Oral History and News History: Kathy Kopperude

The audio file to this oral history interview can be accessed at this link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YggZa__h4VjJTnpvxrwE2BK2-dbceDgp/view?usp=sharing

Transcript:
Ashley: This is October 21st and this is Ashley McVicker reporting over the education system with Kathy Kopperud. Kathy, do I have your permission to conduct this interview?

Kathy: Yes you do.

Ashley: So my first question for you is what grade or grades did you teach? Kathy: I have taught seventh grade life science, eighth grade earth science class, I’ve taught freshmans, sophomores, and seniors in high school, and I’ve taught freshman and sophomores in Biology 101 labs and botany labs at Murray State.

Ashley: What is the first major change you remember happening to the public school system?

Kathy: I remember when teachers when I first started teaching, teachers were members of KEA, just and organization that had been in existence for many years and I remember the first beginnings of when teachers began to form a union. So that was a long time ago.

Ashley: Can you explain more about the union?

Kathy: Well teachers at that point in time when I taught teachers beginnings salaries were $6000, her eyes get big, you could teach for many years and maybe make $12,000 to $15,000 and thats with a master degree so teachers I think rightfully so began to organize into the present union as a way to increase salaries in a state an hopefully get people that would stay in teaching longer and be compensated for the work they did.

Ashley: Did you ever join one of those unions?

Kathy: I did not, I moved to Murray, taught at Murray State while I was getting my graduate school, and they were just beginning, I mean it's been awhile since I’ve taught and they were beginning but I never did join because I retired from teaching at that point. They were starting, as a matter a fact I don't know the exact year but my final years that I thought, I taught at Calloway County High School and they were not unionized the teachers were not joining the union at that time.

Ashley: If you could go back would you join a union?

Kathy: I have mixed feeling about it I think that in many many ways the unions have helped, higher pay obviously, teachers in my opinion are still not compensated the way they should be for what they do for our country and for our children, the hours they out in outside of school. However I also tend to think that many times unions will represent one side or one view at the leadership and there's not enough diversity of thought and opinion that's represented you know for a group and I also think that people should have the right to choose whether they join a union or not until recently when the supreme court decided that people could not be forced to join a union or certain unions, I think most people felt pressured that they had to. So I would say I have mixed opinions, I would say they have accomplished many many many good things for teachers but then I also have other views that would make me think about it for a while before I decided to join or not join.

Ashley: Was there a specific time in your career where you didn't feel as if things were fair to you as a teacher besides the union?

Kathy: Besides the paycheck I guess, I have to say that in my experience I was very fortunate in that the principal's I worked under in the Jefferson County school system, the Fayette County school system, and in the Calloway County school system, the principals were very supportive of their teachers and would listen and would take suggestions from us and everything so I think I was really fortunate in that situation that I never really felt like I was being treated unfairly.

Ashley: So saying that knowing kind of everything that's going on in the education system right now, if you could go back, would you be a teacher again at this point in time?

Kathy: I’ve often wondered about that because I absolutely loved my time in the classroom. Life circumstances just kind of got in the way, but I loved working with students, I loved teaching them, I loved watching them learn. I taught science so it way pretty neat watching them discover the natural world and that kind of thing but we did not have the massive amounts of paperwork that are involved today in teaching, we didn't have to document everything that we had. I feel like we were beginning to have to so I did get a taste of that. I do feel like teachers many times spend today more time on paperwork and documentation than they do being creative, that's one of the things that I do think is unfair to teachers today. Also, when I thought, we could discipline our students you know and they were expected to behave in school and principals would discipline and etcetera and I’m not saying there's not any discipline in schools now but I taught in city schools and we still had effective discipline in those schools. The school in Fayette country was primarily minority students but we did maintain discipline and thus we could teach. We had control over the classroom. I think now if it were a small school system like the Murray Independent School System, I probably would still love it. I’ve missed teaching in many ways very much. I’m not so sure I would teach at a big city school system now.

Ashley: What do you think is one thing that has stayed the same in education?

