Teacher graduates, again, from Wellington schools

Orga­niz­ing the annual vet­er­ans break­fast, edu­cat­ing thou­sands of kids, and even reen­act­ing Amer­i­can wars through Cap­ture the Flag… all in a career’s worth of work for Beth Workman.

After 37 years, Work­man has retired from teach­ing social stud­ies for the Welling­ton School District.

A native of Welling­ton, Work­man taught for more than 37 years, sub­bing out of col­lege, teach­ing briefly at Black River, spend­ing 10 years edu­cat­ing at West­wood Ele­men­tary and the rest at McCormick Mid­dle School.

After grad­u­at­ing from Welling­ton High School, Work­man attended Bap­tist Bible Col­lege in Spring­field, Ohio, where she received a degree in ele­men­tary edu­ca­tion, grades 1-8.

Unable to find the per­ma­nent posi­tion she desired, Work­man was elated when the third-grade posi­tion became avail­able at Westwood.

“I lived right next door to West­wood, which was nice,” Work­man said.

In 1974 Work­man mar­ried Wayne Work­man, the man who, when they first met at age 14, said that day would come.

“I was play­ing wif­fle ball in my dri­ve­way, and a neigh­bor kid brought him (Wayne) over. He said as soon as he saw me that I was the one,” Work­man said.

Years later they were mar­ried at a Bap­tist church in Wellington.

Work­man and Wayne had four chil­dren together: Mor­gan, Marikate, Jor­dan and Han­nah, all two years apart in age.

“When my third kid came, I was able to go half-time for 10 years and I only taught after­noons,” Work­man said.

The chil­dren attended the Welling­ton school sys­tem, and Work­man had three of her kids in class, as well as nieces and nephews.

“Funny story, one time I asked my son if he did his home­work. He told me, ‘No, I didn’t do it.’ So I told him, well, then you have to stay after school tomor­row. And he said, ‘Wait, mom, are you giv­ing me a deten­tion at home?’” Work­man said.

Work­man recalled many funny mem­o­ries from her time at McCormick.

“Oh there was the one time I fell flat on my face, the kids loved that. I tripped over an exten­sion cord with heels on, and down I went,” Work­man said.

“Some of my stu­dents would tell me that they were going to be famous. So I took their sig­na­tures. I’m still wait­ing for the sig­na­tures to be worth a lot,” Work­man said.

There have been many great mem­o­ries in the McCormick build­ing, but Work­man acknowl­edged the struc­ture needs to be replaced.

“The steps are dan­ger­ous. We have to open win­dows in the win­ter and in the sum­mer, if it’s 80 degrees out­side, it’s 90 in here (McCormick). There is a lot of sen­ti­men­tal­ity for this build­ing. My father grad­u­ated here. But it’s time,” Work­man said.

One of the out-of-classroom ben­e­fits for Work­man has been see­ing the kids around town.

“I truly have loved it here; it’s so hard to leave. At the reser­voir, some kid I didn’t even know said hello to me. He knew me because a class­mate told him about me. It is a nice feel­ing,” Work­man said.

Look­ing back on her teach­ing career, Work­man only had one regret.

“I was a tough third-grade teacher. That was the style back then. We read ‘Don’t Smile Until Christ­mas,’ and things like that. I’m glad I changed,” Work­man said.

Workman’s teach­ing style change allowed her to apply for and receive an endow­ment grant for the His­tory Alive books, which com­bined phys­i­cal inter­ac­tion with his­tor­i­cal facts.

“If my stu­dents see me in my front yard with my kids, I’m play­ing Cap­ture the Flag,” Work­man said, allud­ing to the His­tory Alive game where the stu­dents would reen­act wars through Cap­ture the Flag on McCormick’s front lawn.

The growth of tech­nol­ogy is good for edu­ca­tion, Work­man believes, once it is imple­mented correctly.

“We just don’t know how to use it cor­rectly yet. We tell kids to put away their cell phones, when some­day they (phones) will be a part of the class­room,” Work­man said.

The vet­er­ans break­fast, an annual event where 40-50 vet­er­ans come to the school for free food and recog­ni­tion, was orga­nized by Workman.

“It teaches the eighth graders how to shake hands, start a con­ver­sa­tion. They all inter­view a vet­eran and then write an essay on it,” Work­man said.

Work­man is look­ing for­ward to spend­ing time with her hus­band at home, going snow­shoe­ing, and spend­ing time with the kids.

“Welling­ton is a great place to live and work. Been here a long time and don’t plan on leav­ing. Well, maybe I’ll leave so peo­ple don’t see me get older,” Work­man said.

by ADAM FOX

Enter­prise reporter

Posted by Adam Fox on Jun 14 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.