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    Column: Wausau’s public education and teachers should be celebrated

    By Matt's 101 Pub,

    1 day ago
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    Wausau’s Independent: By Tom Kilian for Wausau Pilot & Review

    Wausau’s people are its greatest asset. It is remarkable that, almost since our small city’s inception, ordinary people from Central Wisconsin have done extraordinary things. Not just locally, but around the country. Citizens born and raised here have gone on to make profound contributions to a variety of disciplines and sectors. In fact, over the years, impressive organizations throughout the country have sought out and employed Wausonians to lead some of their key efforts. While, these days, we are commonly and incorrectly told that what will make Wausau’s future successful and prosperous comes primarily from the outside rather than from within, people who were nurtured right here in town are making big positive impacts in this area and elsewhere. But how did such a large pool of talent stem from a fairly small population? A key factor was our city’s history of strong public education, along with some associated heroes of Wausau’s past: the teachers at these public institutions. Physicist Stephen Hawking said that “behind every exceptional person, there is an exceptional teacher.” This has been the case with our city. 

    Early on, public education was a critical component of our city’s development and the spirit of our people. As covered in a January 27, 1921 Wausau Pilot & Review article, Wausau’s first school in 1848 was private. But the first public school house in the area, originally called the Village School, and later referred to as the Old White School House, was built in 1861-1862. The building was described “as the finest in the village.” Importantly, the same reporter stated that this was “as it should be” because it “plainly indicated the public spirit in the direction of education.” W. H. Searles, who had graduated from Lawrence University, was the school’s first principal and taught there for one year, as well. The Wausau public schools were later organized under the city charter in 1874. In 1884, the Free High School System was adopted. That same year, the first graduation exercises took place. An oral school for the deaf in Wausau was created in 1890. The Board of Education hired a superintendent in 1892. As things unfolded, public schools in Wausau became an even stronger source of both intellectual and physical enrichment for local children. Playground equipment and gymnasiums popped up. In 1912, the city’s first industrial schools were established. In 1915, a school nurse was hired. The trajectory of progress and growth opportunities continued. At each step, educators serving our city’s children were the linchpin.

    In the 20th century, one program started in Wausau that would have a momentous impact: The International Baccalaureate (IB) Program at Wausau East High School. The strength and success of this program were rooted in the strength of the teachers involved, some of whom I will mention. I am focusing on this example from Wausau public schools, in part, because it touched my own life.

    According to local media records, the IB Program was offered to the Wausau School District by the state Department of Public Education in 1978. At that time, only 53 high schools in the world had the program, and Wausau East would have been the fourth high school in the U.S. to participate. In the Wausau Daily Herald, the invitation and opportunity were labeled “a coup” for Wausau (and Wisconsin) public education. The IB Program is an intense, prestigious academic offering anchored in “challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment.” Established in 1968, the IB Program “is recognized and respected by the world’s leading universities.” Wausau East started the program in 1978 and it is now one of the longest running IB Programs in the country. This program that had, to a certain degree, been created in Europe to give the children of diplomats a top-notch international education, has been available in the Wausau School District to our city’s children for over 40 years. There are typically only a limited number of students in each graduating class at Wausau East who have completed the multi-year program for the IB Diploma (“Full IB”).

    In 1997, I graduated with an IB Diploma from Wausau East while Darlene Lee was the program’s coordinator. I am honored to call her a mentor and a friend today. Out of the small set of students who graduated with the IB Diploma from Wausau East that year – from an array of socioeconomic backgrounds – here are some examples of the positions in which they went on to serve: Chief Compliance Officer at the Mayo Clinic, Senior Research Scientist at Eli Lilly, Portfolio Manager at Capital Group in the New York Office, and Senior Aerospace Medicine Specialist for the U.S. Navy. And these are just a few examples from a single graduating class. One can imagine what the list would look like over 40 years. The friend and classmate of mine with whom I would study for IB Biology tests in my basement later became an Assistant Professor of Pathology at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Not bad for some kids from Wausau.

    Multiple students who graduated from Wausau East in the 1990s with an IB Diploma also proceeded to be some of the most high-profile reform voices this century regarding Wausau local government and civic matters. They have vocally taken on the local Good Ol’ Boys culture and power establishment in what appears to be Wausau’s very own Revenge of the Nerds. It may be telling (about municipal government policy here) that graduates from one of Wausau’s top academic programs have also been some of the biggest critics of City Hall’s policies.

    During that period of Wausau’s IB Program in the 1990s, teachers like Linda Terwilliger (affectionately called “LT” by her students) for IB English, Barb Erdman for IB History, and a host of other educators, made that program robust and special. In doing so, these teachers also clearly made a positive impact on their students’ futures that rippled throughout and beyond Wausau.

    The same can be said for teachers from all of Wausau’s public education programs, including its innovative English as a Second Language (ESL) Program that had been led by Nell Anderson.

    As the start of the school season approaches, these reminders about the city’s history of strong public education and exceptional teachers are timely. Wausau’s public education history also reveals, once again, what extraordinary things can be accomplished by ordinary people in our town, when given the opportunity. A challenge for Wausau has been retaining its citizens, or getting them to return to Central Wisconsin, after putting so much time and funding into their successful development. Finding a solution to this challenge needs to be a priority. The best hope for Wausau’s future probably comes from its own people. But not if they are somewhere else.

    Wausau’s Independent is a weekly opinion column by former Wausau Alder Tom Kilian, a founding member of the grassroots environmental group Citizens for a Clean Wausau. Views expressed here are independent of this newspaper and do not necessarily reflect the views of Wausau Pilot. To submit an idea for a future column, email [email protected] or mail to 500 N. Third St. Suite 208-8, Wausau, Wis. 54403.

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