Story By: Wyatt Smith
DEATSVILLE, Ala. — When many people think of their kindergarten teacher, they see a kind person teaching them their alphabet and basic math, but one former teacher has much more to his story than most of his students will ever know. Mike Hodum is a small town farmer who leads preschool through middle school classes on field trips of his farm, but that is far from his entire story.
Hodum grew up working his family’s tobacco farm with his four siblings, and as the third child, he would not receive a Pell Grant to fund his college education because his older siblings had used the family’s share of the grant. Hodum felt like he was running out of options and opted to join the Navy for four years to work on ships as he traveled the world, but a small hiccup would change his path forever.
After misspelling his middle name on the documents from the Navy, Hodum was ghosted by his Navy recruiter, which led him to speak with an Air Force recruiter. By the end of the day he was signing up for the Air Force.
Hodum graduated high school later that year and was moved to North Dakota for basic training. After he finished basic, he was moved to an Air Force base in California to begin working on planes. Hodum’s job was to remove missiles from fighter jets, detach the nuclear warheads and then move them over to containment.
After a few years he was stationed in Montgomery, Alabama to work in a cubical programing computers. It was the last place he wanted to be, but there was one bright side. Once a week, Hodum was given the opportunity to go to Chisholm Middle School and help out some students with reading and math. Many of the kids were seen as “problem kids” by their teachers so many of Hodum’s co-workers stayed in office all week, but he loved it.
“There was a need and I enjoyed it,” Hodum says, “So I changed, when I got out of the military, to education.”
There was a need and I enjoyed it, so I changed… to education – Mike Hodum
After his military contract expired, Hodum got his master’s degree at Auburn University at Montgomery in teaching and began work as a kindergarten teacher. At first he was met with skeptical teachers and principles who thought he was just there for a coaching job or a principle position.
“The first couple of years they questioned because I was already older… you had to convince a lot of people that you were there for the kids,” Hodum says.
But after his first few years, Hodum proved that he was not there to climb the career ladder. He was there to teach kids, but this came with its own challenges.
In the military, Hodum was used to complete obedience. “Being in the military, when I say ‘Jump’, they jump, and they don’t question. They just jump until I say ‘Stop jumping.’ Whereas in education with little kids you can say ‘Jump’ all day, but you have to motivate them and find ways to make them jump where they don’t think their jumping.”
After a few years and a few hundred cookies, Hodum found a way to motivate his students and excelled in the classroom. While teaching at Coosada Elementary School he met his wife, JoAnne, and eventually moved to a small farm to settle down before retirement, but retirement has not stopped Hodum from educating the youth. He and his wife now run Hilltop Farm from their back yard. Hilltop is a multi-acre farm that houses goats, chicken, cows and field of fruits and vegetables. Hodum’s main goal with Hilltop is to teach the youth in Deatsville how their food is made.
“Young kids just walk into Walmart and see all that food and they think, ‘Ohhh,'” he says, “They have no idea [where it comes from].”
The Hodums still run Hilltop Farm and are currently running the Good News Club, an after school Christian club at Coosada Elementary School, and help with VBS at church. Hodum has no plans of slowing down and is looking forward to the future, where he can teach his grandkids how he gets food from farm to table.
Vallo Vision News 