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Two years ago, the Berean Bulletin published a profile of Carol Johnson in honor of her pending retirement. But Mrs. Johnson wasn’t done quite yet. After her first attempt to retire, she continued to teach in a part-time role at Berean Christian. Now, she is planning to retire for real.
She’s been teaching math for 40 years – 22 of them at Berean Christian. What has kept her going for all of these years? At first, Johnson says a teacher is motivated by a love for the subject. But then a great teacher falls in love with being part of students’ lives.
Johnson loves hanging out with students. She has always focused on teaching math skills, but as she grew out of her rookie years of teaching she started focusing on digging deeper with her students. More than the formulas and mechanics of doing math problems, she wanted her students to know why they should learn math at all. This was the challenge that motivated her to work harder every year to be a better teacher.
Johnson also worked hard to strengthen her ability to infuse spiritual development and life lessons into her teaching strategy too. She attended Bible courses at her church so that she could incorporate teachings from the text in her classroom. To Johnson, a strong and resilient faith in God is far more important for graduates to take away from Berean Christian than academic success. She tells her students to go out and be a light for Jesus and work hard at everything they do.
Johnson’s heart is always broken to learn about students who walk away from their faith. “I pray for them every day on my way to school,” she says. Her 25 minute commute to Berean has been the perfect time for Johnson to exercise her prayer discipline. She admits that she will have to find a new prayer routine after this year. Johnson’s greatest joy is to see Berean graduates serving the Lord and loving the life that God gave them.
Johnson’s husband says that Mrs. Johnson has always been an oddball. She accepts the mantle willingly. “Math can be so dry,” she says. “So I do goofy things to make it interesting. I work hard to keep them alert.” She’ll dance, scream, and tell scary stories to hold their attention.
And it’s worked. Johnson knows that for many of her students over the years, math became their favorite subject. She’s received notes from students telling her how much they appreciated her, not just for being an excellent math teacher, but for teaching them life skills too.
Mrs. Johnson was not looking forward to retiring two years ago. She’s still not looking forward to it today. But she knows that it’s time and she is ready.
“It’s time to hang up the chalk,” she says.
She plans to be available to substitute teach at Berean when needed. But she also plans to volunteer more at church, visit her daughter in San Diego, spend time with her grandkids, and maybe even take some road trips with her husband. Johnson is looking forward to finding new ways to be a positive influence during the next chapter of her life.
In the end, Johnson feels like 2022 is a better year than 2020 for her to retire anyway. Since so much of the magic of teaching happens in the classroom, Johnson is happy that she got to finish her career in person.
“Ending my career in the classroom is a better way to go than behind a mask and on Zoom,” she says.