Tiffany Taylor-Johnson loves to dance. And her students know it.
Accepting a dare from a student, the Ladue Middle School Associate principal, who holds a doctorate from Saint Louis University, did the Whip and the Nae Nae before her students in the cafeteria at lunch. Previously, she taught the whole school how to do the Wobble.
“I like to show the human, fun side of being an educator,” Taylor-Johnson said with a chuckle. “The kids like to see their teachers and their principals doing things that they can relate to.”
That observation underpins Taylor-Johnson’s commitment to diversity and social justice as well.
Students’ backgrounds should be reflected in their learning, Taylor-Johnson said. Images, resources and authors, for example, should be identifiable to students from all ethnic backgrounds.
Taylor-Johnson believes that differences should be “recognized, valued, appreciated.”
“The world is diverse,” she said. “We are obligated to teach our students to understand and appreciate it. It benefits everybody in the long run.”
When parents within the Ladue School District gathered last year to begin a series of conversations about race within the St. Louis region following the death of Michael Brown Jr., they asked Taylor-Johnson to join them. The parents call themselves LadueCARES, with “CARES” standing for “Change Agents for Racial Equity.”
“I think it’s a great thing,” Taylor-Johnson said. “I think it says a lot about the community that parents in our community started this on their own.”
Taylor-Johnson describes her own childhood as challenging. Although Taylor-Johnson had the benefit of having a mother who “kept me reading books,” she grew up in an impoverished setting and spent time in a homeless shelter.
School, though, was her rock.
“For me, school was the place that I felt connected,” Taylor-Johnson said. “I felt a sense of stability and purpose. There were teachers, counselors and administrators who encouraged, made personal connections with me, and held me to very high standards. I vowed to one day do the same if given the opportunity.”
A native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, she earned her bachelor’s degree with distinction at the University of Oklahoma. Afterward, she taught language arts at Margaret Buerkle Middle School in the Mehlville School District for four and a half years. There, she won the Sallie Mae First Year Teacher of the Year Award.
She joined the Ladue School District in 2000, the same year that she earned her master’s degree from Maryville University. In 2010, she was awarded her doctorate.
Three degrees later, the power of a childhood education is still clear to her.
“I am a walking example of educational success,” Taylor-Johnson said.
With that in mind, she strives to ensure that all students that walk through the school doors receive a high-quality education and have the opportunity to thrive, regardless of their home life.
Earlier this year, Taylor-Johnson received an email from a student she taught at Margaret Buerkle Middle School in 1998. At the time, the student was newly arrived to the United States from abroad.
“It was hard being new to the country and not speaking the language and you were the one teacher that I had that year who actually showed me that you cared,” the student, now a civil servant for the federal government, wrote.
The student noted that she remembered Taylor-Johnson’s affinity for teaching through music, recalling their discussion of Aaliyah’s Grammy-nominated “Are You That Somebody?”
“What we share universally is music, and I tried to reach her through music,” Taylor-Johnson recalled. “It makes me get emotional. She remembered that, and it really touched me.”
Taylor-Johnson lives in the City of St. Louis with her husband, Edward Johnson, Ed.D., and their four-year-old son, Tristen.
