Senior Class: A Teacher Keeps her Vow

I’m delighted to introduce Gretchen Hane as our guest blogger today. Born into a Quaker family, Gretchen lived in a small village in Michigan called Newaygo during her formative years. After graduating in 1964 from Earlham College (a Quaker school in Indiana) she moved to Chicago, earned a Master’s Degree in teaching at Northwestern University, got a position with the Chicago Public School system, taught there for 35 years and vowed never to live in a small town again.

Retired now, Gretchen tutors ESL at Truman College, attends the memoir-writing class I teach via Zoom, and wrote the following homage to teaching when I assigned “A Skill or Ability I am Grateful to Have” as a prompt.

A Skill I am Grateful to Have

Gretchen in her classroom circa 1968.

by Gretchen Hane

Few people can just walk into a classroom and teach. The art of teaching is learned through observation, experience and encouragement. When I reflect back on 35 years of teaching, I marvel at how this career shaped me from a shy, self-conscious young woman into a confident person in charge who could handle just about anything a bunch of adolescents could throw at me.

One does not become a good teacher overnight. Reflecting back on those first years, many times I would have given up without the encouragement of fellow teachers. Gradually I developed my own philosophy of survival: Be patient, creative and act like you really enjoy what you are doing. And Above all, really like the kids.

Working with adolescents taught me creativity and patience. It’s not all that difficult to sense if your class is with you. If they are not, sometimes you have to change your route, go in a new direction. What I enjoyed the most about adolescents was their willingness to let me know exactly what they thought — “so there, Mrs. Hane!” For the so-called incorrigibles, a private conversation outside of the classroom often worked.

My teaching career in Chicago spanned the gamut — from working with girls at Lucy Flower Technical High School for Girls on Chicago’s Westside to vocational coed schools on the north and south sides.

Each school provided its challenges, but each school taught me so much and helped me grow my own confidence. Fellow teachers taught me survival tactics. So did the students themselves.

One area where I needed help? Humor.

Everyone loves a funny teacher. It took me years to loosen up enough to make a class laugh, but that got easier. As the years passed, I got so I could tell a good joke!

I taught English for many years back in the day when each teacher could decide what their own classes might like to read. We were also given free range to have them write. We were not obsessed with reading scores.

With the new requirement that everyone in the Chicago Public School system had to have two years of a foreign language, I became a French teacher — a complete and challenging change of direction. I could speak French, but I was not a French teacher. I put my creative juices to work. Each year went better. My students may never have gotten beyond “Bonjour,” but somehow we had fun.

Toward the end of my years of teaching, French became a welcome relief from English. Why? Because it was not a subject that relied on test scores and principals’ reputations.

So, what made me a good teacher? I worked very hard, arriving at school early in the morning to get ready for the day. I was organized. Tolerating the disorder in the system was an unending chore. But most of all, I really liked my job.

Of course, in retrospect one forgets the bad days. But I really did enjoy the challenge of trying something different, of making something work. Most of all, teaching brought me out of my shyness. Over the years it has made me who I am as much as any familial or educational influences did.

And for that, I am grateful.