The Changing of the Guard

During my years in education I have worked with a variety of educators. Many of them had a positive influence on my career. Teachers come and go. (I have even come and gone a few times myself.) Some teachers are hardly missed, while others leave a gaping hole to be filled. I have encountered a number of teachers who fit one of those categories.


I have been influenced in a number of ways by my fellow educators. These influences have helped me become the teacher I am today. A number of these people from my early days as a teacher are often in my thoughts. I thought I’d share a few of them with you. It will be nice to have others get to know a little bit about these people. Even though they are gone, they are not forgotten.

Ann was a home economics teacher at my first school. She was a good friend and very active with a chapter of the FHA. She always had a large membership and was very popular with the students and faculty. She chaperoned the prom each year and would critique my date. She especially complimented me when she and a group of her students were meeting at a restaurant where my future wife and I stopped for dinner.

Reid was my first principal. He was from the old school and wouldn’t hesitate to use corporal punishment when he felt it was warranted. His methods were too old fashioned for his bosses and he was convinced to retire several years before he was ready to do so. He taught me to be consistent and fair when disciplining students.

Jim was the guidance counselor. He and I hit it off from the day I met him. He had an earlier career as a physical therapist who worked mostly with the elderly. Jim was burnt out and gave up that career to work with young people. He had a special ability and made good connections with our students. We used to go to the Friday night basketball games together and then stay out until near sunrise drinking beer and eating pizza. Then I’d crash at Jim’s place, sleep for about an hour, then head home and drink some cold coffee before going to Lehigh University for my Saturday class. The funny thing is that I don’t like beer and I seldom drink coffee hot, let alone cold. After the second time, we scaled things back to about an hour after each game. I had sowed enough wild oats.

The principal, Peter, who replaced Reid, wanted Jim to be his partner for applying corporal punishment. Several teachers wanted the paddle used on miscreants but would not do it themselves. They would call for Peter and Jim to apply the punishment. Jim soon told Peter that witnessing punishment was interfering with his role as a counselor. Jim’s relationship with students was a strong one. It was broken when he suffered a stroke and was moved into a nursing home to spend his few remaining years among the elderly receiving physical therapy to help him recover his speech and regain some movement in his arm and leg.

Jim was the best man at my wedding and the first true friend I made in my teaching career. I lost track of him when his brother moved him to New Jersey but I believe he died within a few years after his stroke. Life wasn’t fair to him but the last time I visited him in the nursing home he was cantankerous and still demonstrated a great sense of humor.

When I changed school districts, I accepted a position at a junior high school. There were several long term teachers working in the building with me. Irma had over thirty years of teaching experience and lived with her two sisters. One of her sisters, Kathryn, taught English in the high school. The other took care of their house. A brother, John, was a maintenance supervisor for the school district. They were an important part of the educational system.

I enjoyed getting to know Irma. She taught seventh grade geography. Rote memorization was an important part of her curriculum. She related well to the kids and they seemed to enjoy her class as much as preteens can enjoy anything related to education. Unfortunately she got caught up in the drive to discredit memorization as a teaching method and the drive to take geography out of the junior high school curriculum and integrate it into social studies. When geography was dropped, Irma was forced into an early retirement. She always felt unappreciated by the administration.

Charlie was the eighth grade science teacher with over thirty years of experience. He had developed an effective curriculum coupled with methods that modern educational theory considers to be outdated. Charlie eventually decided that battling with the department chairman wasn’t worth all of the stress it caused. He retired and I lost track of him. He was a great resource to a young teacher.

More later ....