March 2008

All Board! Class is Now in Session

NEA member Felyce Thomas recently traveled with a team of naturalists, geologists, biologists, historians, and other scientists to Antarctica. They observed colonies of chinstrap and gentoo penguins, and walked right onto the ice where some of the scientists took samples.

But Thomas is neither a scientist nor an explorer. Formerly the director of a reading and language program in Oakland, New Jersey, she’s now a retiree living in Melbourne, Florida. Thomas went to Antarctica as a passenger on an Orient Lines cruise, flying first from Miami to Argentina and then sailing 10 days through icebergs to the southernmost seas.

“It was a wonderful trip,” she recalls. “All these scientists on board were very informative. They gave lectures and helped explain all the sights we observed.”

Welcome to the new wave of educational cruising. Cruises used to get a bad rap as little more than floating buffets where intellectual stimulation meant catching a movie or learning five different ways to fold napkins.

These days you can find cruise ships that are more like mini-universities. On all of its vessels, Princess Cruises runs a Scholarship@Sea program that offers at least six courses per day in subjects such as Italian cooking, pottery, digital travel photography, Web page design, estate planning, and watercolor techniques. On some Princess ships, chefs lead the cooking classes on full kitchen sets similar to those used on TV cooking shows! Most of these courses—plus additional lectures in subjects as diverse as underwater archaeology, nutrition, or personal finance—are offered free of charge or for a nominal ($10) fee.

Perhaps you’ve always wanted to learn a musical instrument? NEA member Vivian Gaschen worked as a language teacher for 29 years in San Antonio’s North East ISD before retiring and starting a second career as a travel agent. She speaks very favorably of one trip with Crystal Cruises that offered instruction on Yamaha electronic piano keyboards, in addition to lectures on various topics, bridge lessons, Spanish instruction, and computer classes.

Of course one great advantage of traveling by cruise ship is that you can indulge in a few glasses of wine with dinner without worrying about a designated driver. Jean Savidge, a former public school teacher for 30 years who also served nine years on the NEA-Retired Advisory Council, lives with her husband in Washington State, where they enjoy the delicious bounty of the region’s vineyards. Over the past five years, they have taken several trips organized by friends who run the Gordon Brothers vineyard in Pasco, Washington. On trips to the Mexican Riviera and the Caribbean, they enjoyed wine tastings, had tours of the ships’ wine cellars, and made friends with fellow oenophiles from all over the country.

As Felyce Thomas says, for those with open minds and keen observational skills, travel by its very nature is like a continuing education course that breaks down your assumptions about the world. Cruise line operators are answering the call for intelligent tours and activities. On the ships of Cunard Line, that might mean discussing film with a film critic from The New Yorker, learning about the latest in aerospace research from a former astronaut, or trading jokes with famous British comedian John Cleese. Cunard’s newest ship, the Queen Victoria, even offers lessons in the sport of fencing.

Fencing and John Cleese on the same cruise line? It could give the expression “rapier wit” a whole new meaning.

—Aaron Dalton

March 2008

Love on the Run

As a former middle school guidance counselor, Curt Grimm knows a thing or two about how to motivate people. It seems his wife Cindy does, too. More than three decades ago, as the newlyweds watched the 1976 summer Olympics on television, Cindy proposed that they take up running to stay in shape. A few years later, in 1983, the Grimms qualified for their first Boston Marathon.

Since then, pre-retired member Curt and Cindy, a retired nurse, have completed the race five more times. Because it took the Grimms six years to qualify for their first Boston Marathon, they decided that they would compete in the marathon every six years (with one exception in 1996). “We just make it a part of our life and, so far, it’s been a lot of fun,” says Curt.

Aside from the Boston Marathon, this quick-footed husband and wife team has successfully competed in the Senior Olympics, placing several times. Fittingly, the Grimms not only take home trophies, they also make them for local contests at their business, Tri-State Trophies.

