BY SUSAN WARE

Jean Walker and Linda Lambert have been teaching for a combined 75 years and on June 21, the Maple Avenue Elementary School, Goffstown was declared Mrs. Walker and Mrs. Lambert Day.

“They are both truly wonderful people,” said Principal Marc Boyd.

Jean Walker started teaching second grade at Maple Avenue Elementary in September 1964. She remained in the same classroom for 43 years and for many local families she has schooled several generations.

“I love it when I learn that I had someone’s father or mother or even grandmother in my class,” said Walker.

Walker said she finds reconnecting with old students one of the most rewarding things about teaching.

“When they come back and they are successful and they tell me how important second grade was and how I contributed to their life, it is extremely rewarding,” said Walker.

Walker is a devout environmentalist and Boyd was quick to point to all of her awards and projects.

“Jean has received several awards from the Environmental Protection Agency and has been instrumental in making our school more green,” said Boyd.

Walker is also active in her community; she serves on the Goffstown Conservation Commission, was active in Boy Scouts and is in the Garden Club.

As for teaching, Walker said  over the past 43 years, she finds that students today are more tired and more easily distracted today.

“We have to compete with video games and keep things moving and interesting or we lose them,” she said.

She said teaching started to change when Sesame Street went on the air and students  expected a more entertaining classroom.

“You have to change with the times in order to keep the students learning,” she said.

Walker noted that while teaching has become less rigid, so has clothing.

“Children used to get more dressed up for school. There were school clothes and play clothes. We don’t have that anymore,” she said.

Walker has always wanted to teach and started teaching Sunday school while still in high school. She met her husband, Butch, while they were attending Plymouth State.

He taught business and accounting at Goffstown High School for 33 years and is now retired.

When Walker left her classroom of 43 years, she handed it over to Katie Loi, a teacher who was once in Walker’s class.

Linda Lambert has been teaching for 32 years, 24 of them at Maple Avenue Elementary.

For Lambert, teaching had run its course and she was ready for a change.

“I am going to miss the students and the teaching horribly. I am not going to miss the correcting and all of the meetings though,” she said.

Lambert said that she has seen many changes in her tenure as a teacher, but one thing that hasn’t
changed is that students are not smarter.

“Everyone is always quick to say that kids are so much smarter these days. I don’t see it. I think they just have quicker finger movements,” she said.

Boyd lauded Lambert for her patriotism and said that on the last day of school, the American Legion honored Lambert for all of her work in the classroom.

“She was honored for teaching students what it means to be an American,” said Boyd.

Lambert is the disaster chairman for the Red Cross Greater Manchester and is often on the front line when disaster strikes. On 9/11, she spent three weeks in New York City with the Red Cross and locally organized flood relief.

“Linda is a true patriot. Over and over she taught students important lessons in patriotism and community service,” said Boyd.

Lambert said that in her 32 years of teaching, education has moved in a circle and has been subject to fads.

“We were teachers, then more facilitators and now we are teaching again. There was a time when it felt like education was getting away from us, but it is back again,” she said.

Parents, Lambert said, are very important in their children’s education and she encourages parents to not speak negatively about school or the teacher in front of their children because it gives children a negative attitude.

The other important thing parents can do?

“Read at home and talk to your children. Build their vocabulary. Parents don’t realize how much influence they have,” she said.