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February 12, 2008

Blandy Hills principal finds inspiration in kids, service

Scott Teague

Community service is Raymond Braziel’s passion, and education is his life.

Blandy Hills Elementary School’s principal divides his time between service organizations in his hometown of Montrose and his hectic work schedule at school.

“If you’re looking for an interesting career, look to education because there’s never a dull moment,” Braziel said.

The Alpha Phi Alpha Inc. member is active in his church, he holds high school and college graduation drives and participates in his fraternity’s scholarship program.

From an early age, Braziel realized education was his key to success.

The product of a large family, Braziel as a child would play school with friends and his six siblings.

His parents never finished school, yet he and his siblings graduated from college, and Braziel even earned a master’s degree in education administration.

“I wouldn’t be where I am and doing what I’m doing if not for the education I received,” he said.

But when he first

attended Georgia College & State University, the future principal studied to be a nurse.

“We were told there was a terrible lack of male nurses out there and hospitals needed male nurses,” Braziel said.

There also is a lack of male teachers, and once he made the switch from nursing to education, Braziel never looked back.

Braziel entered the classroom at Midway Elementary School 11 years ago teaching fifth grade. Over the years, his presence in the lives of his students had lasting effects and caused several to keep up with their first, and possibly last, male teacher.

“A lot of our [young men] students need another role model besides Michael Jordan, Shaq or Dwayne Wade. They need local role models that they can look up to who will teach them the various things about their community and how to conduct and carry themselves as young men,” Braziel said.

Of his school’s teachers, only three are men. One of them is the school’s principal.

Braziel is aided in his efforts buttressing teachers under stress by increasing state and federal mandates by his wife Geneva.

“She’s everything you could want in a wife,” Braziel said. “It helps when you’re in the same profession because I know where she’s coming from and she knows where I’m coming from.”

Their son Artrail attends his father’s school and can’t get away with missing any of his fifth-grade homework.

If a wife and son in the school system weren’t enough, Braziel still retains his love of teaching young children and improving their lives.

“When a student learns something for the first time, their face lights up and their teacher gets just as excited,” Braziel said. “That’s what it’s all about — seeing a child succeed, especially when they struggle for it.”

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