Teacher Spotlight: Dr. Eloise Cabrera-White Makes Difference In Tampa

TAMPA, FL — Great teachers matter. In Tampa, we're fortunate to have teachers like Dr. Eloise Johnson Cabrera-White.

Patch has partnered with T-Mobile to recognize teachers and show them how much they’re valued and appreciated.

This submission comes from Jacqueline Elizabeth Nickson Cotman, who nominated Dr. Eloise Johnson Cabrera White of Tampa.

Teacher’s name

Dr. Eloise Johnson Cabrera White

How do you know the teacher?

From having been a student 60 and more years ago at West Tampa’s H. W. Blake High School.

What does this person teach?

Dr. White was the guidance counselor who interpreted the Standardized Test Scores taken by seventh-graders. She would immediately recommend that those students bypass the eighth grade and be double promoted to the ninth grade. Some educators intimated that the eighth grade was repetitive in some instances of the work of the seventh grade during those years of local segregation. Those students were closely monitored, including my brother, a retired Army Medical Corps captain who became a sarin gas manufacturing specialist during the Vietnam Era. Sarin gas was stored and not used! Others of those students became educators themselves and are also successfully retired. We do owe a huge thank you to our earliest formal educators.

Why do you believe the teacher should be recognized or honored?

It is our belief that Dr. White imparted to us not only the necessary course knowledge needed to advance to the next level in higher learning, but also to help shape us into model participating citizens of this brave world.

What's one thing you want everyone to know about the teacher?

The one thing that I would enjoy everyone to know is that Dr. White didn’t release us into an unknown world. Some of us have been fortunate and blessed enough to have continuing interactions with her and had the distinct pleasure of honoring her at our 60th Anniversary Class Reunion held recently in West Tampa.

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