By FRED KRONER
fred@mahometnews.com
Fifty years.
Five decades.
Half a century.
No matter how it’s viewed, Harold Dean’s teaching tenure has encompassed a significant time period.
Officially, Dean retired as a full-time teacher 13 years ago.
His time off didn’t last long. And, he has yet to stop.
“The person who was hired to replace me (in the social studies and history department) was in the Army Reserves and was sent to Kuwait,” Dean said. “I did a whole semester (in his first year after retiring).”
When the current school year ends at Urbana High School, Dean will have spent 49 of his 50 years in education in the same school system.
“I had a year at Flatville Grade School,” said Dean, a Mahomet resident since 1990. “I taught seventh- and eighth-grade, every subject and boys’ P.E.
“I had to clean my own room, and I coached three sports.”
His first-year salary, including the coaching increments, was $6,700.
Teachers in the 1970s had issues to deal with, and they are faced with issues today. They are not the same ones.
“We had a hard time with race relations in the ‘70s,” Dean said. “It was not very good. I tried to explain (to students), ‘Get along.’ “
And now?
“I could spend every minute of every hour saying, ‘Put your phones away,’ “ he said. “It’s so distracting.”
The educational system has undergone a transformation during Dean’s years in the classroom.
“The (mandatory) testing has taken away from teachers’ creativity,” Dean said. “I used to do mock trials.
“You can’t do that. There’s too much emphasis on those tests. They should let teachers teach the way they know how.
“Instead, you all have to be on the same page on this date.”
Originally, Dean became a substitute because, “my wife was still working and it gave me something to do,” he said.
Subs could work up to 120 days during the school year and Dean usually met the quota.
When his wife retired three years ago, he reduced his workload in order to spend some winter months in Florida.
He now works closer to 70 days a year, though Dean had two four-day work weeks earlier this month.
Though retired Urbana school district teachers receive $150 a day (instead of $120 for other subs), Dean said, “I don’t do it for the money. I do it for the socialization.”
As the years pass, however, he doesn’t see as many familiar faces when he enters the high school building.
“There are very few remaining (staff) from when I retired,” Dean said.
He has learned that subs aren’t always treated with respect.
“I’ve been cussed out,” he said. “You don’t have as much authority. You see them one day and try to help them and oversee them as best as you can.”
For the most part, Dean said, “the kids don’t know I was a teacher.”
He occasionally sees some faces – and names – that he recognizes.
“I’ve had kids (in class) that I taught their grandparents,” Dean said, citing such family names as Lawyer, Rudicil and Theis.
“When the first kid said, ‘You taught my grandmother,’ it was 2004. I hadn’t retired yet.”
One aspect that Dean enjoys about Urbana is the diversity in the classroom.
“We have a huge mixture of races, religions and economic backgrounds,” he said. “We have kids who speak French, Spanish and German.”
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Dean grew up in downstate Mount Carmel, the oldest of four siblings. He was 10 years old when his father died.
“My mom had a ninth-grade education and didn’t know how to drive,” Dean said.
Harold Dean received an academic scholarship to attend the University of Illinois.
When it came time for his student teaching in 1969, “I requested to be in the area for financial reasons,” he said.
At 21 years old, he was assigned to student teach in Urbana.
Receiving an offer to return to the district, following one year in Flatville, Dean decided that Urbana could be a career destination.
“I love the Champaign-Urbana community,” Dean said. “It’s bigger (than Mount Carmel), but not too big.”
The opportunity to teach at the high school was also too good to pass up.
“I wanted to be able to have discussions with students on a higher level,” Dean said. “In the ‘60s and early ‘70s, kids were aware of world events and how it affected them.
“Kids challenged you on everything you said.”
Dean has had a number of noteworthy students, including Tracy Parsons (former President of the Champaign County Urban League), Erika Harold (former Miss America), Laura Taylor (former principal of Urbana High School) and Lori Larson (current Mahomet-Seymour school board member).
“I’ve loved seeing how successful they have become,” he said.
Three students he never had in class were his own.
“We moved to Mahomet when the oldest was going into eighth-grade,” Dean said. “The question was, did we want the kids in the same school I was teaching at?
“I talked with others and they said it was hard being a kid with your mom or dad teaching there.”
Of the family’s three children who graduated from Mahomet-Seymour, Jennifer is a social studies teacher at Champaign Central High School and Amy is a social worker at Garden Hills Elementary School.
Harold Dean’s teaching career started at a groundbreaking time in Illinois. He coached cross-country or track for 30 years at Urbana.
“There were two girls who wanted to run cross-country,” Dean said. “Ron Gerrietts (the head coach) let them practice with the team, but other coaches wouldn’t let them run (in meets).
“Diane Bell’s father sued the IHSA (in 1974) and won. They had to let the girls participate in sports.”
Through the implementation of nationally-mandated Title IX, many school districts immediately created girls’ athletic programs in the early 1970s. However, if a program for girls was not available in a particular sport (cross-country, for example), girls were allowed to be members of the boys’ team.
The 50-year anniversary for the first IHSA state tournament event for girls will be celebrated in 2022.
Dean eventually became the girls’ track and field head coach at Urbana.
Decades later, as Dean and his wife, Vanetta, enjoy winters in Florida, he finds reminders of home.
“Right around the corner is another former Urbana teacher I’ve known for 40 years (Gary Ring), and he lives in Mahomet, too,” Dean said.
