November 2006

Sharing the Magic of Books

Jimmie Felder grew up with a rich supply of stories. She was one of seven children, the daughter of a substitute teacher and a blacksmith. “At night,” she recalls, “we used to pull the mattress off a bed and sit on it and one of us would tell a story that they had read in school. That way, we all got to hear six stories every week that we had not read.”

She also read anything she could get her hands on and was promoted from the second grade after just two weeks because she could already read all the second grade books.

That was in the days before school desegregation came to her home town of Hayneville in rural Lowndes County, Alabama. There was a White school four blocks away, but she and her siblings walked a mile to the Black school, and had to stay home whenever heavy rains flooded a bridge on the way. For high school, she had to move in with relatives in Montgomery, some 25 miles away.

Felder went on to college and became an English teacher and high school librarian in Montgomery. When she retired in 1990, she persuaded the Lowndes County commissioners to commit the resources needed for a public library.

Today, Felder is still guiding the development of the library, where children enjoy and learn from stories like those she read and heard growing up. The library boasts 22,000 volumes. Felder earns a small salary as director, “but I put it all back buying books. If a college student comes in and needs a book we don’t have, I just call a bookstore and buy it.”

Ironically, the library is across the street from the formerly all-White school, now predominantly African-American, that she couldn’t attend as a child.

Building Habitats for Young Learners

When Marcella and Rick Pasetto retired from teaching in 2003, at ages 55 and 57 respectively, they hit the road in their RV with plans to travel America. But they soon discovered they simply weren’t done helping people, even after 37 combined years of teaching in New York and New Jersey.

So the Pasettos joined Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit housing ministry that uses volunteers to build simple homes for the needy. In 2004, the Pasettos began using their RV to travel to Habitat construction sites, where they stay for about two weeks and help build homes.

“My favorite part has been meeting the families who will live in the homes we help to create,” says Marcella. “The last home we worked on was going to be for a single father and his four young kids. It was wonderful to see how excited and grateful they were.” Over the past two years, the Pasettos have worked on building five homes in Georgia, Maryland, and Texas.

Even though they have retired from education, the Pasettos feel their commitment to Habitat is a very practical extension of teaching. “It’s another way to help children get an education, because a good home provides them with a better neighborhood and study environment,” Marcella explains.

Get involved in Habitat for Humanity.

—Lisa Rassenti

November 2006

By Kristen Loschert

For many people, retirement is a welcome change from the workaday life that offers them time to do the things they truly love—travel, pursue favorite hobbies, discover new ones, or simply spend more time chasing their grandkids around the yard. But for others, retirement becomes an extension of their working lives, the next chapter in an already satisfying career, the chance to keep doing the things they truly love.

For educators, that means connecting with schools and students. After spending 20, 30, or even 40 years in a classroom, some still haven’t had their fill. Teaching is a way of life, and retirement isn’t the final exam—it’s the beginning of their next lesson. Some have remained in the classroom for years after officially “retiring,” while others have taken their skills around the world.

Why do they stick with it? Read for yourself. 

Taking It on the Road

Jaswant Singh understands the value of a good book. And that’s no surprise since Singh, a former librarian from Grand Ledge High School in Michigan, spent 30 years developing and managing libraries in the United States.

The public library represents “the most important institution in a democratic society,” says Singh. But it’s one the citizens of his native Punjab, India, cannot access.  (Only 12 of India ’s 29 states maintain public libraries, and Punjab isn’t one of them.) So Singh decided to bring a library to the people himself.

In 2003, Singh introduced Punjab  ’s first bookmobile, which now provides weekly library services to 50,000 people in six villages across the state. Villagers can register for a library card and borrow books, magazines, and audio/visual materials from the service or read inside the bookmobile during a visit.  

“Every Punjabi child has a birthright to have access to books,” says Singh. “But it’s an effort because in Punjab there is no book culture.”

Singh spends about six months a year in India supervising the project. In his absence, the program’s librarian, clerk, and driver organize the operation. The program also provides free board and lodging to travelers who volunteer with the bookmobile effort during their visit to India.

“I’m very lucky to have dedicated, educated individuals [working with me],” he says. “They don’t think of themselves as employees. They are contributing to the cause of children’s literacy and adult literacy.”

