The Teachers from AHS
Monday, October 12, 2009
Imagine yourself at Ashland High School in the year 1969. The campus is like a park, with large expanses of grass and many trees. That year, a young woman by the name of Janie Smith graduated with her fellow students. A member of the drama and glee club, she is now an American Studies teacher. You probably know her as Mrs. Claussen. She is just one of the many teachers who went to AHS, as well as Mrs. Paustian, Mr. Sturdevant and Mr. Miller. Staff we know like the beloved Callie Mercer also attended this “elite” school, as it was known in the 1960s. “The school looked nothing like it does today,” says Mrs. Claussen. “Times have truly changed. For example, if you broke the school rules, you were paddled on the bottom. Boy, did it hurt.” According to Claussen, girls could only be involved in gymnastics and track for sports, and only seniors could be on Homecoming Court. Mr. Sturdevant, who teaches the AP Human Geography class, competed in football, wrestling, ski team and track, and was also the Student Body President. Mrs. Paustian, one of the math teachers, known then as Ms. Gerston, says she was involved in math competitions, the New Life Club and the Honor Society, and that her favorite classes were social studies and history. “I never dreamed I would end up teaching math to the wonderful students at AHS. I am really glad that things turned out the way they did,” says Mrs. Paustian.
Many things at AHS have changed since then. When Claussen went to school, they offered no AP classes, but off-campus lunch was available to students. However, back then you went home for lunch because the sweet shop was always packed. In the early 1970s, however, Mrs. Paustian says she ate lunch at places like A&W, Campus Drive-In and Rich Maid. Another thing that was at AHS and still exists was the foreign exchange student program. It was a club called the American Foreign Exchange that sent one student to another country each year, and a foreign student was welcomed into the Ashland community the same year. The teachers who went to AHS and now teach here must have loved this school, and probably still do. They experienced everything that every high-school student goes through: the fear of going into freshman year, the anxiety of tests and the always-nagging thought of “Where do I belong?” The most important thing is that they had a memorable experience here, and, maybe you will even become a teacher here, teaching and preparing young minds for the future.
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