BE A BALLER -"Building a lifelong legacy"

Dr. Gene Harris - Building a Life Long Legacy in Education

• Coach Tim Brown, Uncommon Life • Season 1 • Episode 20

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Dr. Gene Christy Thomas Harris spent 37 years as a professional educator.  She is a true women of great faith who God has used to impact thousands of students, families and fellow educators. She retired from Columbus City Schools in 2013.  She earned her undergraduate degree in English from the University of Notre Dame and her Masters degree and PhD in Education from the Ohio State University and Ohio University, respectively.  Dr. Harris served as classroom teacher, high school principal, supervisor of principals, assistant superintendent, deputy superintendent, state assistant superintendent and for 12 years, superintendent of Columbus City Schools. 

Dr. Harris has served on a variety of volunteer boards and advisory committees including Action for Children, United Way of Central Ohio, and the Ohio University Board of Trustees, where she was chair in her final year as trustee. For 39 years, Dr. Harris has been a disciple at Mt. Olivet Baptist Church where she has served as high school Sunday school teacher, and Christ Centered Discipleship facilitator. Currently she is a member of the choir, participant in the Woman of Wholeness Ministry, chair of the Scholarship Committee, and vice-chair of the Ministry of Trustees.  Also, Dr. Harris is a Group Leader for Bible Study Fellowship, an international Bible study group. Dr. Harris is married to Stanley E. Harris, a retired career banker.  Together they have one son, Wade Thomas Harris (wife Belinda), and three precocious grandchildren, Nathan, Noah, and Naomi.

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SPEAKER_04:

Welcome to Be A Baller, a podcast where we discuss how to build a lifelong legacy. I'm your host, Coach Tim Brown. Today, we'll be talking about building legacy in education, but also the influence of a mom for a lifelong educator, Dr. Jean Harris. Before we get started, let's hear a word from our sponsor.

SPEAKER_01:

The City of Refuge Good Life Foundation is a 501c3 organization that is an affiliate of the First Church of God, led by Bishop Timothy Joseph Clark. Our vision is that everyone will have a better life through the establishment of a stable and sustainable home environment. We serve all residents of Central Ohio with a focus on residents in Southeast Columbus who are TANF eligible and or who fall at or below the federal poverty guidelines. We accomplish our mission in four targeted areas. They are workforce development, mothers' initiatives in infant mortality, youth training, mentoring and development, and college preparedness for youth from impoverished backgrounds. To learn more, please visit our website at www.corgoodlifefoundation.org. That's www.corgoodlifefoundation.org. Today

SPEAKER_04:

on the show, Dr. Harris is going to share her experience in growing up in a home that valued education and provided for others an education for decades. She's a faithful member of the Mount Olivet Baptist Church here in Columbus, Ohio. So, Dr. Harris, welcome to Be a Baller podcast.

SPEAKER_03:

It is a pleasure to be here, Tim. Thanks for inviting me. You didn't know you were a baller, huh? I did not know I was a baller. Not until I got here today.

SPEAKER_04:

You know, I heard some stories about you. Uh-oh. One administrator, he told me this. He said, you know, I love you. I love you, but if you mess up, I'll fire you. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03:

I cannot believe he told that story. I'm getting, you know, you know, you know, you was a tough one over there. Well, you know, I was serious about what we were trying to get done for kids. So,

SPEAKER_04:

and then, uh, interesting fact is that your brother was on the Cosby show.

SPEAKER_03:

He was, he was, that was like one of the most exciting times for our family. I mean, to see our brother every week on the car, he was, he was, uh, Vanessa's love interest. And he was on The Cosby Show the last season, the last full season of The Cosby Show. He did a great job. I was proud of him. He's my big brother. I was proud of him.

SPEAKER_04:

Speaking of proud, I know you're a proud Columbus, Ohio native. Can you talk about the village that raised you?

SPEAKER_03:

Well, you know what, Tim? I am so honored to have had the parents that I had and the grandparents that I had. I grew up in an extended family. When I was a little girl, my mother, my father, my sister, my brother, my grandparents, my uncle Bill, my uncle Kenneth, and his wife, Aunt Bobby, we all lived in the same house. I thought it was the best. And when my parents bought a house when I was in the second grade, my mother tells the story of how I put my hands on my hips and said, a house? We've got a house. Why are we moving? But I grew up in a family full of love. All were believers. They raised us in the church. I don't know anything else. I told a group of ladies I was in a Bible study with last week. I said, you know, I think my mother may have actually had me on the front row, on the front pew at the church. I mean, I grew up in the church, and I'm grateful for that. Did I ever stray? Yes, I did. But, you know, the Bible says if you train up a child in the way he or she should go, when they're old, they will not depart from it. So I'm grateful for that village. Went to Garfield Elementary School, where I was nurtured by largely African-American teachers and a principal who saw the best in me. And I am not one. I did not grow up in a middle class family. We did not live in the suburbs. But we were we were we were not rich economically. We were very wealthy with love and values and all of that. So I I think most of what I am is because of that upbringing.