Kathy: I think the dedication of teaching of most teachers. You don’t go into something like education, like teaching unless you have a passion for it and you are dedicated because it's just not worth it. You know, if your getting good big paycheck for doing something you might continue to do something that you don’t like but I do feel like most teachers have to be very dedicated to what they're doing otherwise they would go do something else you know? So I think its their dedication, their interest in improve the lives of kids.

Ashley: So does it bother you when people said “oh being an elementary school teacher is easy”?

Kathy: Uh it does because, now mother was an elementary school teacher, I taught in the upper grades but it does bother me because I think that you have to have a lot more skills than just knowledge of your subject matter. You have to be adaptable. You have to be able how to figure out how to get the information across to kids that learn in many different ways and I think that a real talent that the really good school teachers have and there’s nothing easy about teaching. Not when I did it, not now, I mean you are totally challenged by a class of 15 or 26 or 30 students if you're an elementary school… many of them from broken homes, bad bad situations and yes it does make me mad when people say that “teachings easy” and “they shouldn't get paid more or compensated in more ways.”

Ashley: As you taught and the years went by did you see a shift in the way children acted and in the way families acted from when you started to when you finished? What was the biggest change maybe?

Kathy: I did see that shift. Now back then families were much more supportive and I did end my career here in calloway county so being from a small more rural community, I kind of reverted back from. Like for instance, in Fayette County, many many many of the kids that I taught were from broken homes or were from a single parent home, primarily mothers, because they were minorities and I think that's much more prevalent but you really started seeing that and the fact that the students were not getting the support at home that you traditionally expected either justin encouragement to learn or encouragement to behave themselves you know you begin to see parents were beginning to take the students side you know if there was any conflict or question whereas primarily when i first started out, even back in the day, when parents would, the teacher was right and the student would have to explain to the parent why they were in trouble at school and yes I did see that beginning to change and I think that trends continued well the pendulum has swung way to much the other way and I think that that parental support of school is a big detriment to education today although it's just really in general many situations parental support of the students period that has suffered.

Ashley: Kind of going back to my question if teaching is easy or not, what do you think about this statement? “Teachers get so many breaks like winter and summer and they don't do anything and they end at exactly 3:00."

Kathy: Well first of all, the last point, tacher do not end at 3:00. Many many many teachers have duties after school whether its coaching a team, catching up with paperwork, grading papers, msot teachers either stay at school till five or six o’clock planning lessons, planning units, working with other teachers to coordinate events or host events or shapperon events. So their days do not end at three o’clock. It's not like you get to walk out the door, the students may leave but the day does not end. Yes and really compared to when I was in school, there are more vacations and breaks and things but I think that it's just like any other occupation that you are more productive when you are rested and refreshed and I think that teachers, I can remember that we used to go from right after Christmas to spring break was the only break we had along January, February, March and you would mentally be exhausted and I do think that the teachers they still teach the same number of days, it's just the school years are a little bit longer and that kind of thing and I think the breaks are probably needed just to keep them fresh and give them a little rejuvenation period.

Ashley: So you would say that when you were deciding to retire from teaching that you kind of felt worn out? Is that maybe why?

Kathy: Well, the reason I retired from teaching was that Is started having a family and I’m wanting to stay home with my children until they started school full time, fully intending to go back to teaching and then I got involved in my husband profession which is real estate and I just never did go back. But I did have time where I felt like I was burned out, you know, and things, and that was not the reason I taught although I must say that many of my friends that were teachers, taught longer than I did, but some of the best and the brightest and the most dedicated, did burn out and retired early also just because they burned out, expended, weren't appreciated, that kind of thing, and many times I have seen some of the best teachers that I know retire early which is a shame.

Ashley: Speaking of being professional, people talk about doctors and lawyers and they say that, like “those people are professionals”, I think teachers kind of get a bad rep for not necessarily being looked at as professionals. How do you feel about that?