But literacy efforts aren’t cheap.   The first year the project cost $80,000, which covered start-up expenses such as purchasing the bookmobile and reading materials, as well as salaries for the employees. Although subsequent annual costs will decrease, Singh estimates expenses will reach $180,000 by the end of the project’s first five years, paid for by Singh’s retirement savings and donations to a foundation he created. 

All that effort is paying off. The number of readers visiting the bookmobile increases with each visit, Singh says. Roughly equal numbers of men and women come to it.   The project finally has enough materials to rotate the books and publications offered on the bookmobile each week. 

Ultimately, though, Singh hopes his bookmobile service will encourage the Punjabi government to implement a statewide system of public libraries, a project for which he and the Punjabi Library Association have lobbied since 1993.

For more information or to support the Punjabi Bookmobile Library Service, contact the Anant Education and Rural Development Foundation, P.O. Box 414, Grand Ledge, MI 48837.

Teacher’s Pet

Taking early retirement from her position as an elementary school music teacher may have been one of the hardest things Carol Bardo ever had to do. But her husband had to move to Singapore for work and she decided to go, too. They returned several years later.

“Teaching was my whole life. I always wanted to be a teacher,” says Bardo of Point Pleasant, New Jersey. “I would still be teaching had my husband not been transferred. I hated to leave.”

Fortunately, Bardo wasn’t away from students for very long, thanks to the help of her four-legged teaching assistant, Misty the Dalmatian.

Last summer Bardo and Misty, whom Bardo had trained as a certified therapy dog, started a program called Paws for Reading  . Each month, children between the ages of 5 and 8 meet with Bardo and several other handlers at the local library, where the children practice their reading skills by reading aloud to therapy dogs. 

“The children are so relaxed around the dog. It brings out the best in them,” says Bardo. “When they read in school, sometimes the other kids get impatient or laugh if they mess up a word, but the dog is calm and patient. It just relaxes them.”

Bardo estimates the program has served more than 100 children, with as many as 50 attending a single session. Many are repeat visitors.

“We have kids who come back every month,” she says. “Their parents say they can’t wait for the day to come.”

One of Bardo’s regulars is a 7-year-old boy who has attended the program with his sister and mother since the beginning. Early on, the boy struggled with even simple stories, but he still came back each month to read to Misty.

“I’ve noticed such an improvement in his reading each time he comes, and his mother has noticed too,” says Bardo. “This project keeps me in touch with the children I dedicated my life to teaching.”

Still Making Sweet Music

Betty Lou Cummings no longer teaches for the Flagstaff  (Arizona ) Public Schools, but that doesn’t mean she’s left the classroom. After spending 42 years teaching elementary and gifted students, as well as instructing beginning teachers, Cummings taught piano and organ at Northern Arizona University, a full career by anyone’s standards. 

But Cummings didn’t stop there. In 1993, her work at the university attracted the interest of the then fledgling Coconino  Community College, which invited her to implement a piano program for its students.   

“I agreed to do it for one semester, and that was nearly 14 years ago,” Cummings says. “It was such fun I am still doing it.”

Today, at the age of 81, Cummings teaches beginning, intermediate, and advanced piano classes to college students, who range in age from 17 to 80. She also provides private lessons. 

“I need to keep contributing, and I don’t think I could do that if I stayed home,” she says.

“Too many people retire to nothing,” she continues. “You have to be out among people to be involved and teaching is a good way to do that.…I hope I can always teach better tomorrow than I did today.”

Her teaching draws praise from her students and fellow faculty members and earned her the title of most outstanding adjunct faculty member for the 2004-2005 academic year. This fall, Cummings started her 60th year as a teacher. 

She says she often reads about people who retire and then do volunteer work, which she thinks is an excellent idea—but not for her quite yet. “I’m too busy,” she says. “If I ever retire, then I’ll volunteer.”

Around the World in 145 Days

If you ask her students, Joan Price has been a world traveler for a long time. Each year, Price took her special needs students around the world, without ever leaving their classroom. Through art, music, drama, literature, and even cooking activities, the class crossed the continents learning about different countries and cultures. 

But after 31 years of imaginary trips, Price decided it was time to see those places in person. So when she retired this summer from her teaching job in Sandusky, Ohio, she embarked on a five-month trip around the world with her colleague and friend Bev Bartczak. They left in September and are due back at the end of January.

