Ten Times Better

BY CLAYTEE D. WHITE

A few days ago, George Lee passed from this earthly existence. I had just watched the documentary of his life for the second time. He was quiet — a dealer at a downtown casino, who, earlier in life, danced on New York stages for the likes of George Balanchine. Lee was masterful and his dancing was true art. 

George Lee was born in China in 1935 — escaping with his mother in 1949, just before the communist takeover. They were evacuated by the United Nations to a camp in the Philippines, where they lived in a tent for a while. Eventually he arrived in New York and danced for many years. That career led him to Las Vegas, where the dancing continued until it didn’t. Lee always remembered what his mother, the person who taught him to dance, always told him as a young Asian man: you have to be ten times better. 

At one time in our history, Black parents told their children that they had to be twice as good. 

Do you still strive for that standard of excellence? Is it fair? Well, the world isn’t fair. Since the mid-1990s, I have worked diligently during my career at UNLV. But it was the passion that pushed me. Over the years, I met others who I thought worked twice as hard, making them ten times better. I saw that in Beverly Mathis, who is passionate, takes calculated chances, is creative, and works smart. She’s the kind of person who makes it look easy as she soars. 

She left Tennessee as a young bride in 1976 —and when Nellis Air Force Base lacked housing for everyone, she and her husband lived in the tiniest trailer. Yes, they still like each other and have been married for almost 48 years. As they settled into the city, she began taking the necessary steps to become a teacher in the Clark County School District. On the way home after taking the exams for teaching jobs at CCSD, Mathis got lost and ended up on Desert Inn Road — where she saw Little Scholars Day Care Center. She stopped and went in to find that the lone teacher needed help. She jumped right in and worked there for five years. 

A few days after taking her exams, CCSD contacted her, and she was the 13th interviewee for one particular opening. 

During the interview, Human Resources called the principal who was interviewing her — demanding to know the choice, with August 1 rapidly approaching. Mathis realized what the call was about, ran to the desk, and pointed to herself, “Tell them you’re sending Beverly Mathis.” Then she grabbed his notepad and wrote her name on it and repeated her name. She got the job! 

In a few years, she was promoted to principal and worked 16 years at Kermit R. Booker Sr. Elementary School where the community engagement was unnaturally strong. She and her staff would play music on powerful speakers that “woke” the neighborhood every morning. Even children without clean clothes would come to school and the staff would dress them. Attendance and test scores soared. Now Beverly Mathis works for the Public Education Foundation —serving scholarship recipients in the most profound way. Mathis is fun, energetic, smart, wise, and kind. She works twice as smart and is truly ten times better.