I Led 3 Lives - The Second Leg of my Journey

I’m a Teacher

I’m a Scholar 

I’m a Coach        

The next twelve years of My Three Lives (1955 – 1967) was extremely chaotic and enlightening.

I’m a Teacher – I’m a Scholar         

In 1954, I decided to apply for a teaching job at the Barrington, Illinois, School District and was invited for an interview. The Superintendent and board members offered me a position that wasn’t exactly what I wanted but the change in the philosophy of teaching/learning was so clear and tempting that I accepted the position of Junior High School Mathematics teacher.

I had been shown around the building and had attended an interrogation session with the department chairmen including Mrs. Zink, the Math Department Chairman.  I was impressed with the Scholarly level of their curriculum. She was likewise pleased with my teaching philosophical beliefs and with my plans for a graduate degree.

Every teacher in the system had a master’s degree or was in the process of attaining one. I had already been accepted into a graduate program at Northern Illinois University. The school district would pay the tuition fees for any courses I took in that program. This was especially a great addition to the job.

I spent two years in the finest Math department that I could imagine. There was no memorization of facts with testing check-ups. The students learned the structure of our number system and the basic laws, e.g., the Commutative Property. We teachers learned where each and every student was in the process by constant interaction with each one of them.

I didn’t realize it but I had taken a position with one of the first schools of the Golden Age of Education – teachers and school officials from other cities and, even countries, were coming to see what we were doing.

Shortly before the end of my second year, I heard that there would be an opening in the fourth grade in the same building. This was an opportunity for my Scholarly life to get a lift. In addition to taking courses at NIU, I had been reading articles on the British Infant School and Middle School and really wanted to teach a class at the 4th to 6th grade level.

         That following year, I had the most memorable teaching class of my career. I conducted the reading/learning program that consisted of Learning Units and Individualized Reading. The Learning Unit could be a historical topic or a math topic or a science topic. Two of the topics my class chose were The Five Civilized Tribes and The Different Types of Horses.  My class was divided up into five study groups of five students to do the research and recording.  Encyclopedias and dictionaries were accessible - No phones - No copy machines.

At the end of the school year, I had each of my students choose a topic to research. Jill had a burro to learn more about, Greg’s father had a rock collection he could tell us about, but the one that struck me the most was selected by Susan; she created a 52 page report on The Evolution of the Horse.

         In the reading class, each of my children chose a book from our school library to be his or her reader. Each child would sit with me, one-on-one, and read their book to me. I would assist them with new words, new meanings, and new phonics uses. Above that, we had the chance that was unavailable to achievement type evaluations. We could extrapolate, create, differentiate the messages, the stories, and the uniqueness of that book.

In July, 1957, my master’s thesis entitled The Appraisal of an Individualized Reading Program was accepted and I was awarded my Master’s Degree.

The Glade Hill School - Creativity and Scholarship in Action

  A note from the future. In January of 1975, while I was a professor at Elmhurst College, I had the opportunity to spend a month at the Nottingham College of Education, in Nottingham, England, and learn more about the British Infant School. 

Perhaps the best school I have ever seen (and I have supervised hundreds of student teachers in Illinois, Texas, and Oklahoma) was the Glade Hill Junior School in Nottingham. The entire school was involved in the study of The Dance and the students were doing all kinds of art, music, poetry, and body movement on that topic and defining them in written, spoken, and action modes.

The Teacher and The Scholar Have Come Together - I’m a Seeker

Skipping around a bit, I spent the next few years acting as a Curriculum Director in a Junior High School and in a K-12 School District. I continued taking graduate level college courses in Psychology and Education at NIU. I became a member of the NIU Perceptual Psychology group which was based on the works of Carl Rogers, Arthur Combs, Earl Kelly, Abraham Maslow, and other positive thinkers. We have published information  on these people and on Learner-Centered Education in our October and November, 2023 blogs. In the early 1960s, NIU was able to offer a doctoral program and I was one of the 30 applicants who were chosen to be the first students. I was awarded an EdD in the summer session of 1966 and became  a professor at Elmhurst College that fall.

I’m a Coach

Well, actually I’m not at this time and won’t be until 1980 when I became a professor at Southeastern Oklahoma State University. I enjoyed coaching a Babe Ruth Baseball League  team for 13-18 year old boys there for six years. Personally, I became an avid golfer in the summer and a pretty good bowler in the winter.

Next week 

I’m a Co-Learner