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Growing Up With John Marshall High School

One could say John Marshall High School and I grew up together. We are both now 50, and hitting the half-century mark is a cause for reflection and celebration.

One of my earliest memories as a child was riding by John Marshall and my mom pointing to the new school saying, “That’s your school!” A school of my very own? Every time we passed JM, I would say, “There’s my school!”

One day, we rode by, and I saw students going into my school. “Why are they in my school?” Mom had some explaining to do, and when she did, I was crushed to learn the school was not just for me and even more crushed to learn I had to wait more than 10 years before I could be a Monarch.

Finally, I became one of the pride, me along with more than 500 students who made up the class of 1985. And here I am in my 13th year of teaching, becoming part of a 50-year legacy and taking my place among the ranks of teachers whom I admired and idolized decades ago. This month I had the opportunity to spend some time with these icons at the JM 50th Anniversary Teachers Reunion, thanks to social studies teacher Susan Jones who planned the event and JMHS Athletic Boosters and Kalkreuth Roofing and Sheet Metal who sponsored the event.

That Saturday, I was standing in the shadows of giants and legends like Donna Wilburn, Harold Vitale, Joe Komorowsi, Bill Jones, Dave Goodwin, and Mike and Cherry Pivik, who taught at JM the very first year of its existence. I caught up with some of the teachers who taught when I was in school, like speech and drama teacher Linda Brinkman (the teacher immortalized in Brad Paisley’s “Letter to Me”), science teacher Patty Fulton, and librarian June Geiger, who was somehow able to instill in me a love of the card catalog and the Dewey Decimal System.

I was overjoyed to spend some time with the two high school teachers who had the greatest influence on my life: my English literature and yearbook teacher, Debbie Takach (who later became my cooperating teacher during my student teaching), and my advanced composition teacher Mike Hince (who later became my boss when he was superintendent). These two teachers taught me to love thinking, creating and writing.

(Fun fact, when Mr. Hince asked if I would be interested in writing this School Bells column, I said I would as long as he took up his teacher role and once again “graded” my compositions before I submitted them to the newspaper. He agreed and has been true to his word.)

I looked around the room as we gathered for a group picture and realized how many students these teachers taught, cared for and loved, and I am so very thankful they taught, loved, and cared for me. After all these years, I am still in awe of these teachers. I can only hope I influence my students as much as these teachers have influenced me.

Check the John Marshall website and Facebook page throughout the year for information about more 50th anniversary events.

Jonna Kuskey is an English teacher at John Marshall High School. She was named the 2017 James Moffett Award winner by the National Council of Teachers of English and the third place winner of the 2017 Penguin Random House Foundation Teacher Awards for Literacy.

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