TOWAMENCIN- Four walls covered in a myriad of posters and signs with vivid colors that splash and pop out, six tables pushed together in the shape of a circle that exudes a sense of community, a plush beanbag used as a chair in the corner of the room. These are just a few of the sights that greets one who walks into B116. It’s not a typical classroom. It doesn’t have rows of desks arranged in a straight, orderly fashion. There are no math formulas or literary devices written across the chalkboard. However, one might argue that the learning and the teaching that occurs in this room is unlike a typical classroom. This is one of the classrooms at North Penn that is not only home to the special needs population, but also Mrs. Kathleen Kerper, one of the Special Education teachers at North Penn High School who will be retiring at the end of this year after thirty nine years of dedication to the district.

Kerper’s passion for teaching is evidently seen in the length of her career. Before beginning to work at the high school in 1978, Kerper worked in the Intermediate Unit (IU) for a year. She started her teaching career as a primary teacher in Gloria Dei Lutheran Church and School where she worked for six years and taught a combination of second, third, and fourth grade before the school closed due to low enrollment.

“When the school closed, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do,” Kerper admitted. “So I got my reading specialist and I decided I would go for that. I got offered a position but I need a place, a room, to call my own, and that was itinerant. So I turned that one down, and I was lucky to get a position as the teacher assistant in B116.”

For Kerper, there was never a doubt in her mind that teaching wasn’t right for her.

“I’ve always wanted to become a teacher. It’s never been not to teach,” she remarked.

Kerper explained that she was especially influenced by one book she read in high school entitled No Language But a Cry. The novel recounts the story of a student who from when she was a baby had been severely abused by her parents. The student was rescued by nuns who helped her survive and grow from the experiences that had scarred her physically and mentally. The novel emitted a strong will in Kerper to enter the field of special education. Also playing a part in driving her to pursue a career as a special education teacher was her time spent at a Lutheran University, where she student taught in special education and loved it. When she came to North Penn, there weren’t any openings as a teacher so she took a position as a teacher assistant. When a position in a life skills support class opened up, she quickly discovered that they were her favorite group of people to work with.

Although being a special education teacher presents challenges at times such as the repetitious tasks it involves, one of the key lessons Kerper has learned over the years is that there’s no one magical way that will guarantee success for every student. Each person is different and a large part of her job is experimenting with different methods and techniques to see what works for each individual student.

“My whole thing is to see what works for my students. I’ve learned through the years that there’s no one way to do anything, and not everybody is going to necessarily be successful, but you can make them be as successful as they can. One of my mottos is never give up but try, try to figure out a way to get around it, to make it so you can do what you need to do,” noted Kerper.

One particular part of Kerper’s career that’s been especially memorable was having the opportunity to run Special Olympics. Kerper was in charge of the competition for the years North Penn was involved in it. Pennsylvania does twenty different sports, and after eight weeks of training, the kids can go to a sectional competition. They have the chance to go away to an overnight competition as well. North Penn hosted one of the local competitions and was the largest high school age competition run in America with a total of 463 athletes that competed, along with all the buddies that went. In addition, North Penn held a separate competition aimed for the younger kids aged five to seven, something that’s no longer at the schools that run Special Olympics today.

“I loved working with Special Olympics, running the competition here for the number of years that we did it. I miss it. I think that North Penn did an extraordinary job. Seeing how the regular ed students were involved with the special ed students and vice versa made it worthwhile. It was sort of like you took away the mystique of each and made it so they got to see the person,” conveyed Kerper.

Kerper explained how the competition was especially valuable because it provided special ed students with an outlet for being involved in school activities. It granted them an opportunity to have new social experiences that they might not have been able to have otherwise.

“You got a chance to open up a world of opportunity to our special needs population. A lot of them end up not doing much when they go home unless their families have gotten them involved, and with special olympics, there’s a lot of opportunities out there,” Kerper described.

Running the event required a great deal of effort and time, but the memories made from it proved to be more than worth it.

“It was a lot of work, but the rewards were great. It was just a neat experience and watching the smiles on everyone’s faces, teachers and students. It was just great,” Kerper expressed.

Throughout her many years at North Penn and the many memories made, the recurring, most significant love and passion for Kerper has always been the kids. From conversing with them everyday to partaking in entertaining activities such as “pretzel Friday” to seeing the glimpse of pride on their faces when they’re able to accomplish something new for the first time such as going up and down stairs without feeling afraid, that’s what’s been the highlight of Kerper’s career.

“I love doing things in the classroom and seeing somebody you’ve worked so hard with learn a skill and all of a sudden it’s like the a-ha moment. They get it and they start to be able to do it, and they feel so proud of themselves. I won’t miss the paperwork, but I will miss the kids. I have fun with them. You still have to be strict enough and have your goals and their goals but at the same point in time you need to let them know that it’s okay to goof up. It’s okay to make a mistake,” explained Kerper.

Kerper hopes she can influence others to get to know the special ed students and see what their true personalities are under the differences they may exhibit.

“If people get to know the special needs population, especially now that we have more inclusion, and take the time to see them as a person not as someone who has a lot of crazy behaviors, I think they’re going to find that they’re going to enjoy getting to know them. Go out for best buddies and some other things like unified sports which we started this year here at North Penn,” stated Kerper.

A fundamental issue that resonates strongly with Kerper is diversity and through her career and her personal life, she has aimed to educate and encourage people to accept the differences in others and see the intrinsic value of a person rather than their nationality or their disabilities.

“One of my goals is to help people realize it doesn’t matter what nationality or culture you’re from. We’re all the same, you just need to accept people for what they are and give them the opportunity to practice their culture,” said Kerper.

Her class has been one of the most diverse special ed classrooms with students from a variety of countries interacting and relating to each other. It’s another reason why North Penn, with its great level of diversity, has felt like home to Kerper for the last few decades.

“When I first started here, it was unusual to see two nationalities being boyfriend and girlfriend, or even being friends. You had the black table, the Hispanic table, the white table,” remembered Kerper. “And now it’s cool to go down in the cafeteria and see that everybody’s all mixed up. I think you still have some people that stay together, but for the most part, I think we’ve come a long way.”

Gazing into the future, Kerper isn’t completely letting go of her love for kids and teaching as she plans on getting involved with programs that will let her work with kids in different ways that she is used to. Through researching different programs, she’s found a few where she would be able to take service and therapy dogs to schools and introduce them to the special needs population to let them get used to seeing how to approach a dog or strange animal. Another program she’s intrigued by is one in which she would bring in therapy dogs and students would have the chance to read to them.

“I think that would be such a win-win situation. I would love to do something like that down the road, something to explore and see,” commented Kerper.

The programs would serve as a perfect fit for Kerper, who along with loving kids, is also an avid animal lover with two dogs of her own: a pitbull and a rescue dog.

“Dogs really soothe the souls. You can have a rough day, and they’ll know that you’re not feeling good, and they’ll come and stay next to you. It’s a good way to get yourself calmed down. Cats do the same thing too. I think all animals,” she said with a smile.

As her career at North Penn comes to a close, another thing Kerper is looking forward to is getting more involved with the grooming salon that she currently owns. Additionally, she hopes to travel overseas and see places such as England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, and the Netherlands. She also thinks it would be fun to go to Costa Rica again, where she’s visited for a few weeks before when she adopted her daughter from there.

“I’d like to do the swing lines through the canopy and the rainforest in Costa Rica. That would be fun,” expressed Kerper.

“I will miss this job, but it’s time to move on and do something different,” stated Kerper as her long and rewarding career at North Penn comes to an end.