Kerry Hohbach stands shaded in the front yard of her historic home in Red Oak, IA.
Kerry Hohbach finally says goodbye to school
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Kerry Hohbach stands shaded in the front yard of her historic home in Red Oak, IA. |
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| In contrast, Kerry stands with a framed picture of her childhood home in Minnesota. |
“For 53 years I’ve been going to school. Right now, I’m looking forward to adventure. I’m looking forward to playtime!”
That’s how Kerry Hohbach of Red Oak talks about her decision to retire from the Red Oak Community Schools. She’s been teaching for nearly 40 years. She graduated from college then came directly into a teaching position in Red Oak, hence her calculation of 53 years of “back to school.” This fall, that stops.
Kerry grew up in Ada, MN, a small town of about 2,000. Her mother still resides there. She graduated from college with a teaching degree at mid-term and because teaching jobs are few and far between in the middle of the year, seized upon an opportunity in a little town called Red Oak, IA.
“I came here to get a year’s experience and that was 38 years ago,” Kerry laughs. “This is a good place and I’ve never really had a desire to go anywhere else.”
Kerry began her career at Inman Primary, teaching second and third grade with her partner, Edus Volkmer.
“She did the reading and I did math and science, which was great because that was what I loved.”
When Red Oak centralized the elementary grades, Kerry moved with third-graders to Jefferson School, and then transferred to sixth grade at Washington. She remembers that the transfer was not her idea.
“I didn’t want to go, but they said I was going anyway and, you know, I loved it,” she recalls, speaking with the same high-energy enthused demeanor her students, their parents, and her colleagues have come to expect.
“I’m a high energy person but we didn’t have ADD, ADHD when I was a kid so you just went outside and ran off that energy, then when you came inside you sat still because that’s what you were supposed to do.”
When sixth grade moved to the Red Oak Middle School Kerry transferred again. And again, she remembers not being pleased with the idea, but realizing its value after the move.
“We didn’t want to go at first,” she says. “I remember walking behind Jean Kruse and seeing her shoulders slumped and thinking ‘That’s just how I feel.’ But, you know, as soon as we got here, we realized it was good. After the first day, we were thrilled.”
Why middle school? That can be a very difficult age for students and teachers.
“The students are independent, but not too much so,” Kerry explains. “They’re still kids. It’s a very fun age. They’re not needy. I like kids to be discovering things themselves.”
Why Red Oak for all these years?
“We settled in. The kids had good friends here and we didn’t want to mess with that. This is a great town to raise kids. My kids could ride or walk to the pool, the park, their friends’ houses, anywhere. This is a good town that lets kids be kids.”
Thinking back to that first elementary classroom, would Kerry do things differently? She chuckles at the idea.
“No one wants to go back to their first year,” she laughs. “You learn all these things in college but it is different when you are in that classroom, with all those students, all day. But that class, that first class, those students are still my babies. I still keep in touch with the kids and their parents. I still feel really attached to that group.
“And I had the opportunity to teach some of their children. That has been one of my best gifts. It was just delightful.”
Kerry remembers Red Oak as a very welcoming community when she moved here and speaks highly of the teachers she has taught beside over the years. She’s outlasted many principals and superintendents, and notes that “most of them I have really liked and respected.”
With the advantage of nearly 40 years in education, how does Kerry see education in Red Oak in the year 2010? Two issues stand out in her mind.
“We do way too much testing. We’re testing, testing, testing, all year long. I remember taking the Iowa Test of Basic Skills when I was a kid in Minnesota, but that was one time. We took it once. Now we are testing all the time and we place way too much emphasis on the test.”
That emphasis on test scores is evident in most schools across America today; her second concern is more specific to Red Oak.
“Sending the kids home early every Wednesday to train the teachers . . . I’m all for training teachers, but not at the expense of the kids. Not by cutting down on instructional time. We keep increasing the things we’re supposed to teach but then we cut back on instructional time? It doesn’t make sense to me.”
Kerry notes with pride that American schools “educate everyone” while in many nations only the very brightest qualify for advanced training and college.
Kerry’s teaching philosophy throughout her years in the classroom was simple.
“If I had a problem I would say to myself, ‘Kerry, if these were your kids, how would you want this to come out?’ And that was all I needed. That made it easy for me. Then I could call the parents and we’d work it out.”
She’s on summer vacation now, but when fall rolls around and everyone else is getting ready for back to school, how will Kerry feel? After all, school—either as a student or a teacher—is all she’s ever done.
“I love hiking, biking and tennis and I love to work on my yard and my house.”
Speaking of house, Kerry and her husband, Kevin, purchased one of Red Oak’s historical homes four years ago. The former Lomas home, located on Prospect Street, had been empty for some time and needed a loving hand, as Kerry recalls.
“We sat in the kitchen booth and it was just awful,” she recalls. “The ceiling was falling in, the paint was peeling. And we sat there and Kevin said, ‘What should we offer?’
“This was the only house he even consented to look at so it was meant to be. It is a fun, fun house. We love it and we are learning the history of it as we go.”
Kerry and Kevin will celebrate their 24th anniversary this year. Kerry has two children from her first marriage: Britt Otte lives in Lincoln and Ryan Winroth lives in Bellevue. She has three grandchildren.