California Teacher Named
2002 National Teacher of the Year

President George W. Bush announced on April 24, 2002, Chauncey Veatch as the 2002 National Teacher of the Year at a special ceremony in Washington. The ceremony also honored the 2002 State Teachers of the Year.

The National Teacher of the Year Program is sponsored by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and Scholastic Inc., the global childrenˇ¦s publishing and media company. The program focuses public attention on teaching excellence and is the oldest and most prestigious awards program for teachers. Veatch, the fifty-second National Teacher of the Year, will begin a year as a full-time national and international spokesperson for education on June 1, 2002.

"I tell my students that our class is like a wagon train heading out across this great expanse of learning to reach our goal...an education. No one will be thrown overboard; no one will be left behind. Together we are all going to get there."

Veatch was born in Hutchinson, Kansas, on March 8, 1948, and graduated from the American High School in Frankfort, Germany. He earned his bachelorˇ¦s degree in history in 1970 from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, and a doctorate in jurisprudence from the University of Notre Dame in 1975.

Part of Veatch's teaching mission is to be "a dream-maker for my students, not a dream-breaker." "Most of my students come from families of modest economic means, but their parents have the same dreams for them as parents everywhere," he said. "To dream is to be filled with hope. I know this because I see the faces of hope daily." "