Retired Mesquite Teacher To Receive Inspiration Award

Linda Muhl, a retired English teacher from Dr. John Horn High School in Mesquite, has been selected as the summer recipient of the Texas A&M University Inspiration Award for Exceptional Secondary Education.

Teachers selected to receive this unusual award – believed to be the first of its type sponsored by any university in Texas – are nominated by one of their former students who are set to graduate from Texas A&M.

The recipient of the award is normally recognized during commencement ceremonies at the university, but Muhl will be unable to attend the Friday (Aug. 13) ceremony. University officials have made arrangements to send her the certificate and a check for $2,000. The teacher’s high school receives $1,000.

As a university known for valuing excellence, leadership and service, Texas A&M sponsors the award as a way of recognizing those values in the teachers who have inspired and challenged their students to excel, officials note.

Muhl was nominated for the award by one of her former students, Emily Southerland, who will receive her business degree Friday during commencement ceremonies.

Southerland says, as a transfer student while still in high school, she missed the application process to be included in Muhl’s gifted and talented humanities class but Muhl worked to make sure she was included.

“Her simple determination that I would be in her class meant that I got to travel to New York City on one of her famous spring break trips and so much more. Her willingness to spend almost 30 years of breaks from school broadening her students’ horizons through travel is just one way her passion for teaching shone through.”

Southerland adds Muhl’s “boundless energy” during these trips proved she could out-do any of her teenaged students.

Although her job description only technically included teaching English, Southerland says Muhl used literature to teach tough lessons about service, integrity and leadership to students who often did not get that instruction anywhere else.

“With her encouragement, I and hundreds of other students learned the power of writing to local newspapers to ensure that our voices were heard on community issues. ‘If it is to be,’ Mrs. Muhl often said, ‘it is up to me.’”

Tests in her class were preceded by a talk about the value of integrity and the assurance that no test grade could replace the students knowing they had done the right thing. “Before I knew the Aggie Honor Code, her voice told me it was true,” Southerland stated.

“Mrs. Muhl created a haven for students like me to explore our values, develop leadership at a time when most students are wandering aimlessly and learn more about the English language than where commas ought to be placed or how a sentence ought to be diagrammed. Instead, she helped me and many others find our places in the world and taught us to think clearly, write clearly and live intentionally with a divine purpose. She is an inspiration and a jewel in the world of educators.”