Karen Badger wanted students to feel valued

BY DANI TIETZ
dani@mahometnews.com

Mahomet, Ill. – Sometimes dreams come true.

And sometimes those dreams open opportunities to dream again.

“I always wanted to be a teacher,” Karen Badger, who recently retired as a kindergarten teacher at Middletown Prairie Elementary said.

“Ever since I was a little girl. When I was in high school, the guidance counselor, this was in the late 70s said, ‘Do not go into teaching. That’s a terrible idea.’”

Badger said the statement came in sight of a field that was becoming overcrowded.

“I said, ‘Oh, it’s really the only thing I want to do.’”

Badger spent a few years going back and forth between working in an emergency room doing electrocardiograms and fulfilling her desire to teach.

In the end, Badger said she’d worked too many holidays and weekends as a nurse.

A Belvedere, Ill. native, Badger finished her master’s degree, moved to Champaign with her husband, who was at the University of Illinois, and began teaching at Danville.

After four-and-a-half years, she took some time to stay home with her children. The Badgers decided to settle in Mahomet.

In 1999, she took on a leadership role at All God’s Children Preschool in the Lutheran Church of Mahomet before working at the University of Illinois with Arthur Baroody, a Professor of Curriculum & Instruction whose research focuses on the teaching and learning of basic counting, number, and arithmetic concepts and skills by young children and children with learning difficulties.

Shortly after, around 2006, Badger took on a part-time position, which quickly turned into a full-time position, in the Mahomet-Seymour School District as the Enrichment Teacher.

Programs like Sangamon Elementary’s Post Office and student-run newspaper allowed for all first and second graders to work on communication and leadership skills while fostering a community atmosphere.

When funding for the district’s enrichment program was cut, Badger took on a teaching position in the Pre-K program before moving back into the classroom full-time as a kindergarten teacher as the district moved into full-day kindergarten, adding another section.

Badger said the young students fit her teaching style well.

“I like working with younger children and the mindset where they’re at just emotionally and how much they’re learning like a sponge.”

But most importantly, she wants to teach them that they are valued.

“They need to know that they are valued,” she said. “They’re valued by me, they’re valued by classmates, they’re valued by their parents. Really, not a whole lot else matters if they don’t see their value in the world.”

Badger believes that the saying is true: everything you need to know about life, you learn in kindergarten.

“Treat others like you’d like to be treated, be responsible, be respectful, be safe, be kind, put forth effort, look out for the underdog.”

Upon retirement, Badger is excited to take on other roles in the community she knew she wanted to raise her family in.

“We valued that sense of community and being able to go to the football games on Friday night as a family. Not to say that you can’t do that in Champaign, but I think it just feels more small town here.

“Even though we’re getting larger, it still feels pretty small town in terms of the school’s themselves.”

Badger said the district’s music and drama programs, and the leaders within those programs,  really played a pivotal role in her children’s lives, giving them the opportunity to do what they loved outside of the school day.

She feels like she’s been blessed to work with such educators, too.

“I don’t think I could find anybody better to work with,” she said.

“We really couldn’t have picked a better place to be and, and I’ve had such good support from colleagues and everybody and I’m just very thankful for everything people have done for me throughout my career.”

Badger plans to take on more of a role within her church during retirement, but she also wants to take things slowly at first.

“Everybody that retires tells me, ‘Don’t rush into things.’ And so that’s kind of where I’m at. I’m hitting a new, strange horizon. And I’m not quite sure how I’m going to react to it.”