BY ANNA HERKAMP
DANVILLE — Danville Lutheran School’s retirees are packing up their classrooms or office and getting ready to turn their spaces over to some new faces in the school this fall.
Here they reflect on their careers at Danville Lutheran School.
Betty Schneider
Danville Lutheran School Principal Betty Schneider says key parts of educational delivery are a lot different from when she first began teaching.
“We were teaching letters and sounds in first grade,” she said.
Now, kindergarten students — who are older than they used to be — are expected to learn to read before they even get to first grade.
“Children attended half-day kindergarten in those days and learned to read from the ‘Dick and Jane’ series. We taught Economy Phonics. Students did not read as fluently as they do today,” she said.
Schneider taught special education, and for many years, the primary grades.
Her students always taught her in unexpected ways.
“All of them have taught me something,” she said. “It’s important you listen to the children and what they have to say.”
By being sensitive to their needs, kids will let you know what they need, and sometimes reveal the difficulties they face at home, she said.
The best moments in her career were the ones in which students showed her they finally understood a concept she was teaching them.
She always felt called to be a parochial school teacher. She advises others who also feel the calling to enjoy all of their students.
“Praise God for each child’s strengths,” she said. “Each child is a gift.”
In retirement, Schneider will move with her husband next year to Farina, which is near the areas where they grew up.
They will spend time with their two sons and grandson. Schneider would also like to learn to crochet, knit and create pottery.
Marilyn LePere
Marilyn LePere has learned along with her students that history can be fun.
“I got into liking history,” she said.
But when she first learned she was going to teach social studies, she wasn’t too excited about it.
She wasn’t sure the subject would be her forte, but she started to infuse regular history lessons with her own family’s stories about the Civil War and other historical eras.
“It’s a fun thing to do,” she said.
Genealogy is a hobby of hers, and she can trace her family history all the way back to the 1600s.
Some of her favorite memories were getting to know her students outside class on field trips to Chicago, Springfield, and the Wisconsin Dells.
She also counts her favorite moments in teaching as those “light bulb” moments.
“When the light bulb goes on — when they finally catch something,” she said.
Her students often let her know she’s made a difference for them. The closeness of the DLS school family has allowed stu-dents and teachers to remain in touch over the years, she added.
Many come back for 20-year reunions and want to see what their old classrooms look like, she said.
Of the changes she’s noted over her career, among the biggest are in technology.
She began using reel-to-reel films and record players in to show her students films, and now she uses DVD players to show movies. She began in her career making copies with hand-cranked mimeograph machines and now just presses a button to make photocopies of documents that were designed on a computer in her classroom.
Even grading systems have been upgraded.
Teachers used to figure grades with a pencil and paper. Now, they have special software that uploads test scores onto a web-based program parents can use to track their children’s grades, she said.
It’s hard for LePere to note just one thing her students have taught her, but all of her students feel like little brothers and sisters by the end of the year, she said.
“They’ve become family,” she said.
She advises future teachers to stay in contact with parents and not be afraid to ask or advice from fellow teachers.
In retirement, LePere will travel more frequently to visit family around the Midwest and pursue her hobbies, which include rubber-stamping.
Pat Hubner
Hubner also refers to the “light bulb” moment when she talks about her favorite moments in teaching.
When you see a child who’s struggled and struggled finally understand something, you know you’ve done your job, she said.
Little kids are quicker to show their excitement, she said
“Older kids learn to curtail their emotions,” she said.
“But they do show it.”
She will never forget a funny moment from her first year of teaching.
Some of her students, who were sixth-graders, wanted to know how old she was.
She told them to do the math by adding the number of years she was in school to how old she was in sixth grade.
When they were done, they’d discover within a year or two her age at the time, she told them.
“I found out I was anywhere from 18 to 29 years old,” she laughed.
“With that first class, I thought we had a long way to go.”
She believes her students have shaped the person she’s become.
It’s a joy to see what they’ve become as adults, to know she’s just one small part of their educational lives, Hubner said.
In retirement, Hubner and her husband will spend time with her two children and two grandchildren who live near them in Indiana.
The Hubners plan a boating adventure sometime soon around the “great loop.”
The couple would like to navigate their own boat around the Great Lakes, down the east coast and up the Mississippi River.
When she’s not charting the waters, she’d like to start sewing again, put together jigsaw puzzles and get involved in banner-making for the church.
She advises future teachers, “Laugh a lot. Enjoy the students. Always at the end of the day, know they are loved children of God. Send them home on a happy note.”
DLS RETIREES
Name: Betty Schneider, retiring principal; 32 years in education; 26 years at Danville Lutheran School
Age: 60
Education: Concordia Teachers College: bachelor of arts in education, 1969; Illinois State University: master’s degree in special education, 1976
Experience: 1969-71: Danville Lutheran School: taught first grade; 1971-76: taught special education in Developmental Learning Center in Danville; 1984-85: interim principal for DLS; 1986-2003: second grade teacher; 2003-09: principal at DLS
Name: Marilyn LePere; 36 years of service to DLS; retiring fifth-grade teacher
Education: Concordia Teachers College: bachelor’s degree, 1973; University of Illinois; master’s degree, 1979
Experience: taught every grade at DLS except kindergarten, first and second grades
Name: Pat Hubner
Age: 63
Education: Concordia Teachers College, bachelor’s degree, 1967; Purdue University: master’s degree, 1978
Experience: Redeemer Lutheran School, Warrington, Fla., 1967-69; taught in public schools in Marshall, Mo., 1969-70; taught in public school system in Fulton, Mo., 1970-73; taught in Warren County, Ind. public schools, 1973-76; 1976-97: substitute teacher and teaching assistant — taught for teachers on leave in both Warren County, Ind. and DLS; 1997-2009: DLS, taught grades 4-8.