SPEAKER_04:

This episode will air tomorrow. during Mother's Day on that time. Can you talk a little bit about some of those sayings that your mother would say that you still remember?

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, my goodness. My mother and my grandmother, you know, my grandmother used to say all the time, a hard head makes us all behind. You know, you heard that one. You know, and she said, what did she say about, she would say something like, if you, oh, shoot, and it's Mm-hmm. were clear on raising their kids to be kids of faith. They loved Jesus. They loved the Lord. And they were going to make sure that we understood exactly who he was and is.

SPEAKER_04:

Amen. As we talk about that, you and your faith, and I know family is extremely important to you. You also have a great husband, Stan. Can you talk about that

SPEAKER_03:

relationship? How all that got started? So it's funny. Stan and I will celebrate our 46th wedding anniversary next month on June 25th. And I am grateful to the Lord for that. Stan is a deacon. Of course, we both are disciples at the Mount Olivet Baptist Church, where he is a deacon. He's chairman of the trustees. He's a much beloved Sunday school teacher. People love his Sunday school teaching. And he's just a good man. He's a great father. My son said to me the other day, he said, Mom, you know, I'm the kind of father I am because of dad. I said, yeah, and I'm grateful for that. that. Wade has three kids now. Stan and I met when we were 14 years old at Linmore Junior High. How about that? We went to high school, went to Linda McKinley together. We ended up going to Notre Dame together. We got married in 77 and we've been married for 46 years. And I cannot say that it's all been goodness and light, but I can say that it has been goodness. I mean, it is a good marriage. It is a firm marriage. And I'm grateful that the Lord gave him to me.

SPEAKER_04:

Let's reflect back. How did your faith help sustain you during some challenging times in your career?

SPEAKER_03:

And I did, Tim, have some challenging times. I was an educator for 37 years, spent the vast majority of that in Columbus City Schools in a variety of roles, the last being superintendent of Columbus City Schools for 12 years. So you can only imagine the kind of challenges that I would have. Without having prayer in my life and having the faith village at the Mount Olivet Baptist Church that I had, having a praying husband, and while my mother and father were living praying parents, there are some challenges that I would not have been able to get through. Prayer works, and prayer does change things. And Jesus listens to us and advocates for us when we pray. So I I just keep going back to my childhood. I'm grateful that I was raised in the church. And I wasn't just raised in the church. I was raised to be a real believer and to really know what that Bible says and to really understand the worth of prayer. So, in short, my belief and my faith got me through some really tough times.

SPEAKER_04:

I know. Why was a good education so important to you and your family? What was it about education?

SPEAKER_03:

You know, my parents told us that... Education was very significant that nobody, you know, there were, I grew up in the civil rights era. So there were a lot of things going on. In fact, Martin Luther King was murdered on my 15th birthday. I'll never forget that. We were just getting ready to sit down to ice cream and cake. And this came on the news. So I was raised in the height of the civil rights era. And so my parents always told us that while people can take things away from you, they can never take things away from you. Take your faith or your education away from you. I wish you were here to tell it. I am the youngest of three siblings, an older brother and an older sister. And my mother said we would be out in front of the house on the steps playing school. And me, the baby, the youngest one, I was always the teacher. I was always the teacher. I had them sitting on the steps, but I never veered from that. Only briefly, my second semester of my senior year in college, I briefly flirted with the idea of taking the LSAT and going to law school. And then I thought, I don't want to do that. And so I want to be a teacher. It is who I am. It is what I want to do. So I am blessed that God afforded me that opportunity.

SPEAKER_04:

We're all blessed by it as well, that you stayed on that path. We know God has a plan for us. He does. He has a plan and a purpose for us. As you were a classroom teacher, what inspired you to go into administration?

