Joy Bomar Retires After 31 Years of Teaching
James E. Bazzell Middle School teacher Joy Bomar has retired after 31 years of teaching and 34 years of employment with the Allen County School District.
Bomar graduated from Allen County-Scottsville High School in 1975 and enrolled at Western Kentucky University. Looking back, she admits that teaching was not her first choice for a career.
“I had no intention of majoring in education,” Bomar said. “I started out to be a dental hygienist just because my friend was doing that. I also tried speech pathology. Then, I had a college teacher who, while in the process of taking an education class for speech pathology, got me really interested in early childhood education.”
Four years after having no interest in teaching, Bomar graduated from WKU with a Bachelors Degree in Elementary Education with a special emphasis in Early Childhood Education. She returned home and before long had a foot in the door with the Allen County School District.
“There weren’t any teaching jobs at the time so right before school started in 1979, I was offered the chance to work as an instructional assistant,” Bomar explained. “I worked with Roberta Duckett in eighth grade and I learned that I really liked eighth grade.”
Her chance to move into the classroom would come. Near a Memorial Day weekend in the early 1980s, Bomar received a call from then Allen County School Superintendent Jimmy Bazzell to see if she would be interested in working with students who had learning disabilities.
“I always told my kids that my job interview was five minutes on the phone,” Bomar pointed out.
Bomar would return to WKU during that summer to take the necessary classes to prepare her to teach at the middle school that fall. Her primary duties were working with eight graders.
“I did that for six years until I took a year off when my oldest daughter was born,” Bomar added. “When I came back I worked a year, halftime in early childhood and halftime in a kindergarten position. I worked a year in kindergarten after Garry Smith left and then I heard my job at the middle school was open again. I called Mr. Tommy Keen to see about getting my old job back.”
Bomar returned to the middle school and settled in as an eighth-grade teacher. She quickly discovered that teaching eight grade students, a role that became her passion.
“Some people think I’m crazy but I love eighth graders,” Bomar said. “Eighth graders are right there between kid and grown-up. You still see the kid side in them but you also see them beginning to grow up. They have a more developed since of humor than younger kids. I just love eighth graders.”
The years at the middle school have left Bomar with countless memories---mostly good and mostly involving things she has seen, heard and experienced with her students.
“I have a lot of stories,” Bomar said. “I don’t know if I can think of any one that really stands out but there been many days of laughing with the kids and many days when funny things happened. Most of my experiences which I remember will be positive things. I have a lot of funny memories.”
Bomar did recall a student who was thinking---thinking outside the box----and thus added a new spin to the Second Amendment to the US Constitution.
“We were studying the Bill of Rights and talking about the right to bear arms,” Bomar recalled. “I had a student explain to me that the right to bear arms was the right to wear short sleeves.”
Changes have occurred in several ways during her career. When she started, the middle school was located on West Cherry Street and the district had three elementary schools. Early in her career, the middle school relocated to its current site and re-named in honor of the just retired superintendent Bazzell.
Statewide, the face of education and teaching was also changing. In the early 1990s, the Kentucky Education Reform Act began a process of education reform which continues to this day.
“We expect so much more from students at a younger age than we did in the early 1980s,” Bomar said. “Our standards, our goals, our expectations are higher which in some ways is good. But I think that in some ways we have forgotten about those developmental levels. I don’t believe kids have changed that much over the years. The biggest change is the raising of the expectations.”
Bomar noted that the same college teacher who guided her toward the education field also explained to her that “good teaching is good teaching at any level.” Bomar adds that she believes “ways that work with kids will work at all grade levels” and she feels as if teaching can be effective through many forms.
“There are all different kinds of ways to teach,” Bomar said. “We talk about how you should be teaching. We talk about students working it out for themselves and working in groups and there is value in that. But when I look back to my teachers, I remember more about the way they acted and treated me than the way they taught. Some of the people I emember the most lectured but they did it in such a way to keep our attention. There are all kinds of ways to be a good teacher.”
When asked about what she will miss the most, Bomar replied without hesitation.
“I will absolutely 100 percent miss the students,” Bomar noted. “They have been several days this years when I felt like I was running on greased-grooved. Everything was going just right and I found myself asking myself if I had made the wrong decision (about retiring). I will absolutely miss teaching middle school students and I will also miss my colleagues. But I will not miss the paperwork and the testing too much.”
As for the future, Bomar isn’t sure where her life will take her but believes God has a plan.
“I don’t know,” Bomar admits. “My mother is 92 and I feel like I need to spend more time with her and my children are getting more spread out so I will have more time to see my three daughters. My husband Alan says I will have time to travel with him which I have not been able to do in the past. I kept waiting to know what I was going to do next because I want something to do. One day I was reading my daily devotion and the Scripture was about leaving behind what’s in the past and looking to the future. I just felt like it (the devotion) was speaking to me and to just have faith and let it works itself out. So I hoping the right thing will present it’s self.”
If Bomar was speaking to a new teacher, her words of advice would include learn from those around you and get to know your students.
“The main thing I think I would say is a clique that says, kids don’t care what you know until they know you care,” Bomar said. “I think you need to get to know your students in any way that you can. I know you can’t be their best friend but in any way you can, let them know you care and develop that relationship. Then, they will be much more open to anything you want to teach them.”
Bomar’s final day with students was June 5.
(Editors Note: This is the second in a series of stories on teacher retirements from the Allen County School District this year.)