Teachers touch the lives of all of us, and at the vulnerable ages of school children, teachers have such power to change lives.
It is remarkable to remember that many of the teachers in the one-room country schools were teenagers.
Isaac Werner describes in his journal a snowstorm that raced across the prairie, dropping temperatures dangerously, even indoors.
Sometimes teachers stayed in the schools overnight to avoid making daily trips to and from distant homes, and apparently young Miss Goodwin was doing that the night the blizzard arrived. Isaac recorded that she suffered severe frost bite to her hands at the school house during the storm.
Not all the teachers were young single women, however.
My great grandmother, Susan Beck, taught in the one-room schools in her community. Her daughter, Anna Marie Beck, followed in her mother’s footsteps to begin teaching when she was still in her teens and devoted her life to education, as a teacher, a superintendent, the Stafford County Superintendent, and working in the education department in the state capital in Topeka.
The recent series sharing the 1895 8th Grade examinations showed the challenging curriculum these teachers, many of whom were quite young themselves, were expected to teach. The influence of teachers, then and now, may be the most important profession in our nation.
When I was a college student at Fort Hays State University majoring in elementary education, part of my required training was Practice Teaching.
I was assigned to a Master Teacher at Lincoln School in Hays, Kansas. She was incredible, and more than all my classes, although they were important in training me, my master teacher taught me how to teach. Her life lessons have stayed with me long past my years as a teacher. Unfortunately, I had forgotten her name. I looked for it in my old college year books, but she was not a regular faculty member, so her name was not listed. I had given up on finding her name in order to thank her.
Recently, I was attending a luncheon at my alma mater and found myself seated next to a woman who had been an education major at the same time I was. I happened to mention my respect for the Practice Teacher I had and my disappointment in having failed to locate her name in order to thank her. Based on my description, the woman said, “I believe you are describing Emma Kolb.”
It is amazing how often serendipity leads us the things that had eluded us. Sadly, Emma Kolb died in 2016, making it impossible for me to thank her for the positive influence she had on my life. This blog is my way to say thank you, to her and all the teachers who influence the lives of students in Lyn ways that positively change their futures.
Emma Kolb was born May 21, 1918 and died November 20, 2016. She began teaching in 1937 at Zion, Rush County, Kansas, and later, taught at Lincoln Elementary School in Hays, Kansas for 33 years. Following retirement, she volunteered there for an additional 22 years. She was named a Kansas Master Teacher and was inducted into the Kansas Teacher Hall of Fame. She was often heard to say, “Remember, children are not your job; they are your privilege.”
One of the things she taught me was never to avoid admitting I did not know the answer to a question a child asked. Rather, to tell them, ‘I don’t know the answer to your question, but it is a good question and I will look that up and share the answer with you later.”
For the many things you taught me that have influenced me beyond the classroom, thank you Miss Kolb. I wish I could have told you that, but perhaps I was mature enough to tell you that when my time under your tutelage ended. If not, perhaps teachers reading this blog will be reminded of how much what they do is appreciated, even when students forget to tell them.
Lyn Fenwick, Macksville, is a graduate of Fort Hays State University. She has a weekly blog and is working on a manuscript about a Kansas homesteader and the Populist Movement.
Watch the Eagle Community TV Forum interview about the Wizard of Oz collection of Lyn and her husband Larry Fenwick.