Curt says he has always enjoyed a lot of support from his students, many of whom have registered in races to compete against him. “I think it motivates them and it makes them interested in the sport. But, mostly, it shows them that you can stay active as long as you take care of yourself, and you can enjoy your hobbies way into your later years,” he says. The Grimms’ son, Eric, also supports his parents and plans to race alongside them in their seventh Boston Marathon appearance.

One of their long-term post-retirement goals is to run across the United States, although they haven’t yet figured out exactly how they will do it. In the meantime, their busy racing schedules include 40 races this year.

—Maren MacIntyre

To Do Today: Save Lives

All those years planning field trips for fifth-graders are coming in handy for former elementary teacher Barbara Groner.

Over the last decade, Groner has used those organizational skills to help mobilize more than 700 U.S. and Canadian members of Rotary International who are all fighting to eradicate polio. She has arranged and gone on seven trips each to Africa and India, where she and her colleagues immunized children against diseases. 

After 30 years of public service as a teacher in the Cassopolis Public School District in Michigan, Groner was determined to spend her retirement doing even more good works in her community. She has immersed herself in various causes since she began volunteering at her local Rotary club, but most of her efforts are spent fighting polio, a historically devastating contagious disease that is now endemic in only four countries in the world.

But even her careful planning could not have prepared Groner for some of the adventures these trips have brought—and that includes sleeping on a rooftop in Segue, Mali, and bunking in a makeshift dormitory in a maternity hospital supply room. Every such experience, no matter how exhausting or frightening, has “enriched my life,” says Groner.

“It makes you realize how fortunate we are,” she says. “Every time I go back to the U.S. it makes me appreciate America all over again.”

                                     —Svetlana Shkolnikova

March 2008

Nurturing a Love for
Educating

It’s heartwarming to hear about families that are chock full of devoted educators, like the ones featured in this issue. It almost makes you think they have a “teaching gene” they pass from generation to generation. But no, this is a case of nurture over nature—when young people grow up with elders devoted to public education, they are more likely to deeply value it as well.

Of course, there are many factors at play when it comes to deciding on a professional path, and lots of kids raised in similar families will do something else when they grow up. After all, young people who need loans to get their college education will rightfully be concerned about paying them back on an educator’s starting salary. And what about the horror stories about the punitive No Child Left Behind law? They’re enough to make most of us glad we’re retired now—so imagine how they sound to someone just starting out!

But nurturing a love for educating doesn’t happen only within families, and NEA-Retired members are in a unique position to help keep great educators in our schools. We’ve been there; we’re a trusted source of advice. We can encourage talented young people to consider going into education, and support the ones who make that choice. Now in its fifth year, NEA’s Intergenerational Mentoring program is growing, and so is the number of success stories of retirees mentoring student teachers, keeping them in the field and afloat through those first critical years.

And of course we should never let up on lobbying for better conditions for educators and keeping our elected officials focused on supporting public education. We can help balance the conversation with reminders of how great the rewards of working in our public schools are—for educators and for our society.

They may not be our children, but all the young people going into the field of education are still ours to support and nurture. Keeping them in our schools is a legacy we can all share.

—Barbara Matteson
matteson@dakotacom.net

March 2008

Ann Kerzman

Background
I’ve been a high school teacher for 32 years, and currently teach physical sciences and biology at Libby High School in Libby, Montana. I’ve served as a local Association vice president and state RA delegate.

What are you looking forward to in retirement?
First, I want to help my daughter get through graduate school. That’s what first attracted me to NEA-Retired, the very good rates for loans and home and auto insurance. But I also look forward to staying involved. I’ve been a mentor for new teachers, and NEA-Retired offers good opportunities for members to share their experience with those who are just entering the field. The pressure on young teachers today is so great. . . .  A mentor can say, “I’ve been there, too,” and help new teachers see that if they’re able to tough out the first years, it’s an extremely rewarding profession. My husband and I are also looking forward to finishing the cabin we’re building on Crystal Lake.

