I woke up Friday morning to be phone blowing up from various people. I finally decided to answer when I saw that it was my mother calling me. She said, "I wanted to talk to you before you got on facebook." To which I said, "What happened?" "Mr. Tolliver died in his sleep last night."
Needless to say I was a mess. It took me a while to gain my composer enough to call into work and to get myself ready. I know how awful this sounds, but it's the truth. I'm more upset about losing him then I was about losing my grandfather. And let's be honest. He was the closest thing I had to a grandfather in this town. It's like losing three grandfather's in one year.
I took Tolliver's class my freshman year of high school, and had I not taken it then my high school career would've looked vastly different. Going into my freshman year, I went out for the SADD board but didn't make it. Tolliver encouraged me all year to stay involved in all the various activities SADD had. When it came time to go out for the board again, he really pushed me to go out for it again.
I knew going into it, that I had it. I realize that sounds cocky, but if Tolliver wanted you on the board, you were on the board. Regardless of what the officers wanted. I then went on to become the Vice-President, and then President.
When I graduated, I left with the intention to become the next Gerald Tolliver. I went to Indiana State (Tolliver's ado moder) as a Social Studies Ed major. I had even talked to Tolliver about when he planned on retiring. Now, I may not have continued with Social Studies Ed, but I did do half of what I set out to do which was to take over SADD when he retired.
SADD and Gerald Tolliver were a big part of my high school career. I was Tolliver's student helper my junior and senior years of high school. I hated my 6th period class my senior year, so I would go to Tolliver's room everyday during that class and then I was his student helper for 7th period. I basically spent the last half of my day in that room.
Tolliver was one of the few teachers I had that I was positive cared about who Lindsay Slone was, and who I was going to become. Even after graduating we stayed in touch. He knew my life better than most, and he always encouraged me to keep pushing forward.
I truly loved him, and my heart is broken. He will be missed greatly.
Somethings I learned from Gerald Tolliver:
-Culture is the way of life of a group of people.
-Norms are group shared rules of behavior.
-Anyways is not a word. It is anyway.
-"To be early is to be on time. To be on time is to be late. To be late, is to be left behind."
-I was worth something to someone.
-"Do what's best for the students. People are always going to be critical of what you are doing, but remember why you are there. Put the students first."