Kathy: Well, many many teachers now, and this used to not be the case, and I think doctors and lawyers are considered professionals because they go to school for so long at the beginning of their careers to earn their degrees and etcetera. Teachers will go back and get masters degrees and continue to improve themselves to hire pay. I know many many many teachers that have their 30 hours above their masters or go on even if they are elementary teachers , I have friends that are elementary teachers that have Ph.D.s so I think that the teacher, even though you can enter the profession after a four year degree, most teachers that I know of continue their education and by the time they have accomplished their goals by the time they've been in teaching for a fairly short period of time they too have several more years beyond and undergraduate degree invested in their career and do I do think that teachers are professionals and should be considered that. I mean I think it's a very important occupation and they deserve the respect of many of the other occupations that we consider professional.

Ashley: Do you think that teachers are considered more professional no than they used to be?

Kathy: I think so, in many ways because of that they continue and get higher degrees and that kind of thing and pursue like I said either a masters or the 30 hours above or maybe multiple degrees. So I think in many instances people consider them more professional because of that. Unfortunately, there are many people in our society now that don’t appreciate the education of any sort. They received poor educations and quite truthfully don't understand the necessity or the value of a good education. So I would say in the general population a lot of people have never and still do not consider teachers as professionals.

Ashley: So do you reccomend like high school seniors going into education if they want to?

Kathy: I absolutely do, I mean I think in many ways, and I see this in young people in many way are very service oriented now and want to be of service to people and I think that young people that are looking at education, you certainly probably won't be going into it to get rich and have a lavish lifestyle but I think your rewards for teaching come in your personal contacts with the students and the personal satisfaction that you are helping young people to make something of themselves to learn to make their way in the world and I can still remember particular students that I know reached and made a difference their lives and I can still close my eyes and see their faces and those students were very important to me and as individuals but I also felt like at the end of the year not only had I hopefully made a real difference in a few lives as for as changing their mind in another direction I also felt like, because I did enjoy teaching very much and had a connection with my students, I did feel like that I was helping them become better students and better citizens.

Ashley: Alright, I'm going to end on that with this question- “What is one highlight of being an educator that you really remember, that really stood out to you?” Just one. There's probably but….

Kathy: Oh gosh, that is a hard question to answer! I think probably seeing some of my students succeed in life and that's particularly local student here in Calloway County because I still have connections and see them but knowing that, I taught science and a lot of students they take a science class or two and that's it, but seeing someone go on and utilize that and maybe become a teacher or a quote unquote professional, you know that kind of thing, but then at the same time I think thinking back to my days at Valley Station Junior High or Bryan Station Junior high in Lexington, I think the connection and if I can take long enough to tell a story about Raymond. Raymond was an LD student, which is what they were called, learning disabilities and they would mainstream them into my science classes and I happened to teach lab-based science where we would do experiments. We would use bunsen burners and boiled alcohol and took chlorafill out of leaves and all this kind of thing, so it’s a lab-based science class. Raymond came up one day, the first test, and I could tell that he was understanding of what we were doing in class and he came up and he said “I can’t read this” and I thought that he meant that he had gotten a test paper that was faded that he couldn't read, that just didn't print out right or something and he said “No, ma'am, I can't read”. So I sat him down beside me and I said let me read the questions to you because I felt like he was understanding and so I simply transcribed Raymonds questions to the test and Raymond knew the science than anybody else in the classroom. He understood the concepts because we were doing them and they were hand-on and he could see what happened to the chlorafill in the leaf an the starch appearing and you know that kind of thing and he could explain it. He couldn't read it, he couldn't write it, but he understood the science. And so I went down to the counselor and I said, I told him the story, and I said well I don't know what grade to give him because if you hand him the test there's no way he could pass it but he understands the science. And he said “well what grade do you want to give him?” and I said “I want to give him an A” and he said “Well then do it!” and Raymond ended up making an A in my science class but I had to read the test to him every time but he understood the science and it was probably the only positive thing that ever happened to that child. So I guess if you want me to boil it down to one child, even though Raymond probably, I don't know whatever happened to him, that was in junior high in Louisville, but I think probably that was one of the most rewarding experiences Raymond ever had in school and I'll never forget that.

Ashley: Alright, well, thank you so much for this. I appreciate it!