NATCHEZ — Gina Martin O’Brien was recently recognized by the Missouri Senate for her work in education, but she says her passion for teaching began here in Natchez.

Martin O’Brien spent the majority of her childhood in Natchez and, after attending Louisiana State University, returned to Natchez for her first teaching job.

It was at Trinity Episcopal Day School, Martin O’Brien said, that she first became drawn to gifted students.

“We just had a plethora of exceptional students,” she said. “I felt pressure to rise to their expectations and abilities. I felt unqualified to challenge them.”

That interest in atypically advanced students and a passion for teaching them, she said, led her to pursue a master’s degree and focus on gifted education.

In her classrooms in Grandview, Mo., Martin O’Brien said she found students to be inquisitive, understanding and witty.

“They get all the jokes, you know?” she said. “But it’s more than that. They feel the literature more deeply. I’ve tried to be the kind of teacher who pulled it out of them.”

Instead of teaching memorization and rhetoric, Martin O’Brien said she tries to focus on teaching children to think.

Just as important as making children think, she said, is making sure children know their thoughts matter.

“For some young students, this was the first time anyone asked them what they thought,” Martin O’Brien said. “One of my principals told me, and I’ll never forget it, ‘Students don’t care what you know until they know that you care.’”

This, she said, became her motto for instructing children.

The pursuit of education, she said, led her to a more specialized career and, coincidentally, to her husband, Tom O’Brien.

“We had a college course together,” she said. “We teach for the same reason. We both think the best way to make a difference is to cultivate self-exploration in children. We just looked at life the same way.”

Martin O’Brien has spent the last 26 years in education of some sort — eight years at Trinity and then 18 in the public education sector, and she retired this year.

“I miss it,” she said. “I miss the hugs.”

After she announced her retirement, Martin O’Brien received a plaque of recognition from Missouri Sen. Jason Holsman, D-District 7.

Holsman, who attends the same church as Martin O’Brien, presented her with the award in front of her congregation.

“I was completely blindsided,” she said. “It was more than I deserved. I haven’t done anything special.”