David Walton, a 7th grade English teacher at First Presbyterian Day school in Macon celebrated his 50th first day of school as an educator. Walton has been with First Presbyterian for over four decades and taught at Bibb County Schools for eight years.
Walton has spent most of his education career as a middle school English teacher. He starts every class that he has with a poem that he finds inspiring, "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll.
"It has become my trademark, so to speak, in that I have used it in my eight years at Riley School and have used it here these 42 years at First Presbyterian Day, so yes that was the influence of a teacher," said Walton." I will even have adults come up to me in restaurants that I taught 30 years ago and say, 'Do you still do the "Jabberwocky"?'"
Many at First Presbyterian Day have had Walton as their teacher, and Walton said he even has some of his former students' children in his classes.
"My favorite part of teaching is interacting with my students," said Walton. "Students whether it was in 1963 or whether it was 2012 in lots of ways are the same their human nature is the same, the culture has changed somewhat and some of the values have changed but I say overall I love to interact with my students."
A few of his former students said that he was one of their favorite teachers. THey said they were inspired by his passion.
"He just really loves his subject and he wants to make everyone else appreciate and love English too," said Amy Morgan.
"He made you want to learn," said Greg Moore, a former student of Walton and now Head Coach at First Presbyterian Day. "I was not an avid reader but I was afraid that if I didn't read the literature stories that I wouldn't be able to be involved in the stories he was so passionate about the discussions that I wanted to be involved in those discussions."
Walton said he will retire at the end of the school year.