SPEAKER_03:

So I loved teaching, Tim. I really did. I loved being in the classroom with the kids. I taught English seventh, eighth, and ninth graders at every junior high. I love those kids. And I still see some of them. They're not kids anymore. Some of them are grandparents. But I thought that I could do more for more people if I had a bigger role. And so I thought that if I could work with teachers to work with students to see the value in every single student, not just the kids that are at the top And I will tell you, my days as a high school principal, which is when I met you, those were some of my best days in education. I loved being a high school principal. Don't ask me why, because it would be another podcast. We'd have to take another whole podcast for

SPEAKER_01:

that. The City of Refuge Good Life Foundation is a 501c3 organization that is an affiliate of the First First Church of God led by Bishop Timothy Joseph Clark. Our vision is that everyone will have a better life through the establishment of a stable and sustainable home environment. We serve all residents of Central Ohio with a focus on residents in Southeast Columbus who are TANF eligible and or who fall at or below the federal poverty guidelines. We accomplish our mission in four targeted areas. They are workforce development, mothers initiatives and infant mortality, youth training, mentoring and development, and college preparedness for youth from impoverished backgrounds. To learn more, please visit our website at www.corgoodlifefoundation.org. That's www.corgoodlifefoundation.org.

SPEAKER_04:

What were some of those teachers, maybe administrators that were mentors in your life?

SPEAKER_03:

Yes. Well, Marie B. Stinson, African-American woman who started in Columbus schools as a school secretary, worked her way up to, I mean, she went to college. She got her degree. She got a PhD from The Ohio State University. She became, she was a teacher. She was a principal at Central High School. And she ultimately, before she retired, she was an executive in human rights. of resources and personnel in Columbus schools. She was amazing. She was also a member of Mount Olivet. And so I got to see her up close and personal. I got to talk to her about different things. She was just an amazing teacher. And then teachers that I had, when we were in high school, Jane Jacobson, she was a white female from Kansas. And there's a reason I'm telling you this. And she was one of my favorite people in the world. She was the librarian at Lyndon McKinley High School. I graduated, Stan and I graduated in 1971. She amassed the largest collection of African-American history books in the city of Columbus at that time. I mean, I don't know that anybody else has done that. And when I would walk in the library, she would say, Jeannie, Jeannie, come here. This is the book that you're reading this week. Yes, ma'am. Mrs. Jacobs said, I will read this book. And so I became I always liked to read, but I became a voracious reader because of her and the kind of books. And she, I just, I love the fact that she was all about us. And I wanted to be that kind of educator.

SPEAKER_04:

It's something how people, you know, they see the glory, but they don't know the story. And you came full circle from a girl from London to a superintendent of the same school district. I know, that's crazy, isn't

SPEAKER_03:

it? That's crazy. How was that experience? How was that when they announced it? You're going to be a superhero. I have no idea. I mean, it's just Jesus. I mean, you know, you said something earlier, Tim, that is very true. God has a purpose and a plan for every one of our lives. And I didn't do that on my own. It's Tim. My parents did not go to college. My dad did not. He worked every day and took care of his family. He didn't graduate from high school. My mom had one semester at Tennessee State and she said, then she got scared and she went home. And then my mom used to always tell me, she said, I admire you so much. You're doing everything I wanted to do. And I was like, mom, I am here because of you. I'm not here because of myself, but the village that you asked me about, the professionals that I've worked with, all of those people got me to where I didn't do that by myself. I did not. I went to school and I tried to do as well as I possibly can, but all of those people around me, Right, right. I got the job. And then I said, wow, I got the job, which means I got to do this job now. So, but that's always funny when I think about it. But God was with me every step of the way. And I appreciate him for that.

SPEAKER_04:

This is a legacy broadcast. So when we think about legacy, what is the legacy of Dr. Jane Harris?

SPEAKER_03:

Wow.

UNKNOWN:

Wow.

SPEAKER_03:

First of all, I have to tell you, I did not go into the business to create a legacy. I didn't even think about it. You know, all I ever wanted to do is to make sure that young people had an amazing opportunity educationally, no matter where they came from, whether they came from the poorest neighborhood in the city of Columbus, or if they were in one of the middle class or upper class neighborhoods, I wanted them to have the very best. And so I hope what people will remember is not all the big things that came about, the building programs and graduation rates increased and all of that, but that individually, I was trying to help some child, some family to move forward. One

SPEAKER_04:

of your big projects, and I love this one, you made a commitment that every child would have a mentor. Yeah. Why is that so important?

SPEAKER_03:

Well, the research actually shows that every child that has someone significant in their lives outside of their family or their parents is much more likely to stay in school, to graduate, to stay away from drugs and all of those things. And so my thought was, if we paired each one of our kids with a mentor, they would be much, it would increase their likelihood, not to say that their teachers and their parents and the folks at church and in the community and Girl Scouts and all of those folks are important. But if they had an individual that I could talk to about everything, I might be afraid to talk to mom about some stuff because she might go off.

