By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
After changing the bulletin boards in her room once a month for four decades, the walls of Teresa Schrant's classroom were finally bare last week.
She was gathering boxes to pack her extensive collection of M&M memorabilia, mostly gifts over the years. She's been in the classroom, which she is now leaving, for 24 years.
"That's longer than some people have been in their homes," she said. "It'll be strange."
Big No. 43 silver balloons were tucked into a corner along with an antique school desk that had been in her childhood basement. Sitting on that antique desk was a privilege for her fourth-grade students.
Schrant, 65, retired last week after teaching 43 years at Holy Family Elementary School.
But Schrant is leaving Holy Family entirely, she said. How could she? It's her home.
Schrant grew up blocks from Holy Family, then a public school, Jefferson Elementary. She said she didn't know there was a lunch recess until the fifth grade because she walked home every day for lunch.
Schrant said she fell into education. A Hays native, she said she didn't know what she wanted to study when she entered Fort Hays State University.
She grew up a middle child in a large family with four siblings. Her sisters and brothers played school often. Children's time was not so structured then, she said—more time was spent using one's imagination and less time in activities like dance or sports.
As she grew older, she frequently babysat and discovered her love for children. She and her husband have three boys and seven grandchildren.
After taking a few education courses at Fort Hays, she said she knew she wanted to be a teacher.
Although she was a product of public education, she applied at Holy Family and was hired the same day she was interviewed by Sister Mary Alice Walters.
That corner of Hays has always been her home. Not only did she attend school in the building now Holy Family, but she is also a long-time parishioner of Immaculate Heart of Mary, the church adjacent to the Catholic elementary school.
She said teaching in a Catholic school has helped her grow in her faith.
"Shirley Dinkel, who taught Catholic school for years and years, always used to talk about how she was growing little disciples, and I always love that analogy," Schrant said.
In 2020, Schrant received a stem cell transplant to treat cancer, and had to leave her classroom for two years. She said her faith was important to her during that time.
"In the last few years, [my faith] just exploded," she said.
The treatment had to be delayed because of COVID, and she said she was frustrated because she wanted to go back to school.
"This is home to me. It's always been home to me," she said. "I went to school here. I taught school here. I still go to church here. It will always be home."
Her husband noticed that she never said she was going to work. She always said she was going to school.
"I never viewed this as work," she said. "This was always school to me. It was just something I wanted to do. I don't think there was ever a day I woke up and said, 'Ugh, we have school today."
Although Schrant is certified to teach grades K-9, she only taught two age levels during her four decades in the profession — second and fourth grades, retiring as a fourth-grade teacher.
She said she loves working with fourth graders because they can get a joke but are still eager to learn.
On her desk was a tattered copy of "James and the Giant Peach," a favorite of both her and her students. She said she didn't have the time this year to read the book to them.
During her decades as a teacher, students' lessons have become more structured, and there is less time for reading to the kids aloud, which she once did multiple times a week.
She said students are more attuned to emotions now than they were when she was a child, but she also bemoaned a loss of innocence that has come with the prevalence of social media and the rise of technology.
"I try to make school fun for them," she said.
She had a student in her class who didn't like to read, but he snuck a Snap-on tool catalog into the classroom. He worked in the summer, and he used the money he made to buy tools.
She made a deal with him that he could look at his catalog once he finished his AR reading.
When he was in high school, he came back to show her the truck he had bought.
In her retirement, Schrant said she intends to spend more time with her family. She hopes to have the freedom to travel to her grandchildren's activities now that they all live in Kansas.
She will still help with the altar servers on Tuesday and Thursday, which she has been doing for the last two years.
She hasn't ruled out the possibility of returning as a substitute teacher, and if she really can't handle being away from school, she also considered working as a paraeducator.
"I think I will miss it a ton," she said. "I'll miss the kids."