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Darlene Dreessen said goodbye to 38 years of teaching last month, having never graduated past the kindergarten classroom.
Her years in the classroom began to take shape long before she accepted her first job with Magnolia Public Schools.
“I have always known I wanted to be a teacher,” Dreessen said. “As a young girl I played school with dolls.”
Dreessen (nee Vos) grew up near Kenneth.
Upon graduating from Magnolia High School, she attended Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa.
The principal at Magnolia Elementary at that time offered Dreessen a position she’s glad she didn’t refuse.
“Our school is closing in one year,” she recalled the principal saying. “We need a kindergarten teacher for one year.”
In Dreessen’s early years in education, the part-time position fit well into her schedule with a growing family and her husband, Dale. Those years she taught kindergarten three full days a week and had more time at home with her family.
At the time, Magnolia was working toward consolidation with the Luverne School District. However, the elementary school did not merge with Luverne until 1994, so Dreessen’s “one year” in the Magnolia district stretched to 13 years before she became a member of the Luverne elementary staff.
Dreessen taught only kindergartners, both in Magnolia and in Luverne, until retiring at the end of the 2018-19 school year.
Her husband, Dale, often teased Dreessen in conversations by stating, “My wife just never makes it out of kindergarten. She never moves on.”
However, through Dreessen’s almost four decades in education, hundreds of students have moved on under her tutelage.
She often saw students’ eyes light up when they grasped one of her many daily lessons.
“I love seeing those light bulb moments,” she said.
Children would come into her classroom as blank slates and left with the ability to read and write, add and subtract, follow instructions and get along with their fellow classmates.
“I am amazed at all they learn by the end of the year,” she said. “Those are the rewards teachers get.”
Kindergarten teaching has evolved through the decades, with Dreessen rising to the challenge.
Instead of half days or meeting every other day, kindergarten now centers on full days, five days a week like the other grade levels.
Most of Dreessen’s kindergartners have attended preschool to prepare for what is now taught at the kindergarten level.
In kindergarten, Dreessen said she adopts a motherly (and now grandmotherly) manner to her teaching.
“I treat them like my children and grandchildren would be treated — to give them the best possible start,” she said. “There is a long road ahead of them to graduation.
Dreessen said parents who follow some of her frequent tips often bolster her educational efforts.
Those tips include:
•reading to their child(ren).
•making sure they are well rested for school.
•being interested in what they bring home from the classroom.
•spending time getting to know their child(ren).
In her retirement, Dreessen is looking forward to getting to know her eight grandchildren better as most time will be spent visiting her children, son Dave in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and daughters Debbie Spronk, also in Sioux Falls, and Dawn Kohle in Stuart, Nebraska.
Her husband, Dale, retired last year from operating the mink farm northeast of Luverne.
“The time is right,” she said of her own retirement.
“It’s been a great job. I am very thankful and humble that I was able to be at this for so many years.”