SPEAKER_05:

She

SPEAKER_03:

might do that. Or I might be hesitant because I don't want to disappoint them. But if I've got somebody who I know 100% is in my corner, they're not in my family, I'm more likely to stay on track.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, we got involved in mentoring my wife with a program. One thing that really got us was that each child needs a non-judgmental adult. Yes. And to me, that's what that mentor is. Well said. Non-judgmental adult. Don't really know. I'm not judging you. Right. Just

SPEAKER_03:

non-judgmental. I'm not judging you. I'm not raising you. I mean, you know, as a mom, even now, I mean, we have one son. He's 43 years old. He's married to a lovely He married the person he was supposed to marry, praise God. And they have three great kids. But even when I talk to him, I'm still his mother.

UNKNOWN:

Right.

SPEAKER_03:

I mean, even though we're friends and all of that, he's my son, I'm still his mother. So he needs people outside of my husband and me, his dad and I, to pour into him in a way that we can't do because we're his parents.

SPEAKER_04:

One thing I love about you, you've always been a champion for giving others an opportunity to success. Think about how we met. You gave me my first job as a varsity girls basketball coach. Isn't that crazy? Not a freshman coach, not a JV coach. I got to be a You fought for me to get that job. But what is that about you? You always bring that with a given person's opportunity.

SPEAKER_03:

I think it's because of everything that I've told you earlier that there were so many people in my life who looked at me and decided she can go somewhere. She can do something. And it wasn't because of my address. I grew up as an elementary student for people who know Columbus at three 344 North Garfield, which is right off of Mount Vernon Avenue. There's nothing about that address that's going to say Superintendent of Columbus City Schools. Think about it. And then our next house, the house that my parents bought, that was my grandparents' house, was at 1209 Brentnell Avenue. It's on Brentnell between Woodward and 17th. There's nothing about that address that says PhD Superintendent of Columbus Schools. Oh, and it doesn't say one of the first women to graduate from the University of Notre Dame. Those addresses don't say that. So... I just thought that is my responsibility to pay forward. It's my responsibility. And I love people. And I want to see people happy and moving forward.

SPEAKER_04:

As we kind of wrap, come around the corner, what word of encouragement would you give to teachers currently teaching? And then secondly, how about speak a word to young people aspiring to become teachers to impact the next generation?

SPEAKER_03:

You know what? The advice would be pretty much the same. Don't quit.

SPEAKER_05:

It's

SPEAKER_03:

hard. I know it's harder today than it was when I started teaching in 1975. I know that for a fact. I know that it's more complicated. But here's what I know for sure. The God that I believe in and that I believed in then is the same God who is available to everybody today. They are available. And so I would say don't quit and trust God.

SPEAKER_04:

Lastly, I heard you talk about the difference between success Success and significance. As you think about your life, you've had a life full of success. What is that significant part?

SPEAKER_03:

Here's the significance. You know, when I am sitting in a restaurant with my husband and a person comes up to us and says, you might not remember us, but you helped my daughter get into college. Or you may not remember us, but my son was not going to graduate from high school. And a couple of times this did happen. And you personally tutored them. You personally tutored them so they could get across the finish line. Or you may not remember this, but you spoke a word into my son or my daughter, and now they're a medical doctor. I mean, these are real stories. These are real stories, Tim. So when I see the young people doing what God has purposed in their lives, and I had some bit part in that, that's where the significance comes in to me.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, Dr. Harris, I want to thank you for this inspirational word and conversation One thing comes to mind as we were talking, you know, the Bible says as one man plants another waters, God gets to increase. And to me, that kind of summarizes, you know, for some students, you were planting those seeds. Others, you were pouring some water on them. But ultimately, God gets to increase. Amen. God is really using your life to increase the kingdom. Well, thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you, Jim. Let's bring us to the end of this episode. Thanks to our special guest, Dr. Jean Harris, for sharing her wisdom for many decades of serving. She'll Thank you. Thank you for joining us during this enlightening discussion on building a legacy of service. Hope that this episode was beneficial to you. And as always, thanks for listening to Be A Baller podcast.

SPEAKER_02:

If you enjoy our show, please share this podcast with your family and friends. Be A Baller podcast is available on all major podcast stations. Be sure to come back next week as we continue to discuss on how to build a lifelong legacy. Until then, don't forget to be a baller. This podcast was created by Coach Tim Brown. It was edited by Teron Howell and produced and recorded by the video production class of Worthington Christian High School.