Published Wednesday, February 22, 2006
HER LAST GENERATION
 

After 69 Years of Teaching, Hazel Haley Will Retire

By Julia Crouse
The Ledger

LAKELAND
Hazel Haley has been teaching in the same room, No. 106, since 1952. That year, Lakeland High moved to what Haley still calls "the new campus" on Hollingsworth Road. Some years back, the district painted her room pale pink, Haley's favorite color. Most teachers don't get to choose their room color, but Hazel Haley is not just another teacher.

In recognition of her remarkable career, the School District in 1984 named the wing where her room is located the Hazel H. Haley Building.  By that time, Haley already had taught at Lakeland High for 44 years -- just the beginning, as it turned out.

Room No. 106 is comfortable and cozy, like a living room or small library.  Instead of desks, students sit together at several tables with light pink tops and overgrown house plants.  Tchotchkes and paperback books fill every available shelf.

Next school year, the room will look different.

Hazel Haley is retiring after a remarkable teaching career of 69 years. Haley didn't set out to become Florida's oldest and longest-serving teacher. She's probably the nation's oldest, too, but the federal Department of Education doesn't keep track of that record.

"I know it's unusual to still be teaching at age 89," she said.

Her official retirement date is June 30, but the school year ends May 23.

She didn't retire after 25, 30 or even 50 or 60 years because she loves her job. She still does.

But Haley, who earns a salary of $50,300, entered the state's deferred retirement program in 1999. The governor signed legislation in 2003 to prolong the careers of teachers who, like Haley, were supposed to retire that year. The legislation allowed DROP teachers to serve for another three years.

Now, the three years are up.

Haley said she's going to leave her classroom as is on her last day, taking only her umbrella, the British Union Jack flag and a bright pink teddy bear.

"The next person who has this room can deal with this stuff," she said.

As a retiree, Haley said she'll concentrate on volunteering and, perhaps, travel a bit.

She won't dwell on her former students or come back to the school, because that's a door that will close, she said.

A LIFETIME OF TEACHING

Hazel Hunter Haley was born Nov. 5, 1916, in Orlando to the former Lola Hazel Hunter and B.E. Haley. The family lived in Kissimmee until she was 2, then moved to North Carolina for seven years.

Her father's railroad job returned them to Florida, where they settled in Lakeland.

She graduated from Lakeland High in 1933 at the age of 16 and started college at Florida Southern College. Four years later, she earned degrees in English and Spanish.

She taught in Oviedo in Seminole County for about a half-year and, when the position was eliminated, she moved to Moore Haven on the edge of the Everglades to teach migrant students.

The next year brought her back to her alma mater, Lakeland High. That was in 1939, and Lakeland High then was located on North Florida Avenue. The old school is now Lawton Chiles Academy, named after the former governor and Lakeland native who once was a student of Haley's.

Haley said the only reason she got the teaching job was because the superintendent felt sorry for her. "My father had just died," she said.  "(The superintendent) gave me a job because we didn't have any money."

Haley never married or had any children of her own. She dated several men through her life and still fancies a young Clark Gable, especially as Rhett Butler. For several years in the 1980s, she had a poster of a towel-clad Tom Selleck on her classroom wall.

But none of her real-life beaus held her interest enough for marriage. "I've always been very independent," she said.

Haley also doesn't have any pets. Instead, she concentrates her energy on her students, her "children," as she calls them.

Her children -- the 17- and 18-year-olds in her senior honors English class -- are the reason she gets to school at 6 every morning and teaches straight through from 7:15 a.m. to 1 p.m.

To be enrolled in Haley's class is quite an honor, said Gail McKinzie, Polk's superintendent of schools.

Haley's taught three generations of students, with more than 13,500 students sitting through her class since she began teaching.

McKinzie's only known Haley for a couple of years, but she's never heard anything close to a negative word about her.

"She's always a perfect lady and definitely will be missed," McKinzie said.

Haley said she hasn't had a discipline problem in 20 years. But it's not because she's given the best-behaved students. She's quick to point out that her students are assigned by the computer, just like everyone else's class.

"I tell people they are the best-behaved students when they come out of my classroom," she said.

She isn't a strict disciplinarian and may have even mellowed in the past decade or so. She doesn't need to punish students, she said. "Life is hard enough."

When a student acts up, Haley employs something even worse than detention -- guilt. "It works," she said.

Students simply respect Haley because she demands respect through her demeanor and attitude, said School Board member Frank O'Reilly. O'Reilly said he's known Haley for about 15 years and has gotten close to her during the past eight.

"She's nearly 90 years old and relates better to teenagers than anyone I've ever known," he said.

Haley agrees. She understands young people and connects with them on every level, except for their music, she said.

Students learn about themselves in Haley's class, said LHS Principal Mark Thomas.

"Her main objective is to help kids figure out and understand who they are," he said. "She teaches a lot of that in between the prose."

A CHANGING WORLD

Haley taught through World War II, the Korean and Vietnam wars, segregation and integration, typewriters and word processors to the emergence of the Internet.

"My children think I was there for the Civil War," she said.

She still teaches the same things, MacBeth and Beowulf, and the students are the same. The world is what has changed, she said.

She remembers when Lakeland High was the white high school and Rochelle High was the black school. When Lakeland was integrated in the 1970s, Haley remembers classroom doors locked during class and the closing of the cafeteria to prevent fights between white and black kids.

The biggest change through the years is the way the country's values have shifted. Morals have swung in a different direction and children are exposed to many more negative images and ideas, she said.

They are more cynical now. But they're still kids, she said.

"If children have changed, then neither the Bible nor Shakespeare would have any value," she said.

Haley never became a principal or administrator because that would take her away from the classroom. That's where the action is every day, she said.

School, itself, is becoming increasingly harder for teachers because government officials pile on paperwork, red tape and tests like the FCAT, she said. Haley is not a fan of the state's required assessment test.

Still, she said every day at school, doing her job, is a good day.

There aren't many people who can say that, O'Reilly said.

"I don't think there's anything better than doing what you love," he said.

Julia Crouse can be reached at julia.crouse@theledger.com or 863-802-7536.