Eberhardy reflects on career
There are some basic characteristics needed to be a good teacher: wisdom, patience, skill. To be a great teacher, you need a lot of each. So, students say, Wauwatosa East High School will be losing one of its greatest teachers as Mary Eberhady retires this spring.
Eberhardy has taught Latin and French in Wauwatosa for 21 years, following three years teaching in Milwaukee Public Schools.
“We wish she was
our grandmother.”
“She’s one of the nicest people I know,” junior Anna Templeman, who had Eberhardy this past year for French, said. “She’s got a good sense of humor and a nice laid-back teaching style.”
Junior Meg Reid, agreed.
“We wish she was our grandmother,” she said.
Eberhardy began teaching for MPS in 1985 after spending 15 years raising her own children – four boys. She says those years helped her develop the stamina necessary to deal with energetic high school students.
“Having a household of boys, I was used to rambunctiousness,” Eberhardy said. “That’s really where I learned patience.”
That patience is largely what has made Eberhardy a favorite of students. It has also made her a friend to many.
“She tells us stories,” Reid said. “She’s been here a long time, but she can relate to us.”
Where there is often a divide between students and most teachers, Eberhardy’s students have often felt a connection, or at least an understanding. This is especially true in those cases of tragedy or trouble in students’ lives.
“I think that because I am a quiet person, kids feel they can say things to me,” she said. “That’s where I feel I’ve been most effective. And I think kids have realized that.
“Many teachers, if you walk in and the kids are buzzing about something, they just ignore it,” she continued. “To me it only makes sense to address it. I feel that is when I most need to be there.”
Eberhardy’s fellow Latin teacher, Joe Vitrano, emphasized her kindness and easygoing character both as a teacher and as a friend.
“She’s gotten to know a lot of kids, teaching two languages,” he said. “As a colleague she’s wonderful. As a person she’s very kind and very compassionate. As a teacher, she’s very skilled--first rate.”
“You try not to take it personally.”
While Eberhardy has appreciated her time working in Wauwatosa, she is looking forward to her retirement for several reasons. One is the daily drive between East and Wauwatosa West High School, which she has made every day for years, and now considers “tiresome.” Another would be the difficulty in dealing with Wauwatosa School District and administrative management.
“The hardest part has been the constant changes for the district,” she said. “It’s like they have a revolving door at the Fisher Building, the way we go through superintendents and administrators.”
Eberhardy expressed concern over the fact that the district sometimes loses sight of the most important aspect of education: the classroom. “The message I would have is this: what is most important happens right in this building, in each classroom. That’s where the power is. That’s where the detail and the caring are.”
Along with managerial difficulties, Eberhardy has found the modern trend of texting and game-playing distasteful.
“You try not to take it personally,” she said. “But I wish I had the nerve to put out a box and say ‘put them in there, I don’t want to see them at all.’”
“I learn things all the time.”
Though Eberhardy claims to be more than ready to retire, she will also be leaving behind many of the friendships she developed over her years of teaching. This includes both the students who have come to know her as “relaxed and quiet and direct,” as senior Sam Jarosz said, and the teachers, such as Joe Vitrano and Anne O’Connel, who have known her for years.
Vitrano summed up the effect Eberhardy’s upcoming absence will most likely have for both him and the school.
“For me personally it’s a loss,” he said. “Not that our youngsters aren’t good, but there’s a climate here that’s been developed for years. It changes the building.”
Eberhardy admitted that she has learned as much from her students as she hopes they learn from her.
“I learn things all the time,” she said. “I’ve learned that you really need to meet kids more than halfway, as the adult in the building. You can be having an effect on students without having any idea that you are.”
This impact on students is among the chief things Eberhardy will miss after retiring.
“There will be fewer people in my life,” she said. “I have made some really good friends here and I will miss the freshness of young people.”