“Bev and I taught together for 20-plus years, doing the imaginary trip with our students,” says Price. “When we got ready to retire, we thought how neat it would be to do a real trip around the world, but keep the kids involved.”

Through a Web site dubbed “Where in the World?” students can track Price and Bartczak’s journey across six continents and 17 countries through their online journal entries and photos. The Web site includes classroom activities themed to each destination, along with maps and other teaching resources.

“We want to stay connected with schools and children,” Price says of the project. “[As an educator] you are always thinking about how you can use this, how you can pass this on to other students, even if they aren’t your own.”

At the same time, Price and Bartczak hope to share their experiences as American educators with teachers and students in the countries they visit. By working with travel and home-stay agencies and by using ePALS Classroom Exchange, an online service that connects teachers in different countries, the pair identified educators willing to host them. In Uganda, for instance, Price and Bartczak will visit two schools and an orphanage, thanks to a local teacher. They also will visit schools in France, India, Vietnam, and Egypt and hope to arrange additional school trips once they arrive at their other destinations.

Follow Price’s journey.

Keeping the Classroom Connection

Being a retired educator doesn’t mean you can’t still be an active one.  If you’re not ready to say goodbye to your students, but you still want a change of pace, try one of these suggestions:

• Work as a substitute teacher
• Tutor students who need extra help
• Volunteer to read in a classroom
• Help beautify a school through a local community outreach project
• Collect school supplies and books for needy students
• Support adult learners as a literacy volunteer
• Consider teaching night classes or in a G.E.D. program
• Mentor a beginning or student teacher.

Contact your state NEA/Retired affiliate to see how you can get involved in an existing mentoring  program or start a new one. An NEA intergenerational mentoring manual will be sent to all state affiliate NEA/Retired offices early next year.

November 2006

Can We Save Secure Pensions? 

Straight Answers From a Teacher-Expert

An educator for 38 years, NEA member Clare Barnett is social studies coordinator for the Danbury, Connecticut, schools. She chairs the Connecticut State Teachers’ Retirement Fund board and has served as president of the National Council on Teacher Retirement. She spoke recently with This Active Life correspondent Mary Anne Hess.

How did you get involved in pension issues?

As a social studies teacher with an interest in law and economics, I had a natural inclination. Through CEA, I became a leader in retirement issues and represented the union on the state’s Investment Advisory Council and the State Retirement Board. 

What’s the current threat to public retirement systems?

There’s a desire on behalf of the people who tried to privatize Social Security to dismantle public retirement systems. The basic strategy is: Alarm people and make public pensions look very expensive. Then, make the public ask why they should support generous benefits for teachers when private sector employees are losing theirs. They say taking charge of your own retirement security is entrepreneurial. In actuality, we all live in a community, and the idea that we work on behalf of one another is very much what brought teachers into the profession. Public pensions serve the common good.

What caused this threat?

More than 75 percent of pension funding comes from investment return, so market performance is a major factor. During the boom years of the ’90s, the contribution required of states and cities was often very low. After the market turned, these contributions had to increase to make up the shortfall.

Frankly, some pension systems are chronically underfunded—it’s a source of concern. But converting to a defined contribution plan, such as a 401(k), isn’t going to save taxpayers money.

Employee contributions and investment returns account for about 80 percent of the cost, so the idea that taxpayers shoulder an enormous percentage isn’t accurate. They’re paying an adequate amount to recruit and retain a quality workforce.

Remember, pension benefits are given in lieu of salary. They’re not giveaway programs.

How do cuts to private pension plans impact the public system?

Every year, there are threats on public pensions. In most cases, like California and Colorado, labor unions, pension fund trustees and the public pension community are able to fight back and win. West Virginia returned to a defined benefit plan because it was affordable and a better option.

But every time a private group walks away from a defined benefit plan, there is less retirement security for everyone.

What will happen to all the people who’ve lost pensions? I don’t believe the American vision is that people just work until they die. Stripping away this security is a real threat to America and its economic future.

What challenges lie ahead?

We need to educate members about the value of the defined benefit plan. That will make them better advocates for preserving it. In my state, we’ve been doing workshops with the CEA’s younger members. Our retirees are one of the most vocal and vigilant groups when it comes to saving public pensions. Their efforts have been heroic.

