November 4, 2002 - Tennessee State Gazette: Gabon RPCV Neel Durbin traveled the world and settled down as teacher in Tennessee

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Gabon RPCV Neel Durbin traveled the world and settled down as teacher in Tennessee





Read and comment on this story from the Tennessee State Gazette on Gabon RPCV Neel Durbin who traveled the world and settled down as a geography teacher in Tennessee.

Geography might seem a dry subject at first glance, but Neel says the world situation, even the world map itself, is changing at such a rate of speed that textbooks are out of date before they reach the classroom. Geography is much more than imaginary lines that define nation states on a world map. It is about language groups, religions, economics and the swiftly changing currents of world politics. In short, it is more about man and his impact on the earth than it is about landmasses.

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Experience is the best teacher*

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Experience is the best teacher

11/04/02

JOHN LEEPER

Experience is the best teacher so far as Neel Durbin is concerned, and it doesn't matter to him if the person in question is a student in the classroom or a teacher standing in front of it.

Durbin, who has for two decades taught world geography at Dyersburg High School, can offer his students insights many other instructors in his field of study could not. He has worked in Indonesia, toured exotic places in the Philippines, Thailand and Bali, herded sheep on a ranch in Australia and built schools in one of the most remote parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

As a young man, Durbin traveled the world over, and he had every intention of continuing that pursuit until chance brought him to West Tennessee. In Dyersburg he found the place where he belonged -- his niche in the world. But while that might have been the most important lesson life taught him, it is one he has a very difficult time imparting to his students, or even his two daughters, Beth, a junior, and Ashley, a freshman, both DHS students who have sat in their dad's geography class.

Durbin knows that most young people at DHS yearn for the day when they will receive a diploma and have a chance to leave Dyer County and experience adventures in the broader world. They find it difficult to comprehend that someone would be satisfied with the uneventful routines of small-town life.

Durbin doesn't try to change their minds. On the contrary, he believes that as a teacher at DHS his job is to prepare kids to leave town and only come back for visits. However, he also warns many disbelieving students there will come a time in their lives when they are likely to want to return home, although life and circumstances are likely to prevent that.

"I got my chance to see the world," Durbin says. "I found out that wasn't what I wanted, and I came here."

Neel was an "Army brat." His father rose through the ranks to become a Master Warrant Officer in the military, a position that carried him to posts throughout the world. But when Neel was 16, his father was sent to a station near Bowling Green, Ky., and Durbin was able to begin and end his high school career in one place. While he was only 5 feet, 10 inches tall, Durbin was highly competitive and a talented athlete. He was given a full scholarship to play offensive line at Southeast Missouri State University (SEMO).

"Whenever they took our pictures each year, I had to stand on a helmet," Neel recalls. But even though he was dwarfed by fellow linemen, some of whom who stood 6 feet, 7 inches, he says proudly, "I started 40 out of 44 games,"

During his senior year, SEMO's football team also broke the school's rushing record for a single season.

When his eligibility to play football ended, Neel decided it was time for some adventures in life. Rather than stay in school and finish his coursework for a diploma, he joined his father in Indonesia and took a job at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta as a research assistant to the agricultural attaché. That began a period of wandering in which Neel visited many different parts of the world, cataloguing in his mind people, places, and experiences he would later employ in his classroom.

Neel joined the Peace Corps and began working in Gabon, West Africa, where he built schools in an area so remote that the nearest town with electricity was a four-hour truck ride away. But while there, he injured his back and had to return to the U.S. for surgery. During his recovery, Neel decided it was time to finish the two semesters of work he needed to complete a teaching certificate.

It was a chance telephone call that led him to Dyersburg. He happened to be sitting in the athletic office at SEMO chatting with coaches when a call came in asking if they knew of anyone qualified to teach who could also coach football at Dyersburg High School.

"I thought I would teach for a year and then head for South America," Durbin recalls. "I came to Dyersburg in 1982 and have been here ever since."

What dampened his enthusiasm for faraway places was a Sunday mass at Holy Angels Roman Catholic Church.

"I walked in and saw my wife, and that was it," he says simply.

Theresa was born in England, but at age 9 months her father, who was in the military, returned to his family farm in Newbern. She is the church secretary at Holy Angels. She and Neel have three children: Beth, 17, Ashley, 14, and Joseph 12. The latter is a sixth-grader at Dyersburg Middle School.

"I live here because I want to," Durbin says. "I've seen a lot of places, but this Dyersburg is where I want to be. I enjoy the lifestyle of small-town America, the people and the culture."

Durbin was a football coach at DHS for two years and a wrestling coach for 10 years. He stopped coaching two years ago in order to direct the music at his church.

There is a Chinese proverb with a simple truth Durbin understands well: "Life is a ladder. Every step is built upon the rung before it."

His youthful days of wandering were an important step on the ladder of his life, and they add a unique flavor to his classes.

"It is a matter of calling upon those experiences to reinforce factual material," he says. "If nothing else, it helps me teach with confidence."

Geography might seem a dry subject at first glance, but Neel says the world situation, even the world map itself, is changing at such a rate of speed that textbooks are out of date before they reach the classroom. Geography is much more than imaginary lines that define nation states on a world map. It is about language groups, religions, economics and the swiftly changing currents of world politics. In short, it is more about man and his impact on the earth than it is about landmasses.

Neel takes his profession seriously. He realizes that teachers often impact young people more than any person in their lives outside of family members. For those students who go abroad, whether for military service, college studies or work, geography is essential in helping them understand the diverse nature of the world.

"You have to feel that what you are doing in life is worthwhile," Durbin says, and he is convinced that education makes a monumental difference in the lives of people young or old.



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