Mistakes and success from a teaching career, part one

After I graduated from high school in 1952 I enlisted into the US Navy for three years. Because I served during the Korean Conflict, I was eligible for the G.I. Bill. With their help, I began my college education at Mission House (now Lakeland University) in 1956 and graduated in January, 1960.

As I was looking for employment, I agreed to meet with Edgerton School District’s Superintendent at a motel in Oshkosh for an interview for an opening in a teaching/coaching position. Fortunately, I was able to receive and sign a contract to teach JHS Science and coach tennis, volleyball and be an assistant football coach for $2,400 beginning in January of 1960. It was an exciting month for me because on January 30, 1960, I got married.

Edgerton is a small community in southern Wisconsin with the nickname Tobacco City, USA. I didn’t know it at the time, but many local farmers in the area raised tobacco. In fact, we held football practices at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. daily so the football players could work in the tobacco fields during the day.

The first shock I received as a first year teacher was being told by the school’s administrative secretary that she was sorry, but my health insurance was not signed in time to receive coverage. So when our first daughter was born in November, 1960, I had no insurance. The hospital bill had to be paid out my pocket and the amount was $75. That amount doesn’t seem like a large sum of money, but in those days it was something we did not have in our budget so it was a big deal.

The second mistake I made as a first year teacher occurred after I had collected money from my students for the Weekly Reader. I placed the money collected in and locked the room’s filing cabinet. I didn’t realize that someone could climb up the fire escape and entered my class room through an unlocked window. They then easily pried open the locked filing cabinet and stole the money. I was so fortunate to have an understanding principal, who covered the amount of money lost and the students were able to receive their Weekly Reader which they had paid for. My principal did say, however, “You know Mr. Henschel, we do have a safe in my office!”

The next mistake occurred during a coaches meeting called by the school’s athletic director because Edgerton School District was having a snow day and no classes were held. During the meeting we heard someone pounding on the front door and found the volleyball coach from Monona Grove with his team ready to play a match against Edgerton. Sheepishly, I said, “I am sorry, I just assumed that Monona Grove School District would also have a snow day causing no volleyball matches. As I recall, the coach was returning to their school bus, he turned and said, “Gee coach, I wished you had called me to say that the volleyball match had been canceled!”

Since a teacher’s pay was not that high in the early 1960s, I would always look for summer employment. The district did hire teachers to help with maintenance jobs. One job, I recall, was sweeping the school’s large parking lot so it could be re-surfaced by the city before school began. A history teacher, a good friend and I, began sweeping the lot. As we were working, the head cook of the school’s hot lunch program drove by and rolled down her car window, shouting, “Are you boys having fun?” We certainly had answers for her, but instead we just kept on sweeping. I thought we would never get the job done, but through great encouragement from my co-worker we did finish the sweeping.

Since the Edgerton School District had plans to built a new high school they had to purchase additional land near the site. The owner was willing to sell his property, but had Christmas trees growing on his acreage so the asking price was going to be much higher than expected. The superintendent was trying to negotiate a reasonable price, and didn’t believe the number of trees the owner claimed he had on his property. So for our next job, we had to count the number of Christmas trees on the property. Again, my history teacher friend and I decided to use binder twine and circle as many trees as we could in one area, count the trees and then move on to the next circle and continue this procedure until the trees were counted. We accomplished this very boring job and then in court, the school superintendent was able to testify what the actual number of trees were on the property so the negotiations continued. The mission was eventually accomplished and a new high school was built in the late 1960s.