‘Thank you for loving your students.’ Manatee County teacher marks 50 years in classroom
After teaching for 50 years, Linda Carnes is still reminded of the lifelong impact she’s had on children in Manatee County.
Past students from decades ago still reach out to the English teacher with heartfelt messages. During Teacher Appreciation Week, which is celebrated during the first week of May, thank you cards from students sat on her desk.
“Middle school was not an easy time for me, but your classroom always felt safe and welcoming,” Carnes said, reading from a card she recently received from a student she taught in 1990. “I remember you greeting us as we came in and your kind voice. Thank you for loving your students past and present.”
Carnes, a ninth-grade teacher at Palmetto High School, has devoted her life to children. She is the longest-serving active teacher in the School District of Manatee County, a district spokesman said.
“I stayed in the classroom because I felt that’s where I was needed the most,” Carnes said in an interview with the Bradenton Herald. “...I like the idea of me staying back in the classroom with them and seeing them every day. It keeps me young now that I’ve gotten up in age. It makes me look forward to coming to school to be with my ninth graders.”
Carnes, who is one of twelve children, grew up in Palmetto. When she graduated from college in 1974, she came home to teach at Sugg Middle School and help raise six of her younger siblings. After her father got sick, she turned down other job offers in Atlanta and Chicago.
“I’m so glad I did because that’s one of the best things I could have done, to stay and help my family,” Carnes said. “...I was there to support them financially and mentally and spiritually.”
Manatee County celebrates longest-serving teacher
As a child, Carnes admired her teachers at Lincoln Memorial High School, the county’s only public high school for Black children at the time, and Manatee High School. She remembered them as caring, disciplined and organized.
“You have to have some type of discipline to get things done with kids,” Carnes said. “You have to be organized to keep things flowing smoothly for yourself.”
Carnes taught for 35 years at Sugg Middle School and 15 years at Palmetto High School. In her Palmetto classroom, she tells her students to work hard.
“You want to start your ninth-grade year off doing the right thing,” Carnes said. “When you get to 12th grade, you won’t have too many problems if you stay focused. You have to keep your focus. Look at mostly everything positively. Try to put forth your best effort, you’d be surprised what you can do.”
In many cases, that advice has paid off. Some of Carnes’ students have gone on to become doctors, teachers, lawyers and mechanics.
“When students come back and they tell me what they’re doing and how well they’re doing, it does make me feel very good, like I have had an impact on their life,” Carnes said.
Carnes said she doesn’t plan to retire anytime soon.
“I don’t want to sit around home idle with nothing to do,” Carnes said. “I want to stay busy and being here in this classroom keeps me busy. It keeps me very busy.”
