For 35 years, Earnestine Carr has been teaching children with learning disabilities and behavioral disorders. At Gateway Middle School, she teaches students with autism, encouraging her pupils to reach their learning potential in math and social sciences.
Carr said she always knew she wanted to work with children. It was when she was a school girl that she decided on her particular vocation.
“It was early on – I would say it was the sixth grade. I felt that at that point, if I was going to be an educator, I wanted to really work with children that really, really needed me,” she explained.
“The general ed. population didn’t need me, but I just thought my career would be more rewarding to me and to the children if it were something dealing with special ed.”
All students have different ways of learning. From the Individualized Educational Programs of each student, Carr determines the best way to teach that child in order for him or her to learn the subject matter.
For example, a student was struggling with identifying numbers on the number line, although he could count up to 20. He could master up to number 5 – and then it went downhill. Homework review and even working with a teacher’s aide didn’t seem to help.
“One day when I was working with another kid, he just sat there, and he watched me, and I would tell him, ‘Go work on yours; I need to work with Johnny at this time,’” Carr recalled.
“And he sat there and watched me work with the other kid. He just watching me really go through the process and work with this other kid. The next day he came in and he went up to 10, and I almost hit the ceiling!”
She said it goes to show you that children, as well as adults, are sometimes visual learners.
“For him to actually see me work hands-on with this other kid, it was like everything just popped into place,” she said.
“We still haven’t mastered up to 20, but to get him past that 5 let me know that sometimes, to just let them sit and watch you work with other kids – they pick up on things.”
She said it is very rewarding to see students accomplish things they’ve tried so hard to achieve. And each day is different. What is known and mastered one day may not be there the next.
Teaching students who have special needs presents extra challenges and rewards.
“A lot of times, it’s the little bittiest things – it just gives me joy,” Carr said. “With autistic kids, you never know what to expect – the little bittiest things that we take for granted – it’s big things for them and it’s just amazing. I love it.”
Over the years, Carr has also worked as a special education teacher at Fanning and Grant middle schools and at Oak Hill School, all in St. Louis.
Carr is a St. Louis native and graduated from Soldan High School.
She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Education from Harris Teachers College (now Harris Stowe State University) and an Associates degree in Liberal Arts from Forest Park Community College in St. Louis.
She is married to Herbert Carr and has two sons, Bruce Randle and Dwayne Randle.