The Basics

Defined benefit vs. defined contribution—they sound similar but there’s a world of difference.

In a traditional defined benefit retirement plan, your pension depends on a set formula, usually based on income and number of years worked. You know how much you’ll get.

In a defined contribution plan, the employer promises to put a certain amount into your retirement fund, but the guarantee ends there. If the stock market tanks just before you retire, you may wake up to a life of poverty after a distinguished career of service to the next generation of Americans. 

 That’s why NEA has joined with other employee organizations to fight to preserve defined benefit retirement plans. NEA developed Protecting the Retirement Security of NEA Members: A Toolkit, which can help local and state organizations fighting the push to scrap defined benefit plans.

November 2006

Five Phone Calls

These last few months, I’ve been knocking on a lot of doors, and now I want to knock on yours, figuratively.

“Hi. I’m your colleague. What are you doing November 7? I hope you’re going to vote—for yourself, for your colleagues, for your former students.”

I’ve been knocking on doors in my neighborhood in Tucson because we have a tight race for Congress. My candidate, former state Senator Gabrielle Giffords, is going to vote for better Medicare drug coverage if she gets a chance. She’ll vote to protect my pension if she gets a chance. She’ll vote for common sense reforms in “No Child Left Behind,” for a higher minimum wage, and for more college scholarships for students who don’t have money—if she gets a chance.

I'm trying to give her that chance.

And I think I’m helping. My neighbors, my friends, and my family listen to me.

In the last days before the Nov. 7 election, I’m going to call everybody who I think will listen and try to get them to actually go out and vote, because so many people forget or don’t get around to it.

Your neighbors, friends, and family will listen to you, too. Make a list of five people who might not remember to vote, and remind them when Election Day comes around. Important races do turn on a very small number of votes—we’ve certainly learned that! And the results matter to all of us—we’ve learned that, too.

These days, most elected officials in Washington are not focused on the challenges that face you and me. They’re paying more attention to the corporations, the privileged, and the well-connected.

There are a lot of close races around the country, and we retired educators are in a good position to help someone like Gabrielle Giffords, or whoever is the pro-senior, pro-child, pro-average person candidate in your area.

So please, colleague, make that list of five and pick up your phone.

—Barbara Matteson
matteson@dakotacom.net

November 2006

Tom Redman

Background

I’ve taught grades 4-8 in Fairfield, Ohio for 28 years. Right now I teach fifth-grade math. I’m currently treasurer of my local Association and a member of the OEA Board of Directors.

How do you plan to spend your retirement?

NEA-Retired does great work for us lobbying on legislative issues. I want to be active in that because the need will always be there. I have to prepare each day to go into the classroom, so it only makes sense that I need to prepare for going out of it. NEA Pre-Retired is helping me prepare for the kind of volunteer work and activism that interests me. I also want to return to community theater after I retire. Acting was a big part of my life for many years: I even had the chance to play Oscar Madison in “The Odd Couple.” I can’t wait to get back into theater—both to act and learn new skills such as set design and lighting.

Pauline Dixon

Background

I taught 7th-8th grade honors math for 35 years in Dallas  , Texas. I’m currently president of our state Retired Association. 

How are you spending retirement?

I’m staying active. The big issues in my state are salaries, health insurance, and recruiting new members. I’ll keep working with NEA-Retired as long as I can put one foot in front of the other. I’m glad

I learned as a teacher that we need to keep NEA-Retired strong in order to address all our concerns. I also like spending time with my family. We took a cruise last year, and I always look forward to vacationing with them.

Carmen Periquet

Background

I taught kindergarten for 32 years, first in the Philippines, then after coming to the U.S. in 1969, I taught in Milwaukee and Waukesha, Wisconsin. I was executive secretary of my local Association when I was an active teacher, and I still work closely with my old local.

What’s the best thing about retirement?

Gardening—no question about it. I have 200 roses in my yard, and taking care of them is my favorite “issue.” But I’m still very active in NEA-Retired, and I love what we’ve been able to do. I helped to start a mentoring program, and I stay very active in politics. We just elected a teacher as our mayor in Waukesha, and we were very busy over the summer supporting campaigns of all the education-friendly candidates. I also belong to a vacation group for retirees, and we go on all sorts of outings—sight-seeing trips, plays, lectures—twice a month. Retirement is great.