Barbara Stockman

Background
I worked for 34 years as an elementary school teacher and school social worker in Michigan. I was a building representative for my local Association. I’ve served on my local board and the state board of MEA-Retired, and serve on the NEA-Retired Advisory Council.

How are you spending retirement?
For recreation, I like golf and gardening and travel. But I’m a political junkie, so I love staying busy working on legislative issues through MEA-Retired. There are serious issues each year. Health insurance co-pays are rising, and becoming difficult for retirees to afford, and we always need to be hard at work at the state legislature to try to keep costs under control. My late husband, Tracy, was the first president of MEA-Retired, and his work inspired me to get involved. He was very dedicated, and I want to do what I can to carry on his legacy.

Johnny Davis

Background
I taught high school English for 32 years, and worked as the English department head, at Baker High School in Mobile, Alabama. I was a local Association president, and am currently president of the AE-Retirees Association. I also serve on the NEA Resolutions Committee.

What do you like most about retirement?
I love doing volunteer work with disadvantaged kids. But as president of my state Retired Association, my real passion has been member recruitment, and a big part of that is getting current members active in the effort. I take the message—my motto—to each school district that “membership development is everybody’s business.” I also like the message, “Each one should bring one.” That’s how you build real numbers. We have 24,000 Retired members in Alabama, and we’ll need every one of them, and more. It’s the only way we can carry on the political and legislative struggle to protect benefits and improve education. The best part is that it’s fun.

March 2008

Prescription Costs—Do I Have Any Control?

The short and unfortunate answer: very little. But when it comes to prescriptions and hospital fees, there may be some things you can do to keep costs in check. For example:

1. Buy $4 generic drugs when possible. This is particularly helpful for those facing the huge “donut hole” of Medicare Part D drug plans (by which the government will not cover prescription costs over $1,500 until the patient surpasses $5,100.) Look for the $4 drugs from national pharmacies at the large discount pharmacy chains (e.g., Target Pharmacy).
   
2. If you are currently treated with brand name drugs, ask the doctor for equivalent generic drugs, which invariably are cheaper and have lower co-pays. Also, many insurers cover or partially cover generic drugs (even in the donut hole of Medicare Part D drug plans). Caution: Some people have found that certain generic drugs, such as those that regulate hormones, are not necessarily equivalent to the brand name. You’ll have to check with your doctor, of course.
   
3. Want to cut prescription bills in half? Ask the doc to double your dosage—on paper. If the doctor prescribes twice your usual dosage, you can use an inexpensive pill splitter to get the amount you actually need. That way, a 90-day supply will last six months and only require two prescriptions per year. Caution: Dose-critical narcotic pain medicines, time-release, and liquid gel capsules should never be split. It’s up to your doctor whether he or she can prescribe a double dose for you.
   
4. Ask for free samples.
   
5. Always closely check hospital bills to make sure you were not charged for doctor visits that never occurred or services, tests, medicines, supplies, or equipment that were never received (e.g., duplicate MRIs or X-rays on the same day). According to an ABC News Special Report, over 70 percent of all hospital claims contain errors and overcharges. 

—Bob Sacks and Doug Terwilliger
NEA Member Benefits

March 2008

A Career Conversion

Although she’s been out of the classroom for more than six years, retired high school English teacher Donna Trebilcox continues to get notes and letters from her former students. And each of them contains essentially the same message: “Mrs. T, you were the most caring teacher. It felt like you really cared about us.”

Taking an interest in the lives of her students came naturally to Trebilcox, who credits her religious sensibility for the way she interacted with young people. She was never quick to judge and tried never to hold a grudge. And although she firmly believes in the separation of church and state, Trebilcox was not afraid to examine students’ questions about religion in class.

So when she decided that she would retire early to become a priest, she says the people close to her, including her students, were not surprised.

