For My Daughters, For My Students: Valencia Abbott’s All-In
After Valencia Abbott’s school day ended, we met to discuss her experiences as a history teacher. At the top of our time together, we discussed a quote from an article she recently wrote: “When students sense that you are all-in for them, they are more likely to give you their best in the classroom.”
“That’s not something that came about because I was in the classroom,” Valencia said. “It came about because I wanted the best for my daughters, and especially being Black, being in the area that we are in, me being a Baby Boomer, it was drilled into me that education was the thing that was going to make your life better.” Neither of Valencia’s parents graduated from high school, but Valencia’s mother ensured all her kids would get that diploma. Valencia passed that drive for education on to her daughters.
“It started with my daughters, but why should I treat my students any differently than how I treat my daughters? I want my daughters to have the best life possible. Why wouldn’t I want that for my students? And I truly believe that through education that can happen.”
Years ago, Valencia worked a customer service job, supervising package tracking. She lost that job and needed a new one immediately. She started a job as a substitute teacher soon after.
“I walked in and the assistant principal told me that this is the class from hell, that’s gone through seven subs. And it was just September!”
But at the end of the year, Valencia felt that teaching was what she should be doing with her life.
“It wasn’t even like, ‘This is supposed to be my job.’ It was like, ‘This is my purpose—I’m supposed to be a teacher. I’m supposed to be a history teacher.
Valencia’s friend thought she was “absolutely insane.” “They said, ‘You’re nearly 40 years old and you’re going to be a teacher.’” But she was determined: “Yeah, I am.”
She went back to school for her degree. “I call that my seven years of hell. It took me five years to get my master’s. There was a period when I didn’t have the money, so I had to stop and start over, and it was really difficult. I was running on this feeling like I couldn’t stop. ‘I have to work. I have to take care of my daughters. I have to do this.’ I wasn’t even thinking about me. I just had to do this thing.
“For me, it was that stereotype of being the strong Black woman. I would have been a poster child for that.” It meant putting her needs last, if they got addressed at all. But it also meant that her support system was there for her, again and again. Her first principal believed in her. If there were issues she had to deal with for her daughters, Valencia had the time and leeway she needed.
Throughout those seven years, Valencia recalls the moments she shared with her daughters at school, where she was a teacher and they were students. School was sometimes the only chance Valencia had to see her daughters because of her living situation. She remembers eating lunch with them between classes: “My middle daughter said I seem happier. We’re sitting there, barely making it, having Oodles of Noodles, and she said that I was happy.
“It’s been twenty years since that happened. The first ten years after, I dwelled on that a lot. Less so now. I’m seeing the manifestation of that hard work: I have strong, confident daughters who speak their minds, and they know I’m going to be there for them.”
Valencia wants her daughters and her students to know that the world doesn’t owe them anything. “My students owe the world everything. It’s their responsibility to create the life that they want, and it’s an honor to be a part of helping my students figure out the life that they want. I want them to be good citizens of the world.”
In the last twelve years, Valencia has led community service projects with one of her local museums. As she started creating programs, she was given the freedom to explore themes and topics she was personally invested in. “It made history a part of my life, not just, ‘I’m teaching this subject and I’m going home and doing this and creating this lesson plan.’ It became a series of undiscovered parts that I got to figure out.
“Seven years later, I would never have guessed that we would have two historical markers in our country that we can attribute to these history projects.
“Now, a lot of requests come in, asking for me as a historian. That’s just the level of professional high. I love learning in itself, and really being able to bring that to my students is what it’s all about.”