By William Silveira
Rocky Road Is More Than a Candy Bar is the fourth volume of Shirley Skufca Hickman’s memoirs. The first volume started out in the small coal mining settlement of Crested Butte, Colorado, where she was born. She now takes us to her first job as a teacher after graduating from Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado.
Donovan Cartwright, Superintendent at Tulare Union High School in Tulare, California, had been a visiting professor at Western State College. He became acquainted with Shirley and recruited her to teach at Tulare Union High School. Shirley took the job without ever having been to Tulare. She was to teach English, Drama, Speech, and Dance. Shirley relates the extremely hard work she had in this first teaching assignment.
In Tulare, Shirley meets Joe Hickman; she likes his good looks and easygoing manner. Unfortunately, he’s divorced and Shirley is a good Catholic. Shirley tells about her attraction to Joe and the religious difficulties she faced in developing a serious relationship with him.
In discussing her teaching assignments, Shirley tells us about some of the students she encountered and her pleasure in working with them in dance, drama, and speech – including the junior and senior plays and a modern dance recital. It’s very apparent that she loved teaching despite all of the hard work.
It’s pretty obvious that Cartwright had burdened a new and inexperienced young teacher with too much hard work. Yet, Shirley managed it all successfully, but at a big cost in physical and emotional exertion. She also managed to reconcile Catholicism and a marriage to Joe Hickman – a task that required a lot of patience and reliance on what I conclude must have been a strong base of faith. Shirley taught at Tulare Union High School for two years and I was privileged to be in her Speech class for one year. She has amply exemplified a basic tenet in her upbringing: “Don’t be give up” – meaning don’t be a quitter, no matter what.
Once again, Shirley has given us an inspiring book, revealing her strong work ethic, human empathy, courage, and success. In reading it, I have asked myself whether it’s possible that young teachers today might be thrown so much work. I know the answer: yes – especially in schools in ghetto communities. I only hope we are graduating many young women like Shirley to become high school teachers in our school systems. I strongly recommend this book for anyone who might be interested in teaching.
| Copyright © 2020 by William Silveira |
I’m almost midway through reading Shirley’s book now myself. I would add to your strong recommendation that anyone interested in teaching read it, my own for all surviving T.U.H.S. graduates from the late ’50s to read it, and also those interested in racial attitudes in Tulare (and the San Joaquin Valley during that time). There’s a startling account in Chapter 16 of Shirley confronting her racially prejudiced supervisor and appealing to the superintendent. It was, for me, Donovan Cartwright’s finest hour.
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