Imagine, if you will, a beloved fourth-grade teacher, remembered by her students 60 years after they left her classroom. We could be talking about any number of Methow Valley Elementary School teachers, but, this time, we’re not. We’re talking about a teacher so memorable, so impactful, that six decades after they spent nine months with her in the 1960s, 10 students flew from eight states around the country to reunite with her in Winthrop last weekend. We’re talking about Pine Forest resident Karen Theimer, who her former students refer to as “Miss Streckert.”
Karen taught fourth grade at Westgate Elementary School in Arlington Heights, Illinois, from 1964-1967, before studying in Europe on a Fulbright Scholarship. She ended up staying 30 years, living in Germany, where she met her husband, Helmut Theimer, who is from Bavaria. When the Theimers retired, they moved to the Methow Valley.
Pine Forest resident Karen Theimer, front-row center, was surrounded by former fourth-grade students who traveled to the Methow Valley for a reunion.
Former students Paul Anfenson, brothers Mark and Randy Barnard, Karen Daniels, siblings Pete and Sue Harper, Julie Hazlett, Jody O’Callaghan, Chris Sanderbeck, and Peter Sarratori gathered for four days in Winthrop to reconnect with Miss Streckert — and each other — after 60 years.
The idea was sparked at a high school reunion last fall, the 50th for Karen’s third year of fourth-graders. At a post-reunion party the next day, which included members of adjacent classes, people started reminiscing about their favorite grades and favorite teachers. Fourth grade won hands-down, and those who had been in Miss Streckert’s classroom were unanimous in their votes.
Paul said, “I’m going to try to put together a reunion of Miss Streckert’s former students.” He had two research tasks: find the former students and find Miss Streckert. So he started where any good researcher would start.
No! Not the internet.
Because one of the many hallmarks of Miss Streckert’s teaching was her dedication to showing students how to do library research, particularly for the debates she organized, Paul began his search at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library, in the genealogy department. An obituary search led to Karen’s mother — in the “survived by” section there was Karen, with her married name and her residence, Winthrop, Washington.
“I called her that afternoon,” Paul said. “I think she was pretty surprised, but we had a great conversation. I told her about my idea and she was game.”
The next phase of research involved using a black-and-white class photo from 1967, with students’ names printed beneath. Because many of the women hadn’t changed their last names when they married, locating fellow students 60 years later was not particularly difficult, thanks to — yes — the internet.
Paul, Sue, and others contacted as many former classmates as they could, telling everyone they planned to travel to see Miss Streckert the following spring. “40,000 text messages later,” Chris said, “we had a plan.”
They rented a house, bought plane tickets, reserved rental cars, and made plans to meet up at the Seattle and Spokane airports to carpool to Winthrop, providing modern-day photos of themselves and identifying characteristics (“I’ll be wearing a green scarf”) so that they could locate each other.
Now, this is the kind of thing people do when they have been in touch since school days, when they know each other’s spouses, when they have taken family vacations together. This is not the kind of thing people do when they have hardly — if at all — spoken in 60 years. Yet 10 of Miss Streckert’s former students signed on for the trip. Such was the impact she had on them as a teacher.
“Miss Streckert was a feminist before her time,” Chris says. “That really spoke to me.” She added, “She made you feel like you were the only student in the class. She’d identify areas you needed to work on and give you extra attention in those areas.”
“She took interest in us personally,” Paul said, noting his experience learning to do library research. “It was the first time I’d been exposed to anything academic at the library. I always knew I could be a good student, but her class was the first time I felt comfortable with that — it was the first time I was nurtured that way.”
Peter spoke from the experience of being a new kid at the school the year he was in Miss Streckert’s class. It ended up being the only year that he was at the school, since his family moved again. “As the new kid I would have been so happy to sink in and hide, but she didn’t let me,” he said. “She had me come up to the front of the class and use the globe to show the others where I came from. Then she asked me to tell the class what it was like to fly in a plane, since most of the kids hadn’t ever flown. I went from being completely terrified to being more and more comfortable as the year went on.”
Sue said she was terribly shy in fourth grade. But some of the things her teacher did with them — like modern dance in the cafeteria — kindled an ember that eventually became a flame, and the shy nine-year-old ended up majoring in Dance in college and for a while traveled the country staying with host families and performing with Up With People, which was for decades a global movement “connecting people through movement and service.” After that she followed in Miss Streckert’s footsteps and became a teacher.
Karen Daniels said that she, too, was quiet and reserved in fourth grade, but eventually became a psychotherapist — a career built on talking to people. Whether or not this evolution can be attributed to Miss Streckert is unclear, but she did instill in them “a tremendous capacity for empathy,” several former students agreed. In fact, three of the ten people present at the reunion became psychotherapists.
Three others had careers as flight attendants — perhaps inspired by Miss Streckert’s encouragement to dream big, see the world, and help others?
Jody said that Miss Streckert challenged them to be the very best versions of themselves. “She lit me on fire.”
Jody also remembered that Miss Streckert taught her students about fractions and ratios by having them design cookie recipes. Miss Streckert would take the recipes home and bake cookies with them, bringing the cookies into class the next day so the students could taste the results.
One of the many things Miss Streckert taught her students, Jody said, was “to be respectful and disciplined — but she did it in such a kind manner.”
This discipline served Mark and Randy well in later years, when they went to military summer camps in Wisconsin. “We boxed, wrestled, and learned to shoot guns,” Mark said. “I was always tough-minded and hard-headed; I never wanted to back down from an argument. But we had learned good debate techniques from Miss Streckert and my fighting spirit was always evident on the debate floor.”
Among Miss Streckert’s most memorable debate topics was “Is Homework Necessary?” Pitting boys (negative) against girls (affirmative), she set them loose in the library to do their research. The boys triumphed and were featured on the front of the local newspaper.
Miss Streckert’s former students shared many more memories with me, many of which they planned to write down and later present to their old teacher, along with a commemorative blown-glass apple expressing their appreciation for a teacher they all say was one of the most influential figures in their lives. “She was a young teacher but had such incredible insight into treating us as individuals,” they said. “She took special interest in providing guidance for us. It was safe in her classroom — she made it possible to speak up, to take direction, and to accept criticism.”
They all agreed, “In Miss Streckert’s classroom, every day there was an adventure in store.”
