"Her name was Miss Marmont and she was the kindergarten teacher at Burrton Grade School for a gazillion years or so. Her birth certificate read "Josephine Marmont" but the only thing we kids ever knew was that she went by the name of "Jo". One time when a little kid in my class asked why her parents gave her a boy's name, Miss Marmont turned that inquisitive five-year old's question into an early-day teachable moment and explained to us the concept of what we would later on in our lives know as "gender neutral naming of baby boys and girls." She was an impeccable dresser with beautiful red fingernails and lipstick, never a hair out of place in her perfectly coifed hair. Josephine Marmont was an old-maid school teacher who never married or had children of her own. That wasn't necessary for she had US. We were loved, nurtured, disciplined, cajoled to do our best, and taught during that kindergarten year by one of the most memorable teachers I have ever known in life. She made quite an impression on the little five-year old Kansas farm girl that I used to be. Now nearly 54 years later, I am thinking of her still this day."
"If you ever have a teacher who says that they do not love you, then it's time to find a new teacher."
A very stark reality was looking me square in the eyes last August 1st. After years and years and more years of being a teacher, the 2013-14 school year was looking to be the first year that I would not have a class to teach. Yes, it is true that I had already retired back in Kansas, not once but twice, but after arriving here that previous June as a newly married, really homesick "flatlander", I knew that I needed to get back into the classroom and around kids once again. Just a few days later, as part of what I know has been God's good and right plan for me here along the Western Slopes, I found "the 18" waiting for me just up the road from home at Olathe Elementary School. My outlook on being here, so very far away from Kansas, changed for the "good" the day that I walked into the place that I consider to be just like another "home" to me.
Looking back now, I realize that I was desperately looking for the familiarity of something I had known all of my life and I found it there in that small rural community, in a school house filled with people who love and care about one another each and every day. My good friend Leroy pretty much "nailed it" when he commented to me last evening about them, saying of the staff there at Olathe, "they are life savers" and my dear friends, he was absolutely correct. I could not tell you, not in a million words or more, just how good the folks there really are. They watch out for one another and lift each other up when things sometimes get tough going. For me, they were like "anchors" who helped me to get my feet firmly planted into the soil of this place in the Great West. They recognized that I was "hurting" and needed some time to become accustomed to a new life far from the prairies of the great state of Kansas. In great part because of them, I made it! Mike and I both give thanks for that and recognize it as the beautiful and loving gift from them to us that it really was. May I some day return the kindness to them that they have shown so much to me.
There was a young woman from long ago who went to school with me at Bethel College, over in North Newton, KS. She was a year ahead of me and enrolled in the teacher education program just as I and a few hundred others were. Kathleen was a beautiful young woman who aspired to be a teacher of music one day and we all realized how good she would be at it. She graduated in 1976 and returned to teach music in her hometown of Pretty Prairie, Kansas. What a beautiful year she had, doing the thing that she had always hoped she would. At year's end, Kathleen's "part of the plan" came to a close as her life ended in a car crash not so far away from her home. One year of teaching was all that she got but I'm guessing that she must have had a great impact upon the students that she was able to reach that year. From the heart of someone who has been blessed with now 36 years in education, the sobering reality that there are some teachers whose time is quite limited, always makes me stop and think and be grateful.
I have told many, many people that this 36th year in education has been my very best one. I've become the teacher that I always knew I wanted to be. I have always felt I was a good teacher, still able to learn more each year of course, but a good teacher nonetheless. Yet this year, I became a greater teacher, an even more empathetic teacher and I finally have figured out what makes me feel that way. Perhaps it was because this is the first school year in my entire career that I nearly didn't have a class to teach. It was my "wake up" call, my thump up against the side of the head from God reminding me of what I was born to do. I'm beyond thankful for the chance that I received this year in a place far from where all of my teaching experience has happened. Next year, I have been asked to teach a classroom of first graders at Olathe and I'm looking forward to returning once again. 18 of my 36 years have been in the primary and one thing is that I still have the chance to be taller than my students, at least for a little while :) My first year as a fourth-grade teacher is rapidly coming to an end, "the 18" know it and so do I. I've learned so much with perhaps the greatest of lessons being that I don't know everything and there is still so much to learn. So thankful to God above for the gifts of the presence of those 9 and 10-year olds this year. I love them more than they will ever be able to know.
"There once was this silly woman who thought that after 32 years of being called 'teacher' that it was time to quit. Time to retire and think about a different kind of life. When she smiled for the camera on "picture day" at school, she was sure it would be her last teacher picture EVER. Like I said, 'there once was this silly woman who thought after 32 years of being called 'teacher' that it was time to quit."
Teacher picture #36, Olathe Elementary, Olathe, CO.
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