Robert Barnett teaches technology to elementary and middle school students in Edmonton's Metcalfe County School District. Mr. Barnett hopes that in his career as an educator, he will have helped some students overcome problems of low self-esteem so often linked to poverty. "I was an eight grade drop-out," says Mr. Barnett, whose twenty-year career in the Army prepared him to return to school as a teacher. Mr. Barnett, acknowledging that the resources that were available to him are not as widely accessible to today's students, would like to be an influential factor in helping students finish school. "I came from a welfare family with many problems, and I know how many of our students hurt," he says. "I teach students," he adds, "that they can overcome any problem with effort and the right attitude, and I do my best to model what I teach." Mr. Barnett would like to have the opportunity to introduce teachers throughout Kentucky to the "uses of technology in teaching higher order thinking skills." In 1992, the United States Department of Education awarded Mr. Barnett a Christa McAuliffe Fellowship.
Western Kentucky University, B.A.
