Anne Marie Prophete
FORMER TEACHING STAFF SUPERVISOR

She walked into her first Springboard to Learning classroom and spoke… French.

“The children had never seen a black person who spoke another language,” recalled Anne-Marie Prophete, 78, who spent some time recently reflecting on her 25 years as a Springboard teacher who specialized in the culture of Haiti, her original home.

Madame Prophete, the children called her. Or just Madame. Either way, her warm smile and inspired teaching made her a model for what Springboard specialists can provide to students in St. Louis Public Schools.

Madame Prophete was a newcomer to St. Louis in the 1960s. Married to a physician, Beau Manoir Prophete, she lived in the Central West End and began teaching French at Our Lady of the Pillar, the elementary school that feeds into Chaminade. As her family grew - eventually the couple had five children - Madame looked for a way to teach part time. Through her involvement at the International Institute she ran into Kay Parvis, who was already involved with Springboard. Mrs. Parvis encouraged her to think about sharing her knowledge of Haiti with Springboard students.

“Kay told me, ‘since you're already doing it anyway [talking about Haiti in the community], you might as well get paid for it,’” Madame said. “I found it was not easy for me to communicate in English, but Kay said, ‘They will love you exactly the way you are.’ And they were so happy to have me.”

At first the Midwestern students had trouble understanding Madame’s mellifluous accent. “So I told their teacher, teach them how to listen and they will understand what I am saying,” she said.