Brushes with Greatness: 1-Page Read-Alouds of 20 Individuals Who Used Education To Make Better Lives for Themselves

Description

Brushes With Greatness contains 1-page biographies of 20 well-known individuals who used education to make better lives for themselves. This book is designed to help elementary school students understand the role that education played in empowering these people to achieve the greatness for which they are known today. The biographies trace the learning paths of the individuals featured and emphasize the educational accomplishments and character traits that made their later success possible. The stories also highlight the adversity these men and women faced and the obstacles they overcame. This book’s primary goal is to encourage children everywhere to become more determined, more motivated, more purposeful learners.

An important aspect of Brushes With Greatness lies in its engaging, “riddle” format. In each biography the featured individual is not initially identified. Instead, the title of each biography includes an interesting fact or a tantalizing description of the person. The biographies, themselves, are written from the point of view of a third person narrator. So, as students listen to the title and the biography, they are learning about the person’s life story, but they are also attempting to determine who the person is.

List of Featured Individuals

• Maya Angelou
• Susan B. Anthony
• Elizabeth Blackwell
• Louis Braille
• George Washington Carver
• Sandra Cisneros
• Bill Clinton
• Hillary Clinton
• Tim Duncan
• Thomas Edison
• Bill Gates
• Barbara Jordan
• Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Barack Obama
• Condoleeza Rice
• Sally Ride
• Dr. Seuss
• Pat Head Summitt
• Oprah Winfrey

Sample Biography

As a child, she had always been fascinated by planets, stars, and galaxies, but never did she dream of becoming a scientist. She was born in Los Angeles, CA on May 26, 1951 to parents who deeply valued education. Her father Dale was a political science professor at Santa Monica College; her mom was a teacher and voracious reader. Authors Jane and Sue Hurwitz remark that she and her younger sister Karen “were raised in an atmosphere that encouraged individual exploration. Accordingly, {she} believed that she could undertake any activity that she felt capable of or wished to learn about. Being a girl never prevented her from doing anything she wanted.” She loved to read Nancy Drew mysteries, James Bond spy novels, and a fair amount of science fiction. Looking back now, it is fitting that one of her heroes was Superman.

She developed an intense passion for both science and sports. By age five, she was reading the sports section of the newspaper and memorizing baseball statistics. There was an even a time when she dreamed of playing for the hometown Dodgers. She was so good at softball and football that she was often the only girl selected to play in neighborhood games with boys. From these games, she learned two critical lessons: 1) the importance of being a team player and 2) girls can compete in games with boys.

As she grew up, major changes were occurring in the field of space exploration. The Soviet Union had taken the lead over the U.S. in the “Space Race” by launching the first artificial satellite to orbit the earth in 1957 and by sending the first person into space in 1961. Along with thousands of Americans, her interest in space increased during this time.

Tennis soon became her main sport, and her talent, motivation, determination, and perseverance helped her become a top junior player. In 1964, she won a partial scholarship to the all-girls Westlake School, where she met Dr. Elizabeth Mommaerts, a teacher who encouraged her to become a scientist. In high school she continued to progress with her tennis while also studying chemistry, physics, trigonometry, and calculus. After graduation, she attended Swarthmore College, a small liberal arts college just outside Philadelphia, where for two years she excelled at tennis. She then came home so she could play all-year around in the warmer climate.

Eventually, she concluded that she didn’t quite have what it took to become a pro tennis player, so she dedicated herself to becoming a scientist. She went to Stanford University and in 1973 graduated with degrees in English and physics. In the years that followed, she earned her master’s degree and Ph. D in astrophysics, the study of the physical and chemical characteristics of matter in space. In 1977, unsure of what kind of job to get, she came across an advertisement in the university newspaper. NASA was looking for mission specialists to conduct experiments on board the space shuttle, and for the first time women were urged to apply.

Even though there were more than 8,000 applicants for the program, she made it, due to the combination of her science background, athletic ability, scholastic achievement, and reputation as a team player. On June 18, 1983 she served as mission specialist on the space shuttle Challenger. With a crowd estimated at 250,000 watching from Kennedy Space Center, she became America’s first female astronaut and the youngest American to take part in a space mission. Her participation wasn’t simply an outstanding personal achievement; it would help create new opportunities for other American women in a variety of professions. Her courage and commitment to working as part of a team earned her the respect of fellow astronauts, the admiration of millions of Americans, and a place in history. Her name...is Dr. Sally Ride.

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