[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 124 (Tuesday, July 26, 2022)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E782]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          HONORING THE LIFE AND WORK OF MRS. MATTIE McALISTER

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. MARCY KAPTUR

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 26, 2022

  Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, I rise today in tribute to a one-of-a-kind 
woman in Toledo, Mrs. Mattie McAlister, who passed from this life at 
the age of 98 years on July 7, 2022. Mattie McAlister was a giant in 
the education of the young people of Toledo.
  Mattie McAlister was born in Benton, South Carolina, the youngest of 
eleven children born to Pearl and Arthur Garrison, he a teacher and she 
a midwife. Her father started a school for Black children in their 
rural county and taught adults in the evening in the Garrison home. 
Mattie graduated high school at age fourteen, obtained her bachelor's 
degree and began teaching high school math and science. She went on to 
study at Detroit's Wayne State University, the former Mary Manse 
College in Toledo, and earned her master's degree from the University 
of Toledo.
  Upon her arrival in Toledo in 1960, Mattie McAlister took employment 
with Toledo Public Schools, teaching at several elementary schools 
until her retirement from Fulton School in 1991. After that, she worked 
with children at Grace Community Center and developed a curriculum 
there. She researched and developed methods to address the uniqueness 
of ``Summer's Child,'' a term she coined for those children born in the 
summer who were often the youngest of their peers in school.
  Her obituary in the Toledo Blade makes clear the influence Mrs. 
McAlister had on her young charges and the educational system:

       ``Mrs. McAlister retired in 2014 from Grace Community 
     Center, where she developed a curriculum and worked with 
     children, from kindergarten through eighth grade. She also 
     shared pearls of wisdom that have become part of Grace's 
     culture. Her sayings ``had to do with how you treat one 
     another in this world,'' said Elaine Taite Page, Grace 
     executive director since 2012.
       ``She told students, `Nurture your mind with great 
     thoughts, for you will never go higher than you think,' and 
     `The nicest words I know are, `Excuse me,' `Thank you,' `If 
     you please,' '' Ms. Page said, Students energetically 
     chanted, ``Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Your good 
     becomes better, and your better becomes best.''
       ``Those sayings are on display at the Center.
       ``There was never a student she could not reach,'' Ms. Page 
     said. ``She made people understand, I see you, I value you, 
     and you are somebody.''
       ``The one word that epitomizes what was driving her is a 
     four-letter word. Love. Love supreme,'' Ms. Page said.
       ``In the Center's after-school programs, she arranged 
     children in a circle. Sitting on an African-style chair of 
     carved wood, she opened with, `How was your day?' '' Ms. Page 
     said.
       ``She could glean needs that had to be heard, to be 
     recognized. She had a positive affirmation to leave with 
     every child,'' Ms. Page said.
       ``Mrs. McAlister worked to reinforce reading and math 
     skills during the Center's summer program and guided high 
     schoolers who had returned to be youth leaders.
       ``In one of several autobiographical sketches, Mrs. 
     McAlister wrote that at Grace, ``my greatest joy was creating 
     learning games, successfully teaching language arts and math, 
     along with character-building exercises. I enjoyed sharing 
     parenting tips for parents who had precocious children who 
     challenged authority.''
       ``My greatest pride,'' Mrs. McAlister wrote, ``was teaching 
     children to read and managing my children's behavior in a 
     kind and caring way. I did not send them to the principal to 
     be controlled. I dearly loved my students. Each one of them 
     was my pet!''

  Mattie McAlister's lessons for life for anyone who struggled; indeed 
for everyone, showed that what you lived, how you contributed, is what 
matters. She never lost patience. She had a teacher's cadence when she 
spoke, and people listened. Her lessons on life should be on billboards 
for all to learn.
  Spiritual, poet, teacher, mentor, matriarch, activist, all are words 
which describe Mattie McAlister, and her legacy is writ large. Yet, as 
profound as her impact has been for the near century of her life, 
Mattie McAlister's greatest achievement is her family. To her children, 
grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren, we 
pray for peace in the memory of the priceless gift of Mattie Garrison 
McAlister's life well lived.

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