“When I was dating my husband he always told me I would become a minister,” says Trebilcox. “When I finally announced it he said, ‘Well, I’ve been waiting for you all these years!’”

Trebilcox has been involved in the church all her life, but said she really got hooked when she was invited to sing at an Episcopal church 16 years ago. The “beauty of the liturgy” and the “openness of the church” appealed to her and in that setting, she felt a religious call that eventually led her to pursue a new career.

After nearly 29 years teaching at Dallas High School in Dallas, Pennsylvania, Trebilcox left to attend a theological seminary in New York City where she spent three rigorous years studying religious texts, writing papers, and completing a field assignment. Now she is entering her third year as rector of St. George’s Episcopal Church in Lee, Massachusetts, a small parish in the Berkshire Mountains.

There were sacrifices along the way, the toughest of which was being apart from her husband and leaving behind their Pennsylvania home. But the good things that came out of making the transition from teacher to priest “cancelled them out.”

Trebilcox was happy to learn that being a priest has a large teaching component (and there are times when she’s on the learning end of that exchange). But she does admit to sometimes missing the classroom and working with young people.

  “I now work mostly with adults and honestly, they’re not as interesting! They’re very cautious and into their own lives,” says Trebilcox. “Kids are always challenging you, keeping you on your toes.”

Trebilcox tries to forge ahead, though. She always makes sure to include a teaching aspect in her weekly sermons. It’s getting people to really open up to her that has proved to be more difficult.

“I found that I’m not as effective when I have a collar on,” says Trebilcox. “People have certain opinions [about priests] so the collar is almost a barrier to the kinds of caring relationships I had with my students, it’s a barrier to real engagement.”

On the lighter side, Trebilcox loves that she can now sleep in almost every morning except Sunday. But she certainly hasn’t escaped administrative work. Whatever she’s doing, Trebilcox says a background in teaching has been incredibly valuable.

“I’ve been told by other priests that teachers make some of the best religious officials,” says Trebilcox. “Teaching prepared me for just about everything, and I’m still doing it now, just doing it a bit differently.”

—Svetlana Shkolnikova

March 2008

By Kristen Loschert

Educators often say that teaching is in their blood. It simply is what they were born to do. But for individuals who grew up in families full of educators, teaching wasn’t just a calling. It was a way of life, and they knew early on they would pursue nothing other than the “family business.” In their families, teaching became a legacy handed down through the generations. And as the descendents of teachers, counselors, administrators, paraprofessionals, and college professors, many felt compelled to take up the profession. For them, teaching truly is in their genes.

Take Janet Martin of Wheatland, Wyoming. In four generations, Martin’s family has produced 19 teachers whose careers have ranged from elementary to college levels.

“There was never anything I wanted to be besides a teacher,” says Martin, who taught high school math for 34 years. “It was just a natural thing. I’ve been around teachers my whole life.”

Martin’s grandparents, Lloyd Ewing and Nellie Zeigler, met at a teachers’ meeting in 1915, she says. Of their four children, three became teachers, including Martin’s mother, Sara. Sara and Roy Neeley, Martin’s parents, had six children, three of whom also became teachers. As the oldest child, Martin was the first to continue the family tradition, but two of her sisters soon followed. Five of Martin’s cousins, two nieces, and a nephew likewise entered the teaching profession. Meanwhile, three more teachers married into the family, including Martin’s daughter-in-law.     

“For all of us teachers, it wasn’t a job most of the time. It was what we were meant to do,” explains Martin. “Just like lawyers or doctors run in families, you see what your parents or siblings do and you see that job as desirable. A lot of teaching is in you, maybe because you grow up with teachers. People do what they know.”

For Lily Huffman of Staunton, Virginia, her family’s legacy didn’t just influence her future career as a family and consumer science teacher. In many ways, it helped shape the course of education for the state of Virginia. After the Civil War, Huffman’s great grandfather, Samuel Richard Jackson, opened the only school for black children in Westmoreland County, Virginia. After his death, her grandfather, James Edward Jackson, continued to operate the school. Her paternal grandfather, Edward Virgil Huffman, likewise believed that all children deserve an equal education, regardless of their race, Lily Huffman says. As chairman of the Orange County [Virginia] School Board, Edward Huffman ensured that schools for both white and black children received the supplies and support they needed, she says.

