[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 99 (Tuesday, July 8, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1414-E1415]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 COMMEMORATING THE CAREER OF MRS. JANE LAKIN UPON HER RETIREMENT FROM 
                  TEACHING FOLLOWING A 40 YEAR CAREER

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR.

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 8, 2003

  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor one of the true heroes 
of Tennessee's Second Congressional District. For forty years Mrs. Jane 
Lakin has changed the lives of thousands in the Knoxville community 
through her dedicated service as an elementary school teacher at both 
the Alice Bell and Spring Hill schools. Having seriously considered a 
career in teaching myself and having taught briefly at T.C. Williams 
School in Northern Virginia, I can say without hesitation that this 
career is one of the most challenging and rewarding any person can 
undertake.
  Each Member of this body understands the vital role teachers play in 
shaping the lives of our youth and I believe every teacher is to be 
commended. However, to dedicate forty years of one's life to improving 
and enhancing the education of children is truly exceptional.
  During Mrs. Lakin's career America has experienced tremendous change. 
While the Nation grieved the tragedy of President Kennedy's 
assassination and witnessed the triumphant raising of our Flag on the 
Moon, Mrs. Lakin walked each morning into a classroom and changed a 
student's life. As America grew through the turmoil of Viet Nam and 
later hailed our victory of the Cold War, Mrs. Lakin taught our 
children, one class at a time, the value and joy of learning. The world 
has changed and our Country has grown during the past 40 years, but 
Mrs. Lakin's love of educating the young men and women of Knoxville has 
never wavered.
  On behalf of the entire Second Congressional District, I want to 
thank Mrs. Lakin for her tireless work and her consistent encouragement 
of her students. Whether or not these students ever have the 
opportunity to tell her, she has changed their lives for the better and 
we are all in her debt.
  The Knoxville News Sentinel recently published an article on Mrs. 
Lakin and her retirement. I would like to include this article in its 
entirety in the Congressional Record. I hope that women and men 
teaching today will look to Mrs. Lakin's example as an inspiration and 
a confirmation of the tremendous value they bring to our Country.

            [From the Knoxville News Sentinel, June 9, 2003]

               Spring Hill Teacher Retires After 40 Years

                             (By Ed Marcum)

       There's an odd thing about working with your former fourth-
     grade teacher, said Jackie Pena, who teaches kindergartners 
     at Spring Hill Elementary School. Even after you have grown 
     up, it's hard to forget that you once sat at a little desk in 
     her classroom. Pena said that's why it was hard for her to 
     think of Jane Lakin as just another one of the teachers at 
     Spring Hill.
       ``The hardest thing was to get used to not calling her Mrs. 
     Lakin,'' Pena said. Lee Ann Parker, who was a classmate of 
     Pena's in the fourth grade, agreed. Parker, the music teacher 
     at Spring Hill, said it felt funny to call Lakin by her first 
     name. ``You just don't say that to your teacher,'' she said.
       Lakin has retired after 40 years' teaching in the Alice 
     Bell/Spring Hill community. ``Forty years and six months,'' 
     Lakin said to be precise.
       Irene Patterson, guidance counselor at Spring Hill, got to 
     work closely with Lakin over the years.
       ``A lot of seasoned teachers get set in their ways, but she 
     was always willing to try something new,'' Patterson said. 
     ``And she did a lot of things for children that no one knew 
     about.''
       ``She would come into my office and say, `Irene, I noticed 
     that such-and-such student is wearing her big sister's worn-
     out shoes, so I've bought her a pair.' ''
       The student would get a new pair of shoes anonymously. 
     Patterson said Lakin brought in such gifts a number of times.
       Pena remembers that Lakin was always eager to help new 
     teachers.
       ``She has always made people feel welcome and has been a 
     mentor to new teachers,'' Pena said.
       Lakin, who lives in Ritta, moved to Knoxville in 1962 from 
     Chattanooga, where she had taught for a year. She found a 
     position at Alice Bell Elementary and taught there until 
     1991, when that school was consolidated into Spring Hill 
     Elementary.
       Lakin said when you spend your whole career teaching in the 
     same general neighborhood, you end up teaching the children 
     of the children you have taught, and you run into former 
     students most every time you go to the grocery store.
       ``I never really meant to stay here 40 years, but it just 
     worked out that way,'' she said. Teaching has changed since 
     1962, Lakin said. Teachers had more flexibility then.
       ``In those days, the things you taught were mostly by your 
     own design. Now someone tells you what to teach,'' she said.
       Lakin said she and other teachers stayed on the lookout for 
     ideas to try out in the classroom. She said she became a 
     ``pack rat,'' always scrounging thrift stores or yard sales 
     for craft items, plastic boxes or any materials that might 
     come in handy in class. She said plastic boxes are essential 
     for storing supplies.
       ``Teachers ought to buy stock in plastic boxes,'' Lakin 
     said.
       There are so many classroom requirements now that a 
     teacher's time in the classroom is much more regimented, 
     Lakin said.
       ``You just feel like you can't do something unless it will 
     be on a test. There's no time for fun things,'' she said.

[[Page E1415]]

       Pena and Parker said some of their fondest memories were of 
     Lakin bringing in books and reading them to the class. She is 
     a good dramatic reader, they said.
       Lakin and her husband, Nelson Lakin, own a farm in Ritta, 
     and Patterson said she will always remember the roses that 
     Lakin grew there and brought to the school office. Lakin said 
     some of her favorite memories are of the years her students 
     made trees for the Fantasy of Trees holiday celebration.
       ``Of course, they hated to give up the tree, once we 
     finished,'' Lakin said. ``We would usually have to make two 
     of everything so the students would have ornaments to take 
     home with them.''
       Then there were the occasional bizarre moments, like the 
     time a boy brought a skunk to school for show-and-tell.
       ``It got loose and ran all over the school,'' she said. 
     ``Luckily, its scent gland had been removed.'' Eventually the 
     skunk was apprehended.
       Lakin remembers when Pena and Parker were in her class. 
     They were both good students, Lakin said, although Pena 
     sometimes talked when she wasn't supposed to. Lakin said that 
     on at least one occasion she had to have a word with Parker.
       ``I think Lee Ann was the more mischievous,'' Lakin said. 
     ``She had a club, and she was charging everyone on the 
     playground to belong to it.''
       Both women chuckled, and Parker rolled her eyes.
       ``It only cost a nickel,'' she said.
       ``It had to be disbanded,'' Lakin said.
       Lakin said she will miss the classroom, but she looks 
     forward to having more time for gardening and maybe doing a 
     little traveling.
       ``I might do some volunteer work, too,'' she said.

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