Visiting with a former teacher at Gwynedd Square and reminiscing over childhood memories is always an exciting time.  For me, I have the privilege to look back every day.  Having career study with my second grade teacher, Mrs. Deborah Mattes, has allowed me to compare what elementary school was like both then and now.

Anyone who went to Gwynedd Square Elementary can remember walking through the front doors and seeing a fish tank off to the left between the cafeteria doors.  As you continue to walk through the school, it is exactly the same as it was in 2006 (when I was in 6^th grade).   Technological advances are evident throughout the school.  An updated security system is now in place at the front door, smart boards in some of the classrooms, as well as iPads for learning.

Every day when I walk into Mrs. Mattes’ classroom, it’s like stepping back in time to when I was in second grade.  She started teaching at Gwynedd Square as a second grade teacher in 1976 after she graduated from college.  Mattes taught for five years, then left to have her two children.  She returned in 1988 and still continues to teach today.

“From 1988 till now there have definitely been many changes; the biggest one that I see is that technology has a big impact on kids. While it’s a good thing, it worries me for them too because things come so quickly and change so quickly that we aren’t in tune with it sometimes.  [But] the children are enhanced by it and I have learned over the years that technology is a good thing. Although the greatest impact on children is pretty much their peers, children learn from children which seems to be timeless for me.”

Working alongside Mrs. Mattes, I can see her love for her job and her students.  She puts so much energy into her teaching. As I remember from when I was in second grade, she makes learning as much fun as possible by adding songs or tricks to help students remember a certain topic.  When she looks back at her years of teaching, the one thing that has never changed for her is her belief that a teacher must have compassion.

Mrs. Mattes learned early in her career the importance of having compassion and that teaching is about much more than just the lesson at hand.   “The fact that you’re often asked from the time of your first interview for a teaching position; what is the most important thing you think about being a teacher? What do you think is the most important quality you can have? That’s something that’s really interesting to me, because when I first started teaching I’m not sure I knew what that was.  I thought classroom management was extremely important so that things would flow and behaviors would be okay and curriculum and content would be taught.”

Without compassion toward their students, Mrs. Mattes believes that teachers might have a difficult time. To her, having compassion means that the teacher must be aware the children come to them in the morning and the teacher does not know what happened to the child prior to that moment.

“I think we have to be open to the fact that these are children and we have to be able to do the best we can for wherever they are. We have to make sure we have some kind of understanding of what their day might be like. [As the teacher] we need to make the best of that and to try to give them the chance if they want to share something, they can. As far as meeting their needs, recognizing their strengths and weaknesses but also celebrating who that individual child is because they offer so many things.”

When it comes to education, Mrs. Mattes has always thought that the day that she feels she is not learning from her students, is the day she should no longer be teaching.  She feels that her students have so much to offer her at every moment. As she learns from them, she also believes that you can have curriculum that is required to teach, lesson plans in place, but you must be ready to be flexible. To move with the children and go where some of their interests might take them is very important.

While Mattes shared with me all she has taken away from her years of teaching, we also talked about what new things have been happening in her life. This year, Mrs. Mattes and her husband will become grandparents. Their daughter Michele is having her baby in April and their son Jonathan and his wife are due in August.  It’s an exciting time for Mrs. Mattes and her family as they look forward to welcoming the new babies. She and her husband are anxious to become grandparents. Michele and Jonathan never got to meet their grandparents because they all had passed away before they were born.

For Mrs. Mattes, it’s neat for her to watch her children grow and change. When she started at Gwynedd Square, Michele was in 3^rd grade and Jonathan kindergarten. Now Michele is teaching 4^th grade and Jonathan has gone through many changes as well. As her children start families of their own it’s very difficult for Mrs. Mattes and her husband to think of them as being older.

One of the greatest things about teaching for Mrs. Mattes is when she gets to see the kids that come back to visit and have happy memories of being at the elementary school.  To her that’s such a unique feeling to know that you made a difference for people.

“Last year, a little guy who transferred from a city school had a lot of difficultly and he thought everybody hated him. He didn’t want part of anything, but we made a difference in him. I literally have a picture from the first day of school with us; he had a major scowl, very unhappy. Then I have another picture of him in the month of May, smiling and interacting in a kickball game.  His dad said to me, he is so happy when he gets off the bus now. And that’s just something. There is no way to not feel a reward from that, and that to me is the beauty of education.”

Teaching is not simply a career for her, rather it will always be a vocation.  Mrs. Mattes believes it’s something you do because you have a love and a desire for it. She has made a lasting impression on her students for many years.

“You have to love children and know that that comes first. You have to have a desire and an appreciation of the challenges. You have to be able to relate to how they feel and if you can’t, I think you’ll struggle.  It’s a career that I will always be satisfied by. Gwynedd Square is such a home to me. When I think of Gwynedd Square, I don’t think of it as the school building, I think of it as the children and the people that are there, that’s the school. I think of all those children that have passed through those hall ways.”

I’m glad that I was one of them!