BY SATARIA OLIVIA SMITH
D
r. Rodney Washington has been motivated to excel from a young age because of his strong family foundation. The chair of Jackson State University’s Department of Elementary and Early Childhood Education had a timeframe on every task he assigned to his life, including earning a doctorate before age 30. “My parents both had elementary educations, neither finishing high school. My mother told us that she only prayed that all of her children could read and write,” says Washington, whose mother died of breast cancer when he was 20. “Her work ethic is what I use to push forward.” He fondly recalls how writing his master’s thesis based on Carter G. Woodson’s book, “Mis-Education of the Negro,” changed him. “I knew then that the issues I was exposed to in the rural Delta could not factor into what I was to become,” recalls the Lexington, Miss., native, who earned his doctorate in early childhood education at age 29. While pursuing his master’s degree, Washington recalls studying research methods, something he admits he did not understand, while working the 11 p.m-to-7 a.m. shift at a juvenile correctional facility. By
day, he audited the research course at the undergraduate level; at night, he took the course on the graduate level, eventually earning his master’s degree in criminology at age 24. A year later, Washington began working as an adjunct instructor at Jackson State. “Students thought that I was taking the course when I was actually the instructor,” says Washington, the single father of a 17year-old. “I knew then that I wanted a career in higher education.” Washington’s work in juvenile justice helped him gain a deeper understanding of today’s youth. His training focuses on issues in child development and classroom management from a behavioral stance. “I was told early on, go where the research is going to be, not where it is,” says Washington, who once worked with former Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. writing intervention programs for schools in west Jackson. “I knew from my experience in juvenile justice that with the issues young people were facing, it would not be long before it became a priority in the educational setting.” Sataria Olivia Smith is a senior mass communications major.
Dr. Rodney Washington is responsible for overseeing a faculty of 10 and approximately 1,000 students in three undergraduate, four masters, one specialist and one doctoral program in the Department of Elementary and Early Childhood Education in the School of Instructional Leadership of the College of Education and Human Development at Jackson State University.