Emma Richardson was facing a deadline — just one week to finish a history of the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science, one of her final assignments as English and creative writing teacher at the school.
That history predates the school itself, including two failed efforts in the Mississippi Legislature to establish the state’s first publicly funded residential high school in the mid-1980s.
Based on her reputation, the history will be meticulously researched, painstakingly accurate and comprehensive as it charts the moments and milestones of the school, which opened in the fall of 1988.
But modesty will likely prevent her from calling attention to the most recent milestone.
As much as anything, the purpose of Friday’s reception, held on the Mississippi University for Women campus, was to remedy that omission.
First at the student union, where MSMS students gathered to hear tributes from class president Alisha Burch and student government president Esmond Tsang noting Richardson’s impact on the students, and later at a reception at Cochran Hall, where Richardson’s MSMS peers and former students lavished upon her praise — and more than a few gifts — the event honored Richardson’s unique contributions to the school. Richardson is retiring Friday, the last of the original faculty members after 31 years at the school and 45 years overall as a teacher.
“This is about her, but it’s also about everybody,” said MSMS Executive Director Germain McConnell. “Since she is the last of the founding faculty and staff, this was an opportunity to recognize all of those who were here in the beginning.”
Joining Richardson for Friday’s event were Johnny Franklin, the school’s first director; Shirley Ellis, its first executive assistant; and Jack and Claudia Carter, who were also members of the teaching staff when the school opened.
“In 50 years as an educator, my time here was unique,” said Franklin, who led the school for its first four years. “At all of the other places, I was building on a history that had already been established. Here it was a blank slate. We were creating the history that others would follow. I take a special pride in being a part of that.”
Franklin noted the original faculty arrived at the school to create the curriculum a month before classes started.
“And they did that without being paid,” he said. “What does that say?”
Since its founding, MSMS has emerged as the gold standard for high school education in the state, ranking among the Top 10 public high schools in the nation whose students are taught by a faculty that is recognized among the best in the nation.
The school’s impact
It was that faculty, and in particular Richardson, that shaped the future of Anthony Thaxton, a member of the school’s first class.
“I was one of the first students here at MSMS,” Thaxton said. “I was also the first student to leave.”
Thaxton, from the town of Carriere in Pearl River County was one of 130 original students in 1988.
“I was terrible at math and science, which is not a good thing if you’re going to a school with math and science in its name.”
He quickly fell behind in those subjects. After six weeks, he decided to go back home. It was on his first day back at his old high school, Pearl River Central, that Thaxton realized he had made a terrible mistake.
For six weeks in Richardson’s English class at MSMS, he had been exposed a broad range of classic literature, learning to embrace literature as never before, primarily through Richardson’s love of the subject and her ability to inspire and motivate her students.
“My first day back at my old school, in our English class, we covered 20 vocabulary words and 20 definitions. Our homework was to write 20 sentences using those words. I knew right then I had make a terrible mistake,” Thaxton said.
In a phone call to one of his former MSMS classmates, Thaxton admitted the mistake. A short time later, he got another call, this one from Franklin, who encouraged him to return.
“You even offered to come help me pack,” Thaxton said of Franklin in his comments at the reception. “You didn’t help me pack, for the record. But you offered to.”
In his comments earlier in the reception, Franklin — seeing Thaxton among the crowd — singled him out as “probably the most talented student we ever had.”
Today, Thaxton owns his own television production company, producing among other shows the “Palate to Palette” series on Mississippi Public Broadcasting. He is also a painter, and Friday he presented Richardson and the other founding staff members pieces of his original artwork.
Although Friday’s event acknowledged the contributions of all of the founding faculty/staff present, Richardson was clearly in the spotlight, as speaker after speaking rose to pay their respects, followed by a video of former students who thanked Richardson and congratulated her on her retirement.
“It’s really been too much to take in,” Richardson said later. “I’m going to have to reflect on it and enjoy it again as I think about it.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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