For teachers retiring during the COVID-19 pandemic, a bittersweet end: ‘There’s no closure without being able to say goodbye to my students’
For the roughly 1,600 Illinois public school teachers who are retiring this month, stepping away from the classroom in the midst of a global pandemic that shuttered schools is proving especially heartrending.
With scuttled in-person goodbyes. and their final days as educators unfolding on computer screens in their home offices instead of in classrooms, teachers retiring at the end of this tumultuous school year leave their schools under conditions they never could have imagined when they began their careers decades ago.
Here are the stories of four retiring Chicago-area teachers, whose combined service adds up to more than 120 years in the classroom, and who despite facing a twist to the final chapter of their careers, are united by their resolve to reflect back with pride, and look ahead with hope.
Darcia Scafidi, fourth grade teacher at Nerge Elementary School in Roselle
After spending 35 years as an elementary school teacher, Darcia Scafidi says she never grew tired of her profession, but as a woman of faith, she decided to retire in order to answer a call to civil rights work.
“Well, it didn’t take long for my new calling to start … exactly one day,” said Scafidi, 60, whose childhood memories include marching with her parents alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. when he visited Chicago.
“I feel like I’m being called, and my skills can be used elsewhere,” Scafidi said. “I love children, but it’s time.”
During her years at Nerge, Scafidi was known for keeping a special notebook each school year, inscribed with observations of her students. Those detailed CONTINUE READING: For teachers retiring during the COVID-19 pandemic, a bittersweet end: ‘There’s no closure without being able to say goodbye to my students’ – Raw Story
