Campus Feature
Road to Retirement
Gayle Monk
Tears appeared in the corners of Gayle Monk’s eyes as she looked up at the elm tree planted in her honor in the corner of the primary playground. With a life span of 80 to 100 years, this tree will be a long-lasting tribute to her 23 years as a first-grade teacher at Darlington’s Lower School.
Gayle Monk
Gayle Monk’s colleagues honor her at the Brown Faculty Appreciation Dinner. “I feel so blessed to have spent these years at Darlington,” Monk said, fighting back tears as she thanked her students and their parents for this thoughtful commemoration of her retirement. “I have loved it.” It’s almost as if Monk was destined to teach first grade. Though she didn’t actually decide to major in education until her second year at the University of Georgia, her mother had taught first grade for 20 years. “I can remember going to her classroom and watching her teach,” she recalled. “It was definitely in my blood.” Monk went on to earn her master’s from UGA, and taught public school in Oglethorpe County, Athens, Cedartown and Rome for several years before joining the Lower School faculty in 1989. All in all, she has logged 36 years in the classroom. “The people that I met when I first moved to Rome were so passionate about Darlington,” she said. “I wanted to be part of a school of which people spoke so highly. When I heard of a firstgrade opening, I immediately called Larry Muschamp and was very lucky to be hired.”
22
The next 23 years would be filled with countless class musicals, Eco fairs, field days, Halloween parades and stories – which Monk knows will become some of her most cherished memories. She was also fortunate to watch her two children, Will (’98) and Mary Beth (’04), grow up at Darlington. “I am proud that Darlington was a part of their educational journey,” she said. “Whether a child is an athlete, an artist, a musician or an actor, there is something at Darlington that he or she can do and love. My children had great experiences here that will stay with them forever.” But her children aren’t the only graduates who have held a special place in Monk’s heart. “I have had a lot of students walk across the stage at Commencement, and I always think about all the funny things they did in first grade,” she said. “I marvel at the way they have grown into mature young men and women. It is very fulfilling as a teacher.” That is one of the things Monk will miss, in addition to many others. “I will miss the children’s smiles, their eagerness to learn and their love of life,” she said. “I will miss those moments where the ‘light bulb went off’ and you could just see it in their eyes that they grasped a concept that, up to that point, had been foreign to them. These are the moments teachers live for. I will miss sitting out on the playground, watching
the children with my colleagues. I will miss the Lower School families’ kindness and generosity. I have always gotten along well with the parents of my children. They made me feel as though they had great confidence in my teaching.” But perhaps most of all, Monk will miss the joy she got out of reading to her students. “First-graders love to hear stories. They never get tired of it,” she said. “I have their greatest attention when I am reading. I love watching them grow as readers. Some come to me reading very little and by the end of first grade they are reading fluently.” Though she won’t be in a first-grade classroom each and every day, Monk’s retirement plans include teaching in another capacity. “I just got certified to teach yoga and will be teaching several classes a week at Springstone Yoga on Broad Street in downtown Rome,” she said. “I also plan to do some hiking, continue playing handbells at my church and do a good bit of reading. But I’m most looking forward to spending more time with my children and two grandchildren.”
Darlington Magazine