Retirement bittersweet as teacher looks back on 39 years in the classroom

BY CHRISTY MARSTERS

The Hants Journal

NovaNewsNow.com

The Canadian Centennial marked a time of celebration, a year to look forward with aspiration and ambition as the country moved optimistically toward its second century.

Mary-Ellen Carpenter, a fresh graduate of the Nova Scotia Teachers’ College, says she started her teaching journey in East Pictou with similar thoughts to those that characterized the world in 1967.

Carpenter, 59, ended her career of 39 years last month with a heavy heart and huge respect for a smalltown community school at which she spent the last 33 years teaching.

“Hantsport is a wonderful learning community and a very supportive place,” she said. “The school is such an important part of the community. I’m going to miss it tremendously.

“I’ve always considered the people within Hantsport as part of my family,” she added, “and every student I’ve ever taught has taught me something in return.”

Carpenter recalls her first day at Hantsport School in 1974. Teachers moved around from class to class and the school went from Grade Primary through to Grade 11, she said. “I taught seven classes in a day.

“My first homeroom class was a group of Grade 8 students and I could still name every single student in the room,” she said. “I liked the kids right away, but they, of course, were testing the new teacher, a timeless tradition going straight through the ages.”

Needless to say, Carpenter passed the test. However, few other aspects of the teaching milieu have remained the same.

Despite changes, literacy still the foundation

Methods for lessons, classroom tools, fact understanding and attitudes of students have all changed over the last 39 years, Carpenter said. “Kids today are more experienced to the wider world and different because of the changing times they live in.”

Trying to teach in the same way today as compared to 39 years ago would be unsuccessful because the students wouldn’t even be able understand the same concepts of learning, Carpenter said. “I’ve adjusted to the difference because over time it’s easy to change, but I’ve always tried to focus on literacy because it’s a foundation all learning involves.”

The experience of teaching transformed over time, she said, but the inner hearts of students wanting to contribute and learn remains forever. “I’m going to miss the reading, leading and talking with students the most when I retire.”

Carpenter retires with happy memories of Remembrance Day services, concerts, plays, hikes, skates, reads and talks, and says her retirement has come at a bittersweet time in her life.

As she packs away final possessions and leaves the classroom, she points out her name on the door before literally closing this chapter on her life. Walking downstairs to the office, she passes in her keys to the school.

Both keys and classroom will be passed on in September to a new teacher, a member of the Hantsport community who recalls the days sitting as a student in Carpenter’s 1986-87 Grade 5 class.

“I remember her as my first teacher in Hantsport and will never forget her calling me to her desk to ask if I wanted to correct my misspelling of ‘ship’ before I passed in a creative writing project,” says Jeff Starratt, with a chuckle. “When people ask who their favourite teacher was, it was always Mrs. Carpenter.”

Starratt says he hopes the students in his room connect with him in similarly to how they have with Carpenter. “I know walking into her classroom is big shoes to fill because she has been a landmark there,” he said. “Carpenter is knowledgeable, colourful, dedicated. She’s a teacher that really cared about her students,” he said.