By: T.J. Hug
The Village Reporter
Deb Schaefer is well traveled.
After all, there was a time when the Music Teacher wandered the halls of the old Hilltop school building, moving from room to room because there wasn’t enough…well, room. Enrollment was on the rise within the Millcreek-West Unity district, and available classrooms had become scarce. There was one area that Schaefer was able to call her office, however.
The locker room.
The Paulding native routinely taught music classes from within the confines of a locker room. That wasn’t the worst part, though. There was a particular stall situated in the room that emitted a less than pleasant odor.
“You had to pour water down the toilet to keep it from smelling.” Schaefer remembered.
Even when the district erected the structure in which they currently reside, Scheafer still had to play the role of nomad. Within the first four years in the building, her room was moved on five different occasions.
She started by teaching her kids on the stage in the Commons section of the school, with partitions being raised to separate the “classroom from the cafeteria. Lighting became an issue, and eventually she was able to teach in an actual room. Schaefer made a few more room changes before finally settling in at the huge double classroom in which she will continue to teach until the end of the year.
Then, after thirty years as an educator, Schaefer will retire.
Getting off to a bit of a late start due to staying at home with her own two children until they reached preschool, the veteran teacher began her career within the Hilltop School system. The first few years had their anxieties, meeting new kids. In her first year, a couple of fifth graders thought they could scare her out of the job early on.
“They challenge you.” Schaefer commented on the happening. “I was thirty-two years old with two kids. There was nothing they could do to me.”
Now, thirty years later, after spending twenty-two of those years instructing high school students, Schaefer is back to teaching at the elementary level. How have children changed after all that time?
“I don’t know if the kids are any different.” Pondered Schaefer. “They’re more open.”
While some teachers may consider such openness disrespectful, Schaefer loves that kids feel more free to speak their minds. In her opinion, it makes for a better relationship between instructors and their students.
In thirty years of educating students, Schaefer has seen a good many of her former pupils grow up before her very eyes. She has gone on to teach the children of her former students, not to mention a fair amount of her fellow school employees, including Athletic Director Tony Gerig and even her own daughter, Angie Dunson. The matriarch currently teaches her own granddaughter and Dunson’s daughter, kindergarten student Addisyn Riley.
From her time at Bowling Green State University, where she obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education, to the current day, Schaefer’s passion has been instructing students in the ways of music. Unlike math or english, music is a very fluid subject, according to Schaefer.
“Music is something that you can do all your life. It’s moving and changing. It’s static.”
Never has this been more true than in the modern age. New tools have made teaching more interactive and fun in recent times. One such tool stands above the rest for Schaefer.
“Learning from the internet has been amazing.” Schaefer proclaimed. “We’ve really opened up a whole new world of music.”
From providing new means of research to looking up musical scenes on Youtube, the internet has been a large part of what Schaefer does in the classroom these last few years. It has made commonplace what used to be a rare occurrence when resources were limited.
But, while technology is an instrument of education, it’s the children that are the most important part of the process. Whether it be in class, during a program, or singing The National Anthem prior to volleyball matches, Schaefer has always attempted to place kids in the spotlight.
“The kids are the stars.” Schaefer stated. “I like to put them out there.”
And it’s the kids that Schaefer will miss the most. In fact, she’s already thinking about how the kids continue to grow after she has left.
“I’ve got some good singers, and I hope they keep at it.”
Schaefer isn’t too worried about the kids, though. She’ll still see them in the community, and she knows the school will find a suitable replacement to take over for her. Meanwhile, she’s accomplished everything she had set out to do when she chose music education as her profession.
“Maybe that’s why I’m ready.” Schaefer mused on her retirement. “I’ve done what I wanted to do.”
That can only mean one thing. It’s time to move toward the next destination.
T.J. Hug can be reached at
publisher@thevillagereporter.com