By Tina M. Gohr
News-Chronicle
The first time Gayle Erickson stepped into a classroom, she was wearing a navy blue sailor's dress with a pleated skirt. It had a red and white polka dot tie. Her hand outlined the broad collar and the colorful tie. "I was real nervous,'' she emphasized.
It was 1968. Teachers were required to wear dresses and men were attired in tie and shirt.
Thirty-four years later, Erickson will be retiring as a special education teacher at Lombardi Middle School.
Back then, her classroom was small at Janssen School in Kimberly, but there were a lot of windows. The desks were in rows.
At Lombardi, the room had a false wall similar to a banquet hall, which could easily be enlarged by the opening of the accordion-style barrier. For energy efficiency, there was one large window. The desks were in horseshoe formation around a student who was reading from a book.
Erickson was videotaping their reading progress.
In all the years, the classroom hasn't changed much; neither have the students. Parenting is a little different: Today's parents are more likely to emphasize quality time rather than quantity, she said.
"Parents, I believe, would rather spend a good half-hour with their children than a half-day of leisure. It's a good balance,'' Erickson said.
Of course, the dialect has been revolutionized.
"Groovy'' and "neat'' have been replaced with "phat'' and "tight.'' They all mean "cool.''
It wasn't cool that a teacher was pregnant in the 1960s. Today, teachers grip the reality of a student-mother.
Whatever the decade, "They were all good kids,'' she stressed. "There are so many variations of personalities and class chemistry that no two situations are alike, and there are no two days alike.''
The variety supplies Erickson with the sustained pleasure of teaching. "Everyday there's a chance to learn from them, too," she said. "They taught me how to be a better teacher and a friend.''
In 1975, Erickson went back to school to earn a master's degree in special education. She also has a degree in learning disabilities. She began at Lombardi in 1978, and she describes special education as multi-categorical.
"It would include emotionally disturbed, learning disabilities, cognitive disabilities and OHI (Other Health Impaired). Rather than special education, it's more special services. This would also involve gifted and talented students.''
She said the only difference between a "regular'' teacher and a "SE'' teacher is that lessons may be repeated more often and student progress isn't readily detectable at first.
"But the gratification of teaching and learning,'' she said, "is so overwhelming.''
Teaching can also be like any other job: "You can't please everybody.'' Gratification also is following a student through graduation.
"One of our students returned back here for a visit who will be graduating from Southwest (High School) with 'gold honor cords,'" Erickson said. "He always has been a hard worker. He was so pleased.''
Students have taught her the true meaning of resiliency.
"I've seen them faced with home problems, learning problems, physically handicapped, and somehow they keep a decent perspective of who they are and what they are capable of. They also love to be listened to,'' she smiled.
Although Erickson will be retiring next week, she won't be far from school: "After some projects at home, I plan on volunteering and working with the students here.''
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