goal of reaching African-American students, especially boys.

Touring and meeting with teachers as Teacher of the Year has sparked a dream to find ways to mentor and encourage teachers and quality teaching. “When a students asks, ‘Should I teach?’ I say, ‘Yes. Absolutely,’” Draper said. “Some young people think teachers don’t make enough money and don’t get enough respect. I tell them I’ll never make as much as Michael Jordan, but neither will you. I tell them if you want to make a difference in somebody’s life, then go into teaching.”

As a member of the National Board for Teaching Standards, Draper worked with colleagues within the educational community, business and community leaders, and government to develop standards by which teachers and teaching may be quantitatively and actively measured. Professional development for teachers was a personal priority that Draper addressed by writing for professional publications and speaking to educators.

“During my tenure as Teacher of the Year I have communicated the importance of creating a nurturing environment for teachers. Teaching is such a difficult, challenging job. I’d like to find ways to develop planning strategies that come not from the administration down, but from teachers up.” Spending 1997 touring the country as Teacher of the Year provided Draper with a forum for speaking—and teaching, of course, about the critical need for cooperation and bridge-building between communities and schools. Her work with the National Board for Teaching Standards challenged educators wary of accountability outside the educational community and challenged business and government to join schools as team members rather than outside critics.

Finally, Draper’s goal as education foraged ahead in the twenty-first century was to spend decades, day in and day out, in school classrooms teaching students. She would measure her success in the names of students graduating with a deep sense of accomplishment and confidence in their own abilities and skill. Her legacy would be generations of students entering colleges and universities armed with a love of learning—and wearing t-shirts declaring “I Survived the Draper Paper.”

Selected writings

Tears of a Tiger, Simon & Schuster, 1994.

Ziggy and the Black Dinosaurs, Just Us Books, 1995.

Forged by Fire, 1996.

Romiette and Julio, Simon & Schuster, 1997.

Jazzimation, Scholastic, 1999.

Teaching from the Heart, Heinemann, 1999.

Not Quite Burned out but Crispy around the Edges, Heinemann, 2001.

Darkness Before Dawn, Simon & Schuster, 2001.

Double Dutch, Simon & Schuster, 2002.

The Battle of Jericho, Simon & Schuster, 2003.

Sources

Books

Major Authors and Illustrators for Children and Young Adults, 2nd Edition, Gale Group, 2002.

Writer’s Directory, 19th Edition, St. James Press, 2003.

Periodicals

Ebony, December 1990, p. 18; May, 1998, p. 126.

Jet, May 12, 1997, p. 25.

Publishers Weekly, October 31, 1994, p. 64; June 17, 2002, p. 66; June 9, 2003, p. 53.

School Library Journal, February 1995, p. 112; August 1996, p. 142.

On-line

Chief State School Officers Official Website, www.ccsso.org/ntoy.html (January 1997).

Other

Additional information for this profile was obtained through a news release, from the Ohio Department of Education on January 9, 1997; and the Ohio Teacher of the Year Program publications, Ohio SchoolNet, February 11, 1997.

—Catherine V. Donaldson

Contemporary Black Biography