Teachers of Detroit: Mrs. Courtney Valentine

“Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition.” (Jacques Barzun)

If teaching is an art form, then Mrs. Courtney Valentine, who teaches 8th grade math at the Detroit International Academy for Young Women, is an artist. Mrs. Valentine has been the Sustainability Coordinator of DIA’s Green Team for the past five years and a teacher at Detroit Public Schools for seventeen.

Mrs. Valentine is always keeping the team active and enthusiastic about learning. This year, the girls are planting an herb garden at the school to teach them about agriculture, the difference between herbs and spices and learn what it takes to grow their own food. The plan is for the girls to take some of these herbs and use them in a recipe of their choosing. Mrs. Valentine is also planning a trip to the Michigan Science Center at the end of May, so the girls can explore their city and learn about science.

It was a decision made on a whim that brought Mrs. Valentine to DPSCD. She had a friend who had an interview set up with DPSCD and told Mrs. Valentine that she should apply. She figured since she already had a decent job working at the post office, she had nothing to lose and agreed. The interviewer was so impressed with Mrs. Valentine he basically hired her on the spot. Anyone who knows Mrs. Valentine or was fortunate enough to have her as their teacher, can tell you what a good decision DPSCD made in hiring her. “She cares about us; she wants to see us grow up and graduate,” said one of her students. They also noted that she is funny, she gives them chances to make up work, and most importantly, she gives them candy and homework parties.

As a young student herself, Mrs. Valentine was always a good kid. She had never been grounded or gotten in trouble for anything, so when she got pregnant at sixteen it came as quite a shock to her parents. Although they were supportive and helped watch her son so she could finish school, they told her she had to move out since she was starting her own family now. There were no hard feelings, it was simply what needed to be done. She graduated from Cass Tech High School, and not long after that when she was 19 years old, she had her second son. Her mom had agreed to babysit while she was in class, so Mrs. Valentine continued to pursue her education. She received her Associate’s from Davenport in Computer Information Systems (CIS), received her Bachelor’s from Wayne State in Marketing and finally her Masters in Education.

Her passion for school and learning most likely comes from her father. Mrs. Valentine’s dad moved to Detroit from the south around 1969. She describes her father as a goofy guy who enjoyed gardening and valued education highly, mainly because he was unable to pursue his own education and faced hardships directly because of it. As one of fifteen children, her dad had to quit school in 6th grade to help support his family. Mrs. Valentine describes it as “functionally illiterate,” because her dad was very intelligent and had more common sense than most. Once he got to Detroit, he got a job at Deaconess Hospital working in the morgue. Oddly enough, it was here that Mrs. Valentine’s parents met. Her mom was a nurse at Deaconess, and even though their environment was far from romantic, they fell in love. Her dad wanted to become a security guard at the hospital so her mom could stay home and raise their family. Her mom helped her dad study so he could pass the required test and he did, but he knew he wouldn’t have been able to do it without his wife. Naturally once he had his own kids, he made sure to stress the importance of getting an education to them so they wouldn’t have the same struggles. “He always told us: no matter what, get an education. School is the most important thing,” said Mrs. Valentine. Unfortunately, her own journey to get a proper education wasn’t free from hardship either.

When she was 20 years old, her father passed away suddenly from a brain aneurysm; he was only 47 years old. Then, almost exactly one year later, her mother died from complications due to voluntary heart shunt-replacement surgery. Her mother went in to have an old heart shunt replaced with a newer, more efficient one, which the doctors promised would work better and last much longer. Something went wrong during the surgery and instead of bringing her mom home to help her recover, she brought her home to take care of her. Her mother, who was only 40 years old at the time, could no longer do the simple things she enjoyed; things like read a book or even hold a conversation. “It was like she was there, but she wasn’t,” said Mrs. Valentine. She was still in undergrad at Wayne State and doing her best to take care of her mother, until it got to be too difficult and she called hospice in. Considering that her mom was so young and that her death was caused by an unnecessary procedure, a simple medical explanation as the only cause doesn’t feel quite right. “She died of a broken heart I swear, she just couldn’t be here without my dad,” said Mrs. Valentine. Dealing with the sudden loss of both parents within one year was extremely hard, yet Mrs. Valentine truly believes that everything happens for a reason, including getting pregnant at 16. “I don’t think I would have made it if I didn’t have two kids to care for, because I knew I had to be there for them.” Although it was by no means an easy thing to do, she kept moving forward with her children as her motivation.

So, Mrs. Valentine brought her two kids to school with her. They would sit outside her class and work quietly by themselves until it was over. She would continuously pop out of class every ten minutes and check on them, but her kids never misbehaved. Her boys were 7 and 5 years old at the time and they would sit through a two-hour class. Anyone with kids knows how hard it is to get them to sit still for two minutes, let alone two whole hours. Despite these challenges, she graduated with her Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Wayne State and even went on to get her Master’s degree in Education. When asked what her dad would think, Mrs. Valentine said that she thinks he would be happy. It is safe to say that if he were here and could see all the work she has done and continues to do, he would be filled with pride.

That sense of pride and appreciation for teachers, as well as the value placed on getting a good education, seems to have been lost somehow. After 17 years of teaching, Mrs. Valentine has noticed that society’s regard for teaching as a profession has been on the decline. It is hard to ignore the fact that teachers don’t get nearly as much credit as they deserve. Classroom management can sometimes be the biggest challenge, but Mrs. Valentine maintains a warm, loving environment for her students and will spend extra time making sure they are learning and staying on track. “If you treat them with kindness and compassion you get so much more from them,” says Mrs. Valentine, and if you spend any amount of time in her classroom, it is clear that her method is working.