This is Teacher Appreciation Week. Here at Brandywine, we expand that to Staff Appreciation Week, because everyone contributes to a good school experience.

The bus driver who smiles and says good morning and good-bye to their kids every single day; the custodian who helps a student with a jammed locker and seems to enjoy doing it; the cook who knows students by name and talks to them as they go through the lunch line; and the office staff who answer the phones in a pleasant voice as they juggle a dozen items, messages, and events that were never on the day’s schedule.

I’ve paid tribute to my favorite teachers in this column before. They had such a great effect on me, I must do it again. Helen Hoover took a first grader who had only about a month of kindergarten, had never been around many other kids before, couldn’t say his ABC’s, hold a pencil, tie shoes, or cut with scissors, and she taught me how to read, write and get along with others.

Harold Remus got a kid interested and so motivated to learn just by talking and telling stories from his own life, so I use storytelling as an effective tool in many of my daily tasks. Norb Hauser taught research and writing skills that I used on up through a doctoral dissertation and to this day.

Today I’m also thinking about the only physical education teacher I ever had at Eastside School. Due to budget cuts (had those even back then!), we only had gym class when I was in second grade, and Carol Thurston was my teacher. She left to teach in Brandywine and was the first PE teacher at Brandywine High School, serving from 1959 until she retired in 1991. Remarkably, when I came to work at Brandywine as a young teacher in 1978, Carol remembered me from 20 years earlier!

On Saturday, May 16, at 10:15 a.m., just before Brandywine’s softball doubleheader with Schoolcraft, we are dedicating the Carol Thurston Memorial Softball Field. This is a very fitting tribute and honor to appreciate and remember an outstanding teacher and coach. We hope former students and players can attend the event.

Take some time this week to appreciate your teachers and educators. If they are still around, take time to thank them. If they are gone, think about them and smile, remembering what they did for you.

 

John Jarpe is the superintendent of Brandywine Community Schools. He can be reached at (269) 684- 7150.