The teacher has kept an empty chair in his classroom for over 50 years for an incredible reason. Teachers are like magicians with their bag of tricks. They somehow manage to get important points across. If one technique doesn’t work, another is used. But one technique has been used by 75-year-old teacher Daniel Gill throughout his whole 52-year career.
Ever since the 1970s, his classroom at Glenfield Middle School in Montclair, New Jersey, has had an additional chair located in the center of the room. It’s not a method of punishment, nor a reserved seat for admin or a parent, but it serves as a reminder for both Dan and his students. A reminder to stay kind. Each year, he teaches lessons around Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday about the Civil Rights Movement.
Dan told today that he wanted to connect the students in a personal way to what that meant in the 1950s. When Dan was nine years old, he and his best friend Archie went to a birthday party held in the same apartment building where Dan was living. Gifts in hand, the boys arrived and knocked on the door, excited for the festivities to begin. Read the full story here ▶
