Retirement

Last Saturday, my wife, Carol and I crashed a party. Mind you, this is not something we normally would do but I just had to see the surprise retirement party for John Wachholz put on by his wife and his former students. We weren’t invited because we were not former students--but we are—everyone who knows John has learned from John. You see, John has taught biology for 43 years with passion and courage and I know of no other teacher who continually receives “thank-you for changing my life” letters from former students. John and I have shared many phone calls—often weekly—where we discussed the challenges of teaching biology. John’s dedication to doing the right thing and passion for teaching have always been an inspiration to me.

We crashed the party because we wanted to meet some of his students who I had heard so much about. In fact, in was one of his former students that let me know about the get-together. The party was a perfect fit. We assembled at the Land Institute in the barn and John was caught totally unaware as he was escorted to the “Land” by his step-daughter, Linda, and family. As normal, John’s own passion and caring for his students meant that any attempt on his part to convey his appreciation had to be interpreted through his tears of joy and his breaking voice. John is not afraid to wear his emotions on his sleeve. His former students proceeded to give short talks about what John had meant to them. Inspirational. You might expect that at least the biologists (there were at least three with biology PhD’s) would have talked mostly about the biology they learned. Au contraire—mostly his students talked about John being an inspiration, about how he got them to think and how he made them realize how important they were. The most used phrase that I heard all night was some form of, “I see the world through his eyes.” or “I hear his voice in my head.” You see, John, has always challenged students, colleagues and friends to think about their impact on this planet, their role in society and to be productive as an individual.

I’ve often said that no profession (other than health care) probably has as much emotional up and down as teaching does. Even a great teacher like John can find themselves questioning what they are doing and their own abilities in the face of the different challenges that face an educator each and every day. You can have five great classes in a row and be feeling like you’ve really had an impact only to have the entire day’s accomplishment spin out of control during last hour as you encounter one recalcitrant, uninvolved student that you can’t seem to reach. For John, these moments always weighed heavily. It’s probably a character of outstanding teachers. The evening had to be an incredible validation for John. John’s wife, Bette Sue, talked of courage. It truly does take courage to be a teacher like John.

John’s generation is retiring. Just this year in Kansas, John, Ernie Brown and Pat Wakeman are retiring. In recent years, Stan Roth, Harry McDonald and Terry Callendar retired. This generation has been very active in professional societies. All of the previously mentioned folks have served as KABT, the Kansas Association of Biology Teachers, president or as board members. Stan was for president for NABT. I'm sure I'm forgetting some and I apologize.

John was a member of the board of KABT, president, newsletter editor and treasurer for much of the last 25 years of his career. Over the years, John hosted a number of workshops and meetings at his school to share with other teachers—particularly new teachers.

The biology teachers of John’s generation were the product of the federal government efforts to infuse science education with real science during the ‘60s and 70’s. Many biology these were able to attend numerous NSF sponsored summer workshops where they learned biology content, how to do biology, and how to teach biology. A survey of Presidential award winners indicated that the two things that most of the awardees attributed to their individual success were NSF workshops and professional science teacher organizations like NABT. John fits that description as well. I’m really concerned that we are turning away from these time tested and proven methods of biology teacher professional development—particularly the summer workshops. Of course there are other sources of summer workshops and I encourage biology teachers to take advantage of them. The best place to learn about these opportunities or to even create such opportunities for biology teachers is as a member of a professional science teachers organiztion. John would certainly concur. New and old biology teachers, please, join your local and national professional organizations. I guarantee that you and your teaching will benefit--and so will the biology teaching community.