The Jag

By Jadynne Brady

Editor-in-Chief

In the early hours of the morning, when the sun just barely peeks out, the JROTC instructor helps students train for Raiders and Drill. This instructor is South’s Teacher of the Year, Colonel Stan Cole.  

Cole was surprised that he was among the candidates. 

“I was shocked because I already had one career as military officer in the Air Force, and so I’ve been teaching for 11 years. I never really thought that they would consider somebody who wasn’t a teacher for their entire life to be a Teacher of the Year,” says Cole.  

He says that receiving this award means that his hard work wasn’t for nothing. 

“It definitely means that the work that we put in to try to make kids better today than they were when we first got them, it means all that work has kind of been worthwhile, which is awesome,” Cole says. 

To pick Teacher of the Year, South staff nominate teachers, and then past teachers of the year look at those nominations. From those past teachers comes the new Teacher of the Year.  

Principal Ryan Gettings says that Cole has earned the title through his actions.  

“How he treats his students, how he how he interacts every single day, what he does in the classroom every day. He’s just a selfless guy, and he cares about our students. He wants them to find success, and he works extremely hard at it. So, he’s very well deserving of the award,” says Gettings.  

Because ROTC is a four-year program, Cole finds it gratifying to be able to watch his students grow. 

“The most rewarding part of the of the job is to see those kids go from being basically middle schoolers to adults and going to college and the workforce and stuff. It’s really awesome,” he says. 

Before he became a teacher, he graduated from the Air Force Academy and became an Air Force Officer. 

“I served for 22 years in the Air Force in multiple places around the world,” he says, “Lots of places, lots of deployments and a couple of European assignments, which is awesome. Lots of trips to the Middle East.” 

In 2014, he retired from the Air Force and immediately went to South. 

“I think I was retired for literally three days before I started teaching. I took no time off, just kind of went straight from one career to the next,” Cole says.  

He still wanted to give back to the community, even after retiring. 

“I found that one of the best ways to serve was to be a teacher,” Cole says.

It was one of Cole’s friend that had pointed him into the direction of JROTC. 

 “I applied in 2014, when I was still at the Pentagon, to teach through Junior ROTC,” says Cole. “And then Blue Spring South opened up, so I applied here, and it just matched up. It was great. It was my way of continuing to give back in a way. Since I can’t be in the military anymore, I can still wear the uniform.” 

Now that he is a teacher, Cole’s goal is to help his students become contributing members in whatever career they choose to go into.  

“My goal is to see students graduate from Blue Spring South and just be productive members of whatever they choose to go do,” says Cole, “If they want to go to college, go be a great college student. If you want to join the military, go be an awesome airman, soldier, sailor, marine, whatever it is you want to do.”

Cole finds that being in the military has helped give both himself and his students more structure. 

“It gave me a lot of structure and discipline and it allowed me to come into a place like this and have structure. Especially in this program, because some kids need that structure,” Cole says.  

Senior Sofia Reyes, who is a part of JROTC, has found that Cole has allowed her to gain a new perspective. 

“Personally, he helps me get more confidence and look at a different point of view for a class. He makes us understand more stuff that we never thought of,” says Reyes. 

Cole finds that the best part of his day is engaging with his students. 

“I think it’s great interacting with different kinds of kids,” says Cole, “Some who know exactly what they want to do with their life, and some who are just taking my class because they want to see what it’s about. So, I love the idea that every class is different, every kid is different.” 

When Cole first started teaching, he was much stricter than he is now. 

“I started off being pretty directive and [strict with] what my expectations were. And kids have mellowed me out. Over the last 11 years, I am so much different now than when I started teaching,” says Cole.  

Now, his philosophy is that each student needs a different teaching style as each student is different.  

“Every student is an individual, and every student has a different story,” Cole says. “And if we treat them that way, then we never get bogged down in trying to fit one-size-fits-all education to kids, because that doesn’t work.” 

However, being a teacher for JROTC is different than being a teacher for another class.  

“I think it’s a little bit different, because we have a four-year curriculum instead of just kind of a one-year class and then we have leadership opportunities for kids,” says Cole. “And it’s kind of fun to see kids grow from being a follower to being a leader and how they navigate that challenge of being both a friend but also a leader at the same time.” 

Before he joined South, there was not a Raiders team. 

“Raiders was not a team that existed when he [Cole] first got here,” says Gettings, “That’s something that that him and Senior Master Sergeant Jones down there have worked really hard to develop over the last few years. And they’ve become pretty much a powerhouse in the country.”  

Both the Raiders and Drill team mean a lot to Cole. 

“Because the kids put so much of their heart and soul into the program, I want to make sure that it’s the best that it can be. And so, we work them really hard, but we also play really hard,” Cole says.  

Gettings finds that Cole’s work ethic has made him stand out against other teachers. 

“A lot of people don’t see the behind-the-scenes stuff, but he’s here very early in the morning most mornings and stays very late in the evening to do all the things that they do,” says Gettings, “And that happens throughout the course of the whole year. So, I think his work ethic is it’d be hard to find anybody else in the building that would probably match his work ethic.” 

With his hard work, Gettings sees all of South’s core values exemplified through Cole. 

“He certainly puts his kids first and other staff first. He’s trying to help our kids grow and get better. He is compassionate. He does understand empathy and he has respect for our school and our students, and I think our students respect him back because of that,” says Gettings.