What I Have Learned at Exeter Union High School

I wrote this as a farewell to my colleagues. Thought I would share it. In hindsight I forgot the many lessons I learned from the classified staff, the secretaries, maintenance people, bus drivers and custodians. They truly make a school work

After spending 34 years of my life on this campus, I am finally graduating and leaving.  At least in an official capacity, I will still visit from time to time. I will still ride by on my bike and observe. I have pondered what I had learned in that time and came away a bit surprised.

I learned that change is inevitable, and yet things stay the same. I have taught 16 different classes in 14 different classrooms not including Summer School. Some rooms I sat in as a student, and some no longer exist. Some were in disrepair and some brand new. For a while I was the rookie with the cart moving from room to room paying my dues. Sometimes I was moved to accommodate another teacher. Sometimes I volunteered to move to help someone. One room had lights that shorted out producing flames and smoke. One had 5 inches of Bermuda grass growing up through the baseboard. One room was a former auto shop with a leaking roof. When the rains started we ran for plastic to cover the desks and computers. In one room I had the principal hit me in the face with a pie, and the vice principal pied me again the next period. Through all these room changes though, the reason we are here didn’t change—the students. The students still need us.

I learned that while sports and extra-curriculars are important and many lessons can be taught and learned on fields, courts and auditorium; there are more important reasons to be in school. As a freshman, my Algebra teacher Mrs. Sanders taught me that lesson one day as I rose from my chair to leave five minutes early for a water polo game. She promptly told me to sit down and said I would be able to leave when she was done with the day’s lesson and at the proper time. I learned much more than Algebra that year with Mrs. Sanders.

I learned about being a professional as a teacher when in the above situation Mrs. Sanders did finish her lesson for the day and it was in time for me to leave for the bus. I also learned about being a professional from Mr. Simpson suggesting I wear a tie so the students would know I was a teacher, Mr. Kouklis reminding me to shave for school on one harried morning when I forgot, Mr. Allred questioning why I was wearing tennis shoes to class when I wasn’t a P.E. teacher. Mr. Strable explained to me that it is a good idea to be firm with students, but it’s okay to give them a way to save face in front of their peers. My colleagues in the English department gently prodded and pulled me along towards becoming a better teacher. Mrs. Cairns showed daily that a teacher’s hours would never be 8:00 to 3:00. Mrs. Bucz taught me perseverance and dedication by grading essays on her deathbed. All of these were little lessons, but like a pointillist painting they taught me what it was to be a teacher one dab of paint at a time. For the students.

I learned that English, Science and Math weren’t the only subjects taught in school.  Mr. Allison, Mr. Knudsen and Mr. Harrison showed that there was more than one way to measure, add and subtract. They also showed how all those esoteric machinations in Algebra could be used in real life. Mr. Boydstun and Mr. Crookham taught the advantages of pre-planning a project.  Mrs. Diaz taught me that there is always more than one use for an object even though I never was blessed to take Home Ec from her.

I learned how to laugh after watching Mr. Vigil lift the salt shaker with a loose top, thus spilling the contents over the table for the umpteenth time. Or the positive reason to always keep your coffee cup with you as Mr. Shields drank from his cup filled with salt instead of the sugar he thought he had put into the cup. I learned to value Men’s Town and the Ladies’ Table not as antiquated sexist paradigms, but as different people sitting with their friends. We all want to be with our friends, and EUHS has provided many friends.

I learned that life isn’t always fair. I learned that some things we have no control over. I learned to cry in private after a student tells you a heart-wrenching story that leaves you thinking, “There but for the Grace of God go I.” I learned that you may have the better team on paper, but you still have to play the game. I learned that losing a baseball game 32-0 isn’t the worst thing that can happen. I also learned that in the end you may not get what you want,  and you will not be able to provide for every student, but you will be able to touch and help some in ways others won’t. I learned that there are some people I will reach and others I will not.  Some students will repeat a quote I have long forgotten, but they remember me saying it to them and it helped them.

Years ago I was one of those students trying to find their way.  I was fortunate to have teachers and friends that gently and not so gently moved me on a better path. This happened at Exeter Union High School. I never wanted to be the star, there were others better suited for that.  I just wanted to put on the uniform and get a chance to play. I received that chance for 34 years as a student and teacher, and that has made all the difference. Thank you for making that difference in me.

P.S. As I reread this last night at home I realized that there were more lessons I had learned and forgotten.  That list is too long to  continue.  But more importantly there is a group of people that taught me so many things and most emphatically that to make an organization run we need people doing jobs we prefer not to do ourselves. To call a group classified is such a disservice. Clerical, maintenance and custodial staff are so important to making a school run correctly.  Bev Wallace and Jean Clark kindly and not so gently taught me that lesson that to this day my thoughts go to how to help them just after how to help students. And sometimes before. 

Thank you.