Fair Grove, MO isn’t exactly the most exciting town ever, but in it are exciting people. Beth Mauldin is one of those people. This is Beth’s second year here at Fair Grove High School as a math teacher. Mrs. Mauldin grew up in Galveston Bay, Texas and attended school in West El Paso. It was there that she fell in love with a cowboy that is now her husband. At the same time she earned her Bachelors degree of science in electrical engineering. After graduating college she got a job with the army working on electronic warfare (countermeasures). Later on Mrs. Mauldin became interested in a teaching profession and decided to go back to school to earn her Masters degree in education. Mrs. Mauldin’s husband later joined the airforce and together they traveled throughout the U.S. and to many other countries. Traveling so much was a very big impact on her life. Mrs. Mauldin comments saying, “. . . I’ve been all over North America, Europe, Asia & various Pacific Islands. Our kids went to 9 schools growing up, and they turned out pretty normal anyway. . .”

Mrs. Mauldin is well known for her charisma while teaching. She says “I developed my teaching style by studying the works of Sun Tzu, an ancient chinese general. In about 500 b.c. he penned the famous tome, “The Art of War,” and I found that in addition to military applications it was remarkably applicable to teenagers…especially freshmen! This is why you will occasionally find a student or two huddled under a table in the back of my room in a semi-fetal position, rocking back and forth and mumbling incoherently. I rule with an iron fist and a heavy sword, and I prepare my students to battle the enemy forces.”

Mrs. Mauldin spends a lot of time heading school clubs for students to get involved into, including math competitions, and FTA (Future Teachers of America), not to mention the numerous hours she spends before and after school tutoring students. As for any free time she may have, Mrs. Mauldin says, “ I enjoy contemplating evil plots for my Algebra 1 students. Beneath the thin facade of sweetness and joy, I hide a vast pool of deep, cold darkness. I try to keep students in a state of confusion. That is why I let the AP statistics students play with yummy m&m candy while simultaneously assigning the AP calculus students four hundred impossibly difficult word problems of herculean proportions.”

Mrs. Mauldin goes onto say that she loves Fair Grove and doesn’t plan on leaving unless she is dragged away kicking and screaming. Unlike big cities she says this school is more open to accepting other people with their quirks and individualities.