Miss. Allen’s smile is made of more than just two upturned lips. Her smile is an invitation — to share something meaningful, to share something mundane, or to just smile back. Offering a warm welcome comes naturally to Carolyn Allen, who has “never met a bad student” in her over 20 years of teaching English for the General Equivalency Diploma (GED) program at MATC.
She grew up a “small country girl from Tuskegee, Alabama,” with nine siblings. Her mother taught early childhood education and laid the foundation for her teaching philosophies today.
After teaching for almost 38 years, she still remembers the day she knew she wanted to follow in her mother’s footsteps. “I was in seventh grade. She was taking her boys and girls to the bathroom, and she had them all lined up. We were going to lunch … I knew I wanted to do that. And so from that day forward…I said ‘Mom, I want to be a teacher’ and she’d say, ‘you can do it! You can do it!’” Miss. Allen shared.
She teaches beyond the curriculum — with lessons from her heart and from generations of nurturing. “When I walk in that classroom I’m no longer Miss. Allen. I am Susie’s daughter… I’m teaching not just from…a bachelor’s degree and two master’s degrees, but I’m teaching as a highest praise… or the highest honor and integrity for what she did in her life… I’m teaching to give back what she gave me as a gift to the world,” she explains carefully.
Miss. Allen says she organizes a “class family” that’s focused on community learning and fostering connections meant to last beyond the classroom at MATC. “I hope they get to meet friends, have lifelong friends, but most of all, just network and have a happy place to learn together” because “we’re stronger together than we are apart,” she said.
A love for life and people have taught her that, “When you exude happiness, the happiness in others will seek you out… Find joy every day. Make yourself find the joy every day, and convince yourself you’re happy until you truly become happy”
Known to students as “Mama Allen,” Miss. Allen only hopes her memory causes “a smile to come from somewhere within.” Tenderly, she declares, “That would be the greatest reward… I want a smile.” It’s important to her to be a safe place for students “because some people go years without someone saying something kind to them. Let the next kind thing… come from you.”
If she could tell the world one thing, it would be to “be nice,” and following a thoughtful pause
elaborates, “The world, as we know, is changing, and it’s going to continue to change…We have to continue to do the right thing when no one is looking, come from a place of honor, integrity, and let your character speak…Your life is truly what you decide to do with it every day. You’re not going to be able to solve all the world’s problems, but you can make a change in your little world…if you’re doing something in your little world to be kind, it’s going to come back to you… So be nice, or be nicer, whichever you prefer.”