“I’m quite proud of the fact that I am from a long line of educators and that my grandfathers believed so strongly in education for all children,” says Huffman, who retired in 2004 after a 33-year teaching career. “I’m very proud of what they did at a time when what they were doing wasn’t very popular.” 

Huffman’s mother, Lily Wilson Jackson Huffman, likewise played a pivotal role in the education community. In the 1960s, she became one of the first teachers to pilot the kindergarten and Head Start programs in Fairfax County, Virginia. Not surprisingly, both Huffman and her sister, Martha Wood (pictured left), followed their mother into the profession. Huffman spent most of her career teaching in Prince William County, Virginia, although she spent two years teaching in the Department of Defense Schools in Germany. Wood, meanwhile, spent nearly 30 years teaching middle school social studies in Stafford, Fairfax, and Albemarle counties and has played an active role in NEA. She is currently on the NEA-Retired Advisory Council.

“My whole life, there was nothing else I wanted to be,” says Huffman. “I think it’s the set of values instilled in us as children. The values of teaching and doing for others were just assumed.”

While Huffman always assumed she would follow her family’s path into teaching, Lois Jardine (pictured with her two daughters) of Greenfield, Massachusetts, initially rejected the notion.

“It’s really funny because when I was growing up, my parents wanted me to be a teacher. All of my teachers wanted me to be a teacher and I said it was the last thing in the world I ever wanted to be,” laughs Jardine, who ultimately spent 26 years teaching kindergarten and first grade.

In college, Jardine refused to take any education classes, even though her mother, aunt, and great aunt all had worked as elementary school teachers. Instead, Jardine majored in government and history and hoped one day to become a lawyer or member of the U.S. Foreign Service.

“But I was in love,” Jardine explains. “So instead I got married.” Jardine shelved her previous career plans and started a family, staying home to raise five children. During that period, though, she eventually had to return to work to supplement her husband’s income. At the time, jobs in banking and teaching offered the best hours for a mother with young children, she says, so she contacted her local school board office about working as a substitute. Because of a teacher shortage, the office hired her as a full-time teacher on the spot.

“I found that I absolutely loved teaching,” she says. “I felt right at home with it. I realized I came from this line of teachers and it amazed me that I loved it.”

Jardine passed her love of teaching on to her two daughters, Sherry Hale and Amy Cotto. But she never pushed them into the field, she says.

“I always have felt that you should not impose that on your kids,” Jardine says. “When I was growing up, I felt that pressure and I rebelled, so I left it up to my kids.”

Hale, a driver’s education teacher in Greenfield, was always open to the possibility of teaching, she says. She fondly recalls walking to school with her mother once her mom started teaching and seeing her parents raise money to support the school band.

“I saw what a difference my mother made. Her life was teaching,” says Hale. “It makes me very proud. I feel this is a legacy that has been passed down through our family. It’s a legacy I hope to pass on to my own children and grandchildren some day.

“Everyone should do something to give back,” she continues, “and the teaching field allows you to do that.”

Cotto, an early childhood educator with the Connecticut Department of Developmental Services, shares her sister’s sentiments.

“In watching my mother and what she went through, I’m proud to say that I’m her daughter,” says Cotto, who works with infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with special needs. “It influenced me a lot . . . my grandmother being a teacher and my aunt, too.”

Cotto adds that her daughter also is contemplating a career in special education. “It is a pretty amazing legacy that we all are very compassionate people and enjoy what we do,” she says.

