(Photo H/T: Some dude named Kevin on Facebook)
When people talk about finite resources, they're usually referring to some sort of precious mineral or fossil fuel like gold, silver or oil. They usually aren't talking about good teachers. But if you've spent any time working at a school, or are related to a teacher, or have a school-aged child, or have, I don't know, ever drawn a breath (have we netted everyone yet?), you know this to be a fact: There are only so many great teachers out there. By all accounts, David Fuqua (pronounced few-cue) is one of them. He's taught government and economics at Hendersonville High for over a decade. Four years ago he was named Sumner County's Teacher of the Year. Alongside his wife, Ms. Stevens, an English teacher and librarian at Hendersonville, Mr. Fuqua has become one of the school's most popular teachers, in part because he stresses critical thinking over rote memorization, a philosophy based on Thomas Jefferson's explanation for why public education exists — "To teach the young to judge for themselves what will secure or endanger their liberties" — which he calls his personal motto. "Fuqua and Stevens are the kind of teachers students remember for the rest of their lives," says James Barnes, a former Hendersonville High student and rising senior at George Washington University. "Everybody looked forward to his class." In short, Mr. Fuqua is the kind of teacher you can point to when you want to talk about a school system's finite resources. At least, he was until Wednesday afternoon...
