"DAVID STROUPE!!!"

 “DAVID STROUPE!”

Our son David Stroupe was born in Norfolk, Virginia, on a snowy evening 46 years ago on January 31, 1980.  It snowed six inches in Norfolk on the night that he was born, and he says that he has been trying to get warm ever since. As I write this blog in Decatur, we have just made it through an ice storm, so I am especially remembering the snowy, cold night when he was born.   He has been a great gift to us and to so many others in this crazy world.  He currently teaches science education at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, after a long stint at Michigan State.

David has always had a kind and compassionate heart, and we sometimes ended up with various creatures in our house that he had found or brought home from his class at school.  He also has always had a strong moral sense, growing up at Oakhurst Presbyterian where we emphasized that love and justice had to be woven together.  We also taught that God was at the center of life.  When we took him to the Atlantans baseball games in the summer, we would stand for the national anthem, but we would not put our hands over our hearts, as most other fans did.  When David asked why we did not put our hands over our hearts, we would reply that our hearts belonged to God, not to our country or anything else.

     In his final year of elementary school, he was named as captain of the safety patrol, and he brought home a dilemma.  As captain of the safety patrol, he was required to lead the school in the pledge of allegiance to the flag.  And, in so doing, he would be expected to put his hand over his heart.  He wanted to be true to our heritage, but he also wanted to meet the expectations of the school and the safety patrol.  I suggested that he think about passing that duty along to the next officer of the safety patrol, but he indicated that leading the pledge was part of his duties, and he wanted to fulfill his duties.  He came up with a compromise – he would only put his hand near his heart – he would not put his hand over his heart.  In that way, he would try to fulfill both his heritage and his duties.  We appreciated his struggle over this, so we indicated that this approach would work for us.  He ended up winning the DAR Good Citizenship Award, and on the day that he received it, he wore a statement T-shirt in 1992 saying “How could Columbus have discovered America when people were already living here?”

        He has always been a well-coordinated person, and he played soccer and was a founder of the ultimate frisbee team at Decatur High School.  I also remember playing basketball with him over at the Winnona School playground.  Especially memorable was the era when he got taller than me, and as he grew taller, he delighted in blocking as many of my basketball shots as he could.  He took great joy in being able to do that!

David and Erin moved to Salt Lake City two years ago, where they are now teaching at the University of Utah. He is a Professor of STEM Education, Teacher Education, the Interim Associate Dean of Research in the College of Education, and the Director of the Center for Science and Mathematics Education. His third book (published by Harvard Education Press in 2023) “Growing and Sustaining Student-Centered Science Classrooms,” won the 2024 Gloria J. Ladson-Billings Outstanding Book Award from the American Association of College Teachers of Education. He also began a multiyear stint as a co-editor of the journal Science Education this year, and they receive about 1,000 articles a year, seeking publication.  He also was inducted as a Fellow in the American Association for Advancement of Science.

We give thanks for David and all the gifts that he has shared with us and with so many others.  YAY FOR DAVID!!!!