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Published: December 27, 2008 11:37 pm
Profile: Benny Mills
Teacher takes pride in students’ achievements
By Mary Catherine Brooks
Wyoming County Bureau Chief
“It’s not about the direction you take. It’s about the direction you give.”
From “Mr. Holland’s Opus,”
Benny Mills could have taken any direction. Maybe one of those directions could have led to a successful acting career, or a successful career as a director, in New York or Hollywood. Just maybe, he could have been a very successful writer.
However, at least for Benny Mills, there’s no place like home.
Mills completed undergraduate school in Charleston, then, with no jobs available in Wyoming County, he worked for a couple of years near Parkersburg. Other than that, he’s lived his entire life in Wyoming County.
Mills currently teaches English and theater at Wyoming County East High School.
“I’m like a lot of the kids, I guess, I just want to stay at home,” Mills teased.
The 50-year-old career educator has found tremendous success in both subjects, earning more than a dozen state awards as well as national recognition for the theater program.
However, it isn’t his own accomplishments by which he measures his success, but those of his students.
“Our kids have some of the best test scores in the nation and they are going to some of the best colleges and universities in the nation,” Mills emphasized.
And his theater students have walked off with dozens of state awards. Some have gone on to successful careers in theater.
“It really doesn’t matter what they are doing in life; they have to be able to communicate,” Mills emphasized of his students.
“We are your symphony, Mr. Holland. We are the melodies and the notes of your opus. We are the music of your life.”
From “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” 1995
“Professionally, I am most proud of students who learn to formulate a logical message and effectively communicate that message, either on paper or on stage, to an audience.
“Those students’ abilities inevitably earn them recognition — some of the best test scores in West Virginia are some of the best theater performances in West Virginia.
“The many, many students whom I’ve taught and who contact me still, in spite of the years that have passed, make me so very proud of what I’ve done with my life.
“... All those students are, in a way, my opus, my greatest work. And I’ll always be proud of them.”
On a personal level, Mills is most proud of his mom, Earleene.
“... As a widow with income only from a pittance of Social Security and monthly food stamps, she raised seven children alone, and all seven children developed keen work ethics, sound moral values, and an unbending drive to succeed.
“She succeeded in a hard world by developing a hard shell to protect herself and her children,” Mills said. “That, to me, is the ultimate sacrifice, sacrificing the time and energy of your life to improve the lives of others.”
As a youngster, Mills didn’t always heed the warnings of his mother, getting himself into a bit of trouble now and then.
“Certainly, I regret placing my hand over a hot stove burner after my mother assured me that the hot burner will blister my hand even though the burner had turned black.
“I regret cutting my toe with a hatchet in spite of my mother’s warning that I was going to do it and that blood would squirt from my foot like a red fountain, which sounded interesting to me and motivated me to try it.
“When I was about 3, Mom said she heard me crying like a banshee. A dog had bitten me. When she came out into the yard, I had my jaws locked onto the dog,” he recalled with a laugh. “I learned very early that for every action, there should be an opposite and equal reaction.”
“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”
From “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” 1995
Despite the harshness of those incidents, there have been much more difficult life lessons.
His dad died when Mills was very young. He also lost his sister.
“The hardest lesson I’ve ever learned is that time is short. Time is a thief that takes away our shared moments, our dreams, our goals.
“We have to stay awake to make use of all the time that we have. I think that I know that now because I’ve seen things end: My sister’s life, my career (nearly), and my own youth.
“I think, although it hardly seems possible, that I learned just recently that because folks say something is so for days, for months, or for years, that doesn’t make it so. People often live in worlds with walls painted by mendacity, dishonesty, and prevarication. That quality in people, I think, will always surprise me.”
Mills began teaching theater at the now closed Herndon High School, then moved into the now closed Mullens High.
“We didn’t have an auditorium at Herndon, so we had to do the plays in the gym,” he explained.
At that time, Edsel Lafferty, the principal, would suspend basketball practice for the week so the play could be produced.
“That was unheard of here,” Mills said of Lafferty’s support.
The secret to a successful theater program is choosing quality material, Mills noted.
Also a must are good students.
“A good program attracts the best students,” he said.
“I do acting sometimes, but not remarkably well,” Mills said.
“I can do lighting, but not remarkably well.
“I can do costumes kind of OK.”
“I can do sets OK.
“And I can do publicity OK.
“I can do all of it combined successfully, but not any one of those things remarkably well. It all flows together.
“When we were doing plays in the gym, whatever we did looked good — because it was in a gym.
“Then, when we got the state-of-the-art auditorium here at East, we had to come up to those standards. And, I think, we have.
“I think we’re successful because we’ve had to be resourceful,” he emphasized. “We’ve had to learn to use what we had.
“And students, naturally, want to create. I let them create.”
“Of all the lives he changed, the one that changed the most was his own.”
From “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” 1995
Mills could have gone on to a career in entertainment.
“It isn’t that I don’t have the skills,” he said. “I don’t know if I could have lived that kind of life. You never know when you’re going to work again. You’re always traveling — this job here, another job there.
“... My larger regrets are for things that I haven’t done, things that slipped by me. I regret not going to med school; however, I don’t regret teaching. I regret not taking a fellowship to teach at the University of Kentucky when I was afraid that I was too young to teach college students; however, I don’t regret the years teaching high school students.
“I regret not having moved to Chicago, or Los Angeles, or Austin, or anywhere and directing plays in other venues; however, I’ve never regretted directing high school students in West Virginia.
“I regret not having written a novel; however, I don’t regret the novels and novels of student text that I’ve read and scored over the years.
“So, I regret the most things that I didn’t do, not things that I did. Maybe, there’s time ...”
“A symphony of life.”
From “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” 1995
In the next few years, Mills believes he will be writing, or maybe teaching — maybe in another country.
“Now, people my age have to re-invent themselves,” he said. “I have seven or eight teaching certificates. And, I believe there was a reason I took French.
“I’ve had a really good career. I haven’t made a lot of money, but as I near the end of this career, I certainly feel very rich,” Mills emphasized.
— E-mail: mcbrooks@register-herald.com
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