A group of Mississippi teachers turned a boring high school hallway into a work of art

That's an amazing way to show you care. Thanks, teachers.

 Lori White
07.15.15

These lockers had been sealed shut and unused for 15 years at a junior high school in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Image via PCHS-NJROTC/Wikimedia Commons.

But one day, some teachers had some radical ideas for the lockers' destiny — literary ideas!

The teachers at Biloxi Junior High decided to paint the lockers as books.

Photo via Biloxi Junior High Facebook.

Once they started, they knew they were onto something. So they shared their idea on the Biloxi Junior High Facebook page to see if anyone wanted to join them in painting book upon book on the remaining unused lockers.

The response was phenomenal and word spread — all the way to local anchor Trang Pham-Bui of channel WLOX 13 in Biloxi, Mississippi. Intrigued, she took a trip to Biloxi Junior High to see what was going on.

What she found was even more amazing than the Facebook photo showed: mural after mural of hand-selected book titles for the students.

Old drab lockers that didn't even function as lockers anymore — they'd been sealed shut for security reasons — are now the "Avenue of Literature," an awesome ode to learning and reading and a hugely awesome symbol of just how much love teachers have to give.

Photo via WLOX.

From WLOX:

"We thought well, wow, we can really make this hallway look good, and we can make the lockers look like book spines, but then it became much more than just a decoration process," said teacher Elizabeth Williams.

Teachers everywhere often do really cool things to try to fill the budget gaps to make sure kids have a wonderful experience, and Biloxi Junior High is no different.

They even convinced a local charity called Biloxi First to accept their request for $600 for supplies to began painting. And to the credit of Biloxi Jr. High, the school gave the teachers the freedom to do their thing!

"We want students to come back to school in August and walk on the hallway and be absolutely amazed with what we've done and be curious. We want that to be the driving spark for reading in our classrooms," said Elizabeth Williams

Just look at the result.

There's the "Twilight" series, natch:


Photo via Biloxi Public Schools Facebook.

And the classic combo of worldview shifters that is "Animal Farm," "Pride and Prejudice," and "The Bell Jar," as well as classic hard-to-reads "Gulliver's Travels," "Moby-Dick," and "The Scarlet Letter":


Photo via Biloxi Public Schools Facebook.

Do I spy the John Green tearjerker "The Fault in Our Stars"? As well as a student or two volunteering because teachers and students are awesome?

Photo via Biloxi Public Schools Facebook.

Yep.

Teacher Elizabeth Williams describes the teachers' motivations: "Seeing it in person is a completely different experience, and that's what we're hoping for the students. We're hoping the students come and they become completely immersed in a collection that we feel is the best of the best of every genre."

What an awesome show of care from teachers. In the summertime, when the only reasons they have to care is the kindness in their hearts and the love they have for their students and community spurring them on, this small group of teachers transformed a drab hallway into a celebration of reading.

It's a true reminder to each student that there are people who care for them.

Teachers are the best!

democracy humanity and culture education general educational opportunities education teacher appreciation
Most Shared

A 3-year-old gave her mom a 25-word master class on what forgiveness really means.

Mom and blogger Mary Katherine Backstrom regularly shares snippets of life with her two children on her Facebook page. One particularly touching interaction with her daughter is melting hearts and blowing minds due to the three-year-old's wise words about forgiveness.

Even adults struggle with the concept of forgiveness. Entire books have been written about how and why to forgive those who have wronged us, but many still have a hard time getting it. Who would guess that a preschooler could encapsulate what forgiveness means in a handful of innocent words?

Keep Reading Show less
parenting motherhood children
Family

Kanye West is building low-income houses that will look like they’re straight out of 'Star Wars.'

California has a housing crisis. Rent is so astronomical, one San Francisco company is offering bunk bedsfor $1,200 a month; Google even pledged$1 billion to help tackle the issue in the Bay Area. But the person who might fix it for good? Kanye West.

The music mogul first announced his plan to build low-income housing on Twitter late last year.

"We're starting a Yeezy architecture arm called Yeezy home. We're looking for architects and industrial designers who want to make the world better," West tweeted.

Keep Reading Show less
kanye west star wars low income housing rent california
Cities

Megan Rapinoe says the best way to support equal pay is by putting your money where your mouth is.

The U.S. women's soccer team won the Women's World Cup, but the victory is marred by the fact that the team is currently fighting for equal pay. In soccer, the game is won by scoring points, but the fight for equal pay isn't as clearly winnable and the playing field isn't as even.

We live in a world where winning the World Cup is easier than winning equal pay, but co-captain Megan Rapinoe says there's one easy way fans can support the team: Go see games.

Some people argue the men's team deserves to get paid more because they are more successful and earn more money for the United States Soccer Federation. Pay depends on merchandise and ticket sales, and in general, men's sporting events tend to draw a bigger crowd than women's sporting events. It's not about sex, many argue; it's about the fact that people just prefer to see men play.

Keep Reading Show less
Culture

Would you stay in a relationship with someone after learning they had a toxic political belief?

You think you know someone pretty well when you spend years with them, but, as we've seen time and again, that's not always the case. And though many relationships don't get to a point where the producers of "Who the (Bleep) Did I Marry?" start calling every day just to chat, the reality is that sometimes partners will reveal shocking things even after you thought you'd been all shocked out.

That's the case for one woman whose Reddit thread has recently gone viral. The 25-year-old, who's been with her boyfriend for five years, took to a forum for relationship advice to ask if it was normal that her seemingly cool and loving boyfriend recently revealed women shouldn't have a fundamental right. (And no, it's not abortion — although there are a lot of "otherwise best ever boyfriends" out there who want to deny women the rights to bodily autonomy, too.)

Keep Reading Show less
Recommended