MyTeacherIsGreat.org is one of the most inspiring projects we have ever implemented on weac.org. More than 150 people from all over the state have gone online to honor their teachers and their children’s teachers with deeply sincere – and sometimes emotional – tributes.

One of my favorites came in last month from Betty Wentland, a 62-year-old retired teacher who wanted to honor her own elementary school teacher, Dorothy Koprek, from more than 55 years ago. Her post to myteacherisgreat.org was heartening:

“Having lunch with your first grade teacher is no big deal, I guess, when you're a first grader but it sure is a BIG DEAL when you're 62 years old and a retired teacher yourself. I had that opportunity this past June, 2010, when I contacted my 1-4 grade teacher, went to visit her in her own home in Gleason, Wisconsin. She surprised me by inviting 2 grade school pals to lunch. A month later I invited her, those 2 friends, and my 2 older sisters, who also had her as their teacher, to lunch at my home. Here we are: five 60 & 70 year old ladies having lunch with our grade school teacher. She was a dynamic woman who managed a one-room schoolhouse by herself, built and kept the wood stove fires burning, taught every subject to all 8 grades, and could put on a Christmas program to knock your socks off, with decorations made from anything that didn't move or wasn't moldy. Her first teaching job was for $75 a month, including having to do all the janitorial work herself after the school day was over. The sound, wholesome education we got provided us with the tools to become happily successful in whatever career we chose. I too chose to become a teacher, I knew that's what I wanted to be already in first grade and never deviated from that choice. I enjoyed 33 years of being a teacher at Goodman-Armstrong Creek High School. A good teacher can make all the difference in the world, for many generations.”

Betty Wentland (left) and Dolores Iwen (right) share stories with their elementary school teacher, Dorothy Koprek.

The tribute was so moving that I decided to drive up to Gleason and sit down with Mrs. Koprek and Betty Wentland to talk about the true value of teaching and how things have changed since the days of the one-room schoolhouse. Nearby resident Dolores Iwen, 74, who had Mrs. Koprek as a teacher in the late 1940s, joined us on the back porch of Mrs. Koprek’s home just outside of Gleason.

Mrs. Koprek said she worked at the Woodlawn one-room schoolhouse near Marathon from 1947 to 1958 for $75 a month, “and I had to do my own janitor work.” The room was heated by a jacket stove, “and we put lunch boxes by the stove so the food wouldn’t freeze in the hallway,” she said.

Iwen recalled that children would bring soup to school in jars, and Mrs. Koprek would put the soup in a kettle on the stove to heat it up for them. And, she remembered, “There was no basement, and that floor was cold.”

Mrs. Koprek, now 89 years old and a widow, grew up on a farm in the Town of Summit and graduated from Antigo High School. She attended Langlade County Normal School in Antigo for two years, taught for five years at Liberty Bell School in the Town of Vilas, then at Sunnyslope School - which she had attended as a child - in the Town of Summit (Langlade County) for two years and, after a break for a few years, came to Woodlawn School. She later taught at St. James Catholic School in Wausau for 12 years before retiring.

At Woodlawn, Mrs. Koprek taught first through eighth grades, and had a total of about 35 to 40 students.

“The young ones listened to the older children, and when the young ones had a problem, I would get an older one to help them, and they would all learn,” she said.

As for discipline, she said flatly, “We didn’t have discipline problems."

She added, “I wanted them to act the way I wanted them to act, not the way they wanted to act. And I was good to them, and that’s the way it worked out.”

About the worst she could recall was when one boy rolled up some spitballs and shot them at fellow students. “I had him chew spitballs the entire recess, and that’s all it took,” she said. “I never had any problem with any spitballs anymore.”

She also had to deal with children’s medical problems. Once, she recalled, a girl had a seizure. Mrs. Koprek calmed the girl down, and gave her some cold water. Because there was no phone and she had no assistants, she sent one the boys out to run to the girl’s house to notify the parents and ask them to come get the girl. She didn’t remember how far the boy had to go but, she said, you can be sure it was a good, long distance.

At Woodlawn, Mrs. Koprek loved planning the annual Christmas show, and the community loved it too. “The school was packed,” she said. There was no budget, so everyone “made do with what we had,” and the children worked very hard. Mrs. Koprek rounded up her brother to be Santa Claus and her sister to be Mrs. Claus.

“I remember you told one of the kids once to go outside and find something we could make decorations out of,” Wentland said with a laugh.

There was, of course, no special education program in her school. But she did remember one boy who “was very backward and didn’t have any home life” and was struggling in school. Mrs. Koprek said she asked one of the school district supervisors what she should do and the supervisor told her to just give the student a Sears Roebuck catalog and let him cut out pictures. Instead, she said, she devoted extra time to the student “until finally he could read.” She said she later found out that the boy ended up with a good job in the area.

Wentland said Mrs. Koprek was a huge influence on her. “I wanted to sit in a seat near the front of the room because she was so pretty and well dressed and walked like such a lady, and I just watched her. I knew by the end of first grade that when I grew up I wanted to be a teacher just like her.

“It was the personal contact and the caring that pulled so many kids through,” Wentland added. “She has influenced many generations. I know my son would not have gone into teaching if I hadn’t, and I wouldn’t have if it hadn’t been for Dorothy.”

Several years ago, Mrs. Koprek received a letter from another former student who also became a teacher. The woman wrote that before entering Mrs. Koprek’s class, she had a teacher whose approach turned her off to school. However, she wrote, “Your kind and gentle touch turned my world around. I can’t even imagine what my life would be like without you.”

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Mrs. Koprek shares pictures from Woodlawn School, 1947-1958: