Challenges, fulfillment and headaches, they are all in a teacher’s life.
By Jim Smedley
Staff Writer

NORWAY – Should she or shouldn’t she?

Retire, that is.

That’s the question Harriet Gilpatrick couldn’t come to terms with after 37 years of teaching. So, she decided to discuss it with her two daughters, Dawne and Beth.

Dawne lives in Brownfield and Beth lives in the Oxford Hills area.

Gilpatrick was having dinner – Chinese – about a month ago with Dawne and her husband Larry.

“I opened the fortune cookie and it said, ‘Time to pursue other interests,'” Gilpatrick said.

That cemented it. She was retiring.

She denied the power of the fortune cookie, but did say she felt the message was certainly odd for that time in her life.

She began teaching on Prince Edward Island and after two years went to Weymouth, Mass. She was there for three years and, in 1971, she began teaching at the Guy E. Rowe Elementary School, where she has been ever since.

She taught fourth grade for nine years and then third grade for one year.

She has spent the last 22 years teaching second grade.

Gilpatrick said she was looking for a profession when she decided to become a teacher. She said she loves children and fondly recalls memories of time spent with her nieces.

Her niche was teaching second grade. She called it the year of innocence and trust and said it was not uncommon to be mistakenly called “mom” or “momma.”

“I don’t let the classroom be family-like, but there is a closeness to your children,” Gilpatrick said. “They can lean on you and need your support. Sometimes, they can lean too heavily and you have to nudge them away; help them stand on their own two feet.”

She said children are more sophisticated now than when she started teaching, but she didn’t know if that was a good thing. She said she felt sorry that the kids of this electronic age never developed an appreciation for an old-fashioned, simpler way of life.

Gilpatrick also said that she has had to spend more time in recent years handling discipline and social problems.

But all that changes next Monday when Gilpatrick will take the final walk across the parking lot into the brick school, past the gymnasium and principal’s office, down the corridor and up the stairs to her classroom.

“I don’t know how I will feel on Monday,” Gilpatrick said. “I have never been there before. Over the years many people have thought, ‘If I can just retire,’ but I know it’s not that simple to do and to imagine not having that job there.”

She said that although teachers – on paper – have the summer off, she used to spend it planning for the following school year.

“A friend, who has retired, told me to have something planned for that day (when school starts) in September,” she said. “It’s going to be a real change.”

Gilpatrick said she plans to do the things she didn’t have time to do earlier in life. She said she likes to see new places, so travel is high on her list. Then she also wants to do volunteer work, helping those less fortunate.

She also has advice for the new teachers.

“Be ready for challenges that can have fulfilling answers,” Gilpatrick said, “and sometimes bring large headaches.”

jsmedley@sunjournal.com

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