Best Teacher

In Jackson, Miss., ten-year-old Edgar Nation Jr. tore a page out of his notebook and scrawled a letter telling why Miss Aline Neal was his favorite teacher. Eddie said he liked Miss Neal because she "never sent any of us to the principal's office." In fact, he liked her so much ("and she's so pretty") that last spring, when Eddie was promoted to the fifth grade at Duling Public School, he asked the principal to promote Miss Neal too.

Last week Eddie Nation's letter won his teacher a plump prize: $2,500 to improve her own education, a trip to Chicago to appear on the Quiz Kid program, and the title of "Best Teacher of 1947." Miss Neal was delighted--"not so much for myself, but because of the favorable light it places on Mississippi." Eddie was pretty happy, too: he got $100 for his heartfelt, well-spelled praise. The three judges (Northwestern, Michigan and Notre Dame professors) sifted through 33,000 letters, spent a day in the classrooms and homes of the likeliest nominees.

Like the spelling champion of 1947 (see above), Teacher Neal is the product of a one-room schoolhouse. Now 46, she took up teaching 24 years ago "because my parents believed it was the thing for nice girls to do," keeps at it now "because I love it." She gets $1,900 a year. (Teachers with college degrees make $2,900 in Jackson, but Miss Neal has not yet had time to finish her studies.) To get by, Miss Neal takes tickets after school and Saturdays at the Fix Neighborhood Picture Show.

Miss Neal wouldn't give up teaching for the world. Says she: "There is no more exalting profession in the world, except that followed by those who preach the word of Jesus. I quake in my boots when I think of my responsibilities. I feel I am rendering a service to humanity--and Lord knows, they need it."

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