Teaching school

I was hired to be the junior high special education teacher in the newly combined Lincoln County Junior/Senior High. Until that time, the elementary schools were 1-8 in Pioche, Panaca, and Caliente. Kindergarten was a pay-as-you-can service offered on the cheap at those same schools without being "officially" part of the district. Tony and Paul went to Kindergarten this way. By the time Bryan was old enough, Kindergarten was a district-wide program.

Jim Hill was hired at the same time to teach the high school special ed students. He had been at C.O. Bastain beforehand (then called the Girls' School). We shared a classroom with two offices on the west end of an old barracks building leftover from Test Site days. (It's the old wood shop building - now band room.) The Nevada Fish and Game and Lincoln County Senior Citizens shared the building with us using other offices. Carol Hansen was the Special Ed aide, and a great aide she was. She worked hard to help kids with their studies, maintained excellent discipline, and helped keep Jim and I in line as we learned the ropes. She was taken away too often to help in the office and elsewhere: good for her, not so good for us.

My first batch of students were difficult to deal with and I didn't have the skills to keep them in check. I remember asking Mr. Nelson Lorell Bleak for help, and he brought a program to the school called Assertive Discipline. It helped immensely to have something to fall back on. While the kids didn't like me more, they did behave better. Early first students included: Michelle Huerta, Kelly Simper, Renea Tice, Philip Cardinal, Alan Kramer, Ernie Emerine, and others. Little-by-little I learned and they learned what was expected and how to get there. I still visit with some of these same students on Facebook. They've grown up and I've grown old.

I had taught 3rd grade students in Monroe, UT then 3rd through 6th grade special ed students in Monroe. Elementary-age students are more trusting and easier to control than junior high students. High school students were different still. I was appointed to be the 7th grade advisor with the promise I'd move with the students from grade-to-grade until they graduated. It never happened. Instead, I was the 7th grade advisor year after year. I resented I was told one thing and another done - a pattern that would persist for decades.