Bermudian Charles Joynes has made a name for himself in American education.

He has been teacher of the year in Tennessee, worked with the mayor to improve education and had his work featured on television and in newspapers.

But as a child, he told his teacher to go ahead and fail him straight because he knew he wasn't going to succeed.

"I had a teacher named Miss (Helene) Mills at Elliott Primary School," said Mr. Joynes in a telephone interview with The Royal Gazette. "I told Miss Mills, go ahead and give me a bad grade because I have always failed.

"She talked to me. She said, 'We are going to have a spelling test. Go home and practice and practice and practice. If you fail, I won't bother you again."

Mr. Joynes thought he had a pretty good chance of winning the wager since he'd failed every spelling test before.

"I went home and really, really studied," he said. "I really wanted to prove to her that I was dumb. I called myself Charlie Brown when I was young.

"Growing up in Bermuda, I was kind of hard headed. I was in trouble a lot, actually."

As soon as the spelling test was marked, young Charles was called up to the teacher's desk.

"She told me she wanted me to come around the desk, and I really thought I was in trouble," he said. "She gave me the biggest hug. It was my first A.

"That really did something to me. I wanted to please her. I tried and worked. Because of the work, I did well. I never considered myself the smartest or the brightest."

Helene (Mills) Stephenson, now retired, remembers Mr Joynes as being "very bright, eager and ambitious". Contacted in Jamaica, the former teacher recalled: "I don't know if he remembered this but I handed out just as many cracks with a ruler. I gave them cracks and hugs, depending on what they needed."

Mr. Joynes credits her for turning his life around. Now he is trying to do the same for hundreds of children in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

His early life experiences help him to connect and empathise with his students.

"I try to teach my children and students that you don't always have to be an A plus student or scholar, you just have to try," he said.

Mr. Joynes has been working in teaching in Tennessee for about 15 years. He is currently principal of the East Lake Fine Arts Academy in Chattanooga.

He formerly taught at Sandys Secondary Middle School in Bermuda for five years.

"My wife was homesick because she was from here," said Mr. Joynes. "So I started teaching here.

"I became teacher of the year in my district out of 81 schools."

Mr. Joynes was so successful at turning around troubled kids, that he became a kind of clean-up man for the Tennessee educational system.

"They tend to have me in areas with the highest need," said Mr. Joynes. "I have been in areas with 90 percent poverty.

"It started that I was sent to be principal of an elementary school that was very difficult," said Mr. Joynes. "It was on notice because of poor grades. I pulled it off notice. Being on notice means that your funding is about to be cut and your teachers and administrators sent elsewhere."

He said during his first days at the school the physical plant was in bad shape, and teachers weren't up to par.

"There were a few good teachers and some marginal," he said. "Unfortunately, it was a dumping ground for those teachers who weren't good.

"Children there were children of poverty. The system in America is sometimes afraid to attack people who are not good, instead they just move them to schools where parents don't complain as much. Parents in poverty often don't complain as much."

Mr. Joynes got good people in to teach at the school. He got the building renovated. The school was taken off of notice.

His work caught the attention of the national media and he was interviewed by the television channel CNN.

Since then he has worked at several different middle and high schools, some of them for gifted students and some of them in a similar situation to his first school.

"When I was at the elementary school, I was called down to City Hall and the mayor asked me to help him recruit teachers from around the country to Chattanooga. I worked out of City Hall and worked in my building at the same time."

Mr. Joynes said his special forte is building relationships and teams.

"I am good at hiring and training people, and teaching people to work with other people."

He said in order for education to really work, students have to have the best teachers in front of them.

"Those teachers not only have to be good in education, but must respect and care about the children," he said. "We try to get teachers to understand if you capture the heart, you'll also capture the head."

He said teachers need to know the ins and outs of their students' lives.

"I would often show up on a weekend at a student's game," he said. "When I wrote my math problems I would use the neighbourhood stores and streets. I would put their names in the problem."

He said as a result he didn't have a problem with students not doing their homework. He also created something called 'The Game of Life'.

"I did it with matchbox cars, and magazines with homes in them," he said. "They had to pick out a house and they were each given a pretend running bank account of $10,000. They thought they were rich."

Regularly, rent and other real life expenses had to be paid by the students. When they didn't do their homework a "bank account error" happened and money was deducted from their pretend accounts. If they did their homework, they got a pay cheque at the end of the week.

"I taught them how to write cheques," said Mr. Joynes. "Most of my kids will never see that because their parents don't use cheques.

"I took them to the store and showed them what the cost was for children's items. Teen pregnancy is a real problem."

He said he tells his teachers that you may not be able to save all the students, but if you save just one child, that is good too.

"If you save just one child that child will save his children, and have an impact on his community," said Mr. Joynes. "So you impact generations of people."

Now, Mr. Joynes would like to return to Bermuda if the opportunity presents itself.

"I am a little hesitant because I am no longer married and I have a son who is going to the tenth grade in high school here.

"I feel I need to be there to support him. Last week we were hanging out and he said he would be alright if I went back to Bermuda."

Mr. Joynes has three sons, Brandon, Quinton and Kevin.

He previously worked in the American Navy.

"When I came out of the Navy, I had the chance to work with machines and make more money," said Mr. Joynes. "I thought about myself getting older and older.

"I kept picturing these machines never speaking to me. I would prefer to work with people than to work with machines even though I would have more money."

Mr. Joynes said he misses his former students at Sandys Secondary Middle School.

To contact him, email joynes_c@hcde.org.