Compassion for young people likewise led Lillar Barnes, a retired guidance counselor, into the schools. Barnes started her 20-year career as a business teacher, but soon discovered she had a talent for helping at-risk students. With the encouragement of her school’s principal and guidance counselors, Barnes decided to pursue school counseling as well.

“Looking at the problems children were having, not only academically but morally and socially, I thought this would be a good fit for me,” says Barnes, who lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. “We all need education to succeed in life.”

Barnes has since passed her passion for education down through two generations. Her niece, Daisy Edmundson, has worked as a teaching assistant and teacher and currently serves as a school principal. Edmundson’s sister, Deborah Shephard, followed in Barnes’ footsteps and became a guidance counselor. Barnes’ grandniece, Dawn Shephard Pope, also emulated her career and became a high school business and information technology teacher.

“I’ve been very happy and surprised as well,” Barnes says of her nieces’ career choices. “They saw the same needs that I did.”

Pope, meanwhile, says she always looked to her great aunt and mother as role models.

“For as long as I can remember, I knew that I wanted to be an educator, just like them,” says Pope, who also lives and works in Raleigh. “Education and continuous learning always have been vitally important in my family. So I’ve tried to do my small share through my work in the public schools because education is the key to true freedom and perhaps lifelong happiness.” Pope has also long been active in her Association, and served as NEA Student Program Chair from 2002–04.

Nancy-Ann Feren (pictured, bottom left), a retired elementary teacher in Manchester, New Hampshire, credits her mother as her inspiration for pursuing a career in education.

She was a teacher’s apprentice long before she was old enough to embark on a career of her own. “My mother taught kindergarten and first grade,” says Feren. “I helped her trace patterns for her classes, corrected papers, listened to her stories. I loved helping her with it. She enjoyed teaching and she was happy with what she was doing. I looked forward to the day when I, too, would be a teacher.”

Little did Feren know that her first teaching experience would come so soon. When her school’s kindergarten teacher failed to report to work, several teachers asked Feren to substitute for the day. She was in sixth grade at the time.

“I must have been 10 or 11 years old. I was a really good student and had a reputation among the teachers at the school. They knew I was a responsible person,” Feren recalls. “They just asked me if I would do it and I thought nothing of it. Doesn’t every sixth-grader teach kindergarten?”

During college, her mother’s cousin helped Feren secure a summer job as a teacher’s aide in a Title I reading program, which the cousin supervised, Feren says. After she married her husband, Dick, Feren continued to work as a Title I aide and later as a substitute teacher while her two sons were young.        

Throughout her marriage, Feren knew she wanted to teach full time, but she also encouraged her husband, Dick, to enter the profession, she says. Their son David provided the final push he needed, she says.

“After Dick answered then 3-year-old David’s question, ‘Why are the lights on the dashboard green?’ he realized he really liked explaining things,” Feren recalls. “I was glad somebody had finally convinced him that it was what he should do.” Dick considered substitute teaching since he did not yet have his teaching certificate, but the school district assigned him to replace a teacher who had resigned. A year later, Nancy-Ann accepted a full-time position as well. Dick ultimately spent 25 years teaching high school earth science and physics, while Nancy-Ann spent 28 years teaching fifth grade.

Their son David clearly inherited the teaching gene as well: He is a high school English teacher. He and his wife Kristen, a middle school social studies teacher, started their careers in New Hampshire, but have since moved abroad. They have taught in Egypt, Bangladesh, and currently work in the Philippines. Andrew, the Ferens’ oldest son, also married a teacher. His wife, Celeste, teaches high school French and Spanish, and both of her parents were educators as well.

Feren, who was adopted, recently connected with members of her birth family and discovered an aunt and several cousins were also teachers. Having a family full of educators provides a great support system, she says, because they understands the demands and the rewards of the profession.

“You’re able to share the ups and downs of it with each other and know the other person understands when you have to be grading papers, when you’d rather be socializing. They understand the 24-hour commitment,” she says. “We enjoyed teaching. Although it doesn’t pay great, it pays in a lot of other ways.”