Miss Janie Chiles

Reminisces

Over Forty ‘Years of Teaching

 

Chrisman Mathematics Instructor,
While Admitting the Profession
Actually Chose Her, Says She
Would “Do the Same Thing
Again’—Numbers Hundreds of
Successful Business and Pro-
fessional Men as Pupils. ~

 

“Would I choose teaching again,
if I could go back and start over?”
' Miss Janie Chiles, mathematics in-}
structor at the William Chrisman|
High School, smiled! at her ques-
tioner and in her eyes was the

sparkled fondly for each of the

i the old Ott School.

even a-guess as to how many of
the city’s children she had taught
in her years in the school system,
but jokingly said, “Why, it seems
to me that I have taught at one
time or another nearly everyone

Jin town.”

She peindinbeks especially some
of the members of her first class
Dr. a

rest C. (Phog) Allen, nationally
known director of athletics at the
‘University of Kansas, was a mem-
ber of that class and while a

 

ind a place in her room, Miss

same youthful twinkle which maine number of recalcitrants did

hundreds of pupils whose career
she has helped to shape in the
forty-two years that she has serv-
ed the Independence school sys-
tem.

“Of course I would choose teach-
ing again. I enjoy the work and
refuse to think too much about
the years that have passed, so my
contact with the continually flow-
ing stream of young people keeps
me at least from feeling old.”

“But,” she smiled reminiscently,
“T really didn’t choose teaching,
anyway, in the first place. The
job chose me. I had thought about
the possibility, of course, and felt
sure I would like to be a teacher.
I had graduated from Woodland
College in Independence and had
helped to some extent in instruct-
ing undergraduates at the school.
But it was when President C. A.
Wood of Kansas City Junior Col-
lege wrote Prof. George S. Bryant,
the head of Woodland College of
his need of an instructor and Prof.
Bryant recommended me that I
suddenly fell into the profession.”
~ “Miss Janie,” as she is affec-
tionately called by her myriads of
alumni and alumnae in Independ-
ence and all over the country,
taught for a short period at Jun-
jor College and showed such effi-
cienzy in her work that J. N.
Patrick, then
schools in Independence, asked her
to come here to teach and she ac-

superintendent of

fJanie says that he definitely was
not one of them.¥ She also re-
members that Floyd Burrus, who
now lives at the corner of River
Boulevard and Van Horn Road,
was one of her pupils at that time.

Miss Janie remained at the Ott
School only two terms when she
was moved to the Central High
School in the old Junior High
School building which burned a
few years ago. During her first
year there she taught both Eng-
lish and history but after that
term she was assigned to teach
mathematics and has been teach-
ing high school students the in-
tricacies of algebra, geometry and
trigonometry ever since.

Dr. Paul Rider, professor of
mathematics at Washington Uni-
versity at St. Louis for many years
and now an exchange professor
teaching at the University of Mex-
ico, is among the famous men she
has helped along the way.’ Law-
rence Gregg, with the Bethlehem
Steel Company, is another of her
pupils who has made good.

Marion Crews, representative of
the Boeing Aircraft Corporation
at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, was
one of her finest pupils. He re-
ceived his high school diploma
about the year that the William
Chrisman High School was com-
pleted and the.old building was
given over to the use of the board

 

asa junior high school.

sat at her feet and learned the
principles which keep their busi-
nesses solvent. Among these are
C. C. and Albert Bundschu, Mel-
vin and Carl Knoepker, Kenneth
‘Bostian, Renick Jones, a member
of the City Council, Harry Sturges,
Frank Livesay, and many, many
others.

“In fact,” said Miss Janie, de-

spairingly, “if I tried to name them
all I would be sure to miss some-
one, so I simply won’t try. I am
glad to have known them all and
to have had the privilege of teach-
ing them and their children.”
' And then Miss Janie told an
anecdote which illustrates one of
the realities of life which should
lend encouragement ta the many
upils who are not quite as quick
mathematical matters as some
of their brighter schoolmates.

“In spite of the fact,’ she said, |
‘that I have seen many of my
oys and girls go out and make
marks for themselves, a pupil in
| whose achievements I take espe-
cial pride was a big, slow 2

|

 

   
   
  
  
  

 

who had a very difficult time
keeping up with his work.

“For some reason this boy want-_
ed to study engineering, and as.
I could see little hope of-his suc-|
cess in that field, I tried to dis-|
suade him and advised against his.
making that his specialty. But
he was determined and used to.
come. to my home evenings and
together we would wrestle with
his difficulty in grasping the fund-
amentals of mathematics.

“Up to the time of his gradua-

tion from the high school he never
quite found himself, but he per-
sisted, attending a-junior college
and later a university, always with
his ultimate goal before him.
_ “And then one day into the of-
fice of the principal of the high
school came\a letter from the uni-
versity where that slow boy was
a student, saying that he had. be-
come one of the most outstanding
engineering students ever to study
at that great state educational in-
stitution.

“When you see things like that
happen,” Miss Janie said, with a
satisfied air, “you can’t help feel-
ing that the work of a teacher