Remembering Mike Barlow
BY JOHN THOMPSON
Oklahoma City legend Mike Barlow died last fall at the age of 71. His funeral at the Temple B’nai Israel was attended by a sanctuary full of friends and family; teachers and administrators from within and without Oklahoma City; leaders and the rank-in-file of both teachers unions; civil rights and social justice activists; and, of course, fellow worshipers committed to the Jewish faith, locally and in Israel.
Although Michael would go on to become a small business owner for 30 years serving Oklahoma school districts, an inductee into the Oklahoma Educators Hall of Fame, and a leader in the Oklahoma City Jewish community, his record of service and activism began when he first entered the teaching profession.
His career begins as the story of a longhaired 33-year-old who won the admiration of the legendary American Federation of Teachers President Al Shanker, and who helped transform the Oklahoma City teaching profession.
When Mike became an Oklahoma City Public School System teacher in 1968, he sure didn’t look the part. All he had to wear to class were two old $20 iridescent suits from college. [But he went overboard and shocked students by buying a black suit suited only for a pastor or undertaker.]
Mike ignored his principal’s threats regarding his sideburns [a teacher had recently lost his job basically because he wore a mustache] and became probably the first OKCPS teacher to wear a beard.
Mike brought some unique assets to South OKC schools. He had attended a New York City high school that was two-thirds non-white, mostly black and Puerto Rican. His favorite teacher had spoken passionately during a strike about the improvements needed in education and how the union was the way to achieve results.
Mike landed at Grant High School, serving a community that embodied an external stoicism born of the Dust Bowl and the Depression.
Southsiders had served in disproportionate numbers in combat during World War II, the Korean War, and in Vietnam. They were close-mouthed about their ordeals. Even in the outwardly more comfortable neighborhoods of the Grant area, the demons from their trauma was just below the surface.
Grant patrons were just as friendly as anyone else in our famously neighborly state. But their ordeals perpetuated a mindset of “I got mine” that drove a wedge between whites and blacks.
Mike – a self-avowed ham, actor, and comedian – also drew heavily on humor in the classroom. He created a successful discussion style of teaching, as he learned the reasons why his [and others’] testing strategies were disastrous. This was the time before Special Education legislation had been passed; many students had reading difficulties and some couldn’t read at all. Mike also saw the brutal effects of corporal punishment rendered at home as a cycle of abuse was often perpetuated.
During Mike’s first years in the classroom, classes of 40-plus were the norm, but then he was given a ridiculously large class of 61. He pushed back and forced the administration to reduce his numbers to a “manageable” class size of 44.
Mike became a civil rights leader as Grant became the epicenter of violence during the desegregation battles that culminated in busing to achieve racial balance. In 1975, a student was murdered in their halls. The school often had a dozen or so police officers Remembering Mike Barlow | Oklahoma Observer - Linkis.com: