Maggie Pickett

Maggie Pickett, Gibault Catholic High School
by Andrea Saathoff

Maggie Pickett’s classroom at Gibault Catholic High School is a magical place. Filled with Disney-inspired handmade artwork, inspirational quotations and mementos from students, it radiates whimsy and fun. But spend any time with Pickett in that room, and it’s clear the influence of a certain little mouse and all his friends runs much deeper.

“While teaching my students, I use the four paradigms of Disney,” Pickett said earlier this week while preparing for the final day of exams and the daunting task of packing up 21 years of memories as she retires from the English department at Gibault.

These paradigms — safety first, courtesy, efficiency and keeping the show — are at the heart of Pickett’s strategy for teaching and her strategy for life.

Hers is a “friendly and safely classroom, with a few Disney characters to keep things lively.” It is a room filled with respect, because “a room filled with respect needs no other rules.” The lessons she teaches go beyond literature and grammar, because she believes in teaching “them to become organized teenagers with highly effective habits that will guide them through life.” And she encourages them to “make it magical, spread a little pixie dust and see what happens.”

These might not seem congruent with the typical assumption of what happens in a high school classroom, particularly one dominated by the more technical aspects of the English language. But for the last 21 years, Pickett has found ways every day to inject the whimsy into her lessons.

Since she was a little girl, she knew she wanted to be a Catholic school teacher, and she knew Disney would be a part of it. She would line up her Mickey Mouses on the couch and teach to them, breaking periodically so she could serve them “communion.”

In her time at Gibault, Pickett has taught freshman, sophomore and junior English, as well as speech. She created an annual Elizabethan festival and a Great Expectations tea party put on by students. She resurrected the student newspaper, creating The New Revolution. She organized the purchase, commission or donation of new stage curtains; a replica of the top of the Globe Theatre, where many of Shakespeare’s plays were performed during his lifetime; and a model of Juliet Capulet’s balcony, a pivotal piece from another of Pickett’s passions, “Romeo and Juliet.”

“Students will say, ‘She’s just obsessed with Romeo and Juliet,’” Picket laughed. “And I am.
“It’s so important. It teaches them the lesson that love conquers hate, but at an incredible price,” she added.

The idea that life lessons can be found just about anywhere one looks is central to Pickett’s teaching strategy.

“Literature is life,” she said. “When an author writes a story he’s trying to teach a lesson. So let’s make it a lesson that they can use for the rest of their lives.”

Pickett begins each year with a nine-week session on writing that includes packets she has created over the years of thousands of words and phrases. She teaches students to first write from their hearts then to fix with their heads. And no one advances from her room without learning the importance of the parts of speech — especially those nearest and dearest to her heart — participles and gerunds.

“Each student has a story to tell in their own style and their own voice to express it — using participles and gerunds of course,” she says with a smile.

Pickett has plans for retirement that include pursuing her love of Disney. The woman who says she lost count somewhere after her 70th trip to Disney World and Disneyland plans to move to Florida in two years, when her husband of 43 years, Keith, retires from Schnucks. Already there is her oldest son, Adam Kristopher Pickett, 36, who lives in Windermere, Fla., barely 15 miles north of Walt Disney World. Her younger son Kyle Marc Pickett, 31, lives in St. Louis.

Even with the excitement of plans to cross a major item off her bucket list by working at Disney World, Pickett is clearly torn about her retirement. She chokes up when speaking about her students and what they have meant to her over the years. And it’s a feeling that is clearly mutual.

Looking for a picture in her desk, she sets aside stacks of letters she has saved from past and present students. She pulls one out of the pile and looks at it, lost for a moment in the reverie.

Former student Jeremy Kovarik, now an English teacher at Father McGibney High School, wrote a tribute to Pickett when he learned of her retirement:

“Thank you to the woman who inspired me to be an English teacher. You taught me so much about literature, but you also taught me about life, constantly telling our class to ‘seize the day,’ and to ‘be the top banana, not one of the bunch.’ You created a great legacy at Gibault, and you will not be forgotten.”

When her successor, Julie Lansing, another of her former students, takes over Room 210 this fall, she will see little touches of the teacher who inspired her.

And while Pickett’s former students take her lessons with them, they gave her just as much as she gave them.

“My wish for all my students is that they reach their potential and then go beyond. Be top bananas, not one of the bunch. To know that it doesn’t matter when you are born, or when you die, it is your dash in the middle that counts, and I’m honored to have been a part of their dash in the middle,” she said.

Tom Detmer

Tom Detmer, Columbia High School
by Sean McGowan

After 27 years in the school district — 30 years in education overall — Columbia High School production technology teacher Tom Detmer crafted a bridge to retirement.

“I really enjoy and respect my profession,” Detmer said. “The role you play in assisting young men and ladies realize their dreams is a reward that cannot be measured.”

His time at the district ended this year with grading final exams one last time and a retirement party at Reifschneider’s that included several other district retirees.

“Everybody was good,” Detmer said of the community and his co-workers. “People were positive and eager. I developed many friendships. When your vocation becomes a vacation, it’s a pretty good gig.”

Detmer explained that one of his methods of breaking the ice with students through the years was to talk to them about what they like to do. In other words, he would get to know them on a personal level.

“You know how to approach them through that angle,” he said. “I try and make all kids reachable somehow because even though we are a similar demographic, we are people with different interests.”

Explaining why he made such an effort to become a part of his students’ lives, he said a lot of them experienced hardships such as bullying and peer pressure on a larger scale than what he remembers and wanted to be there for them.

“(Mean things) were said when we were kids, but you never heard them,” Detmer said. “Now you do because of technology. I hate to say this, but I think the world has become more transparent.”

On a high note, Detmer also experienced a lot of joy with his students in that he became like a guardian to them.

“It’s almost like having your own child,” he said. “They’ll do something so amazing it overcomes everything. They’ll be in the classroom and all of a sudden a light bulb goes off, or a kid completes a project and is so happy with his work.”

The veteran teacher spent the first three years of his career substituting for schools in the metro-east as well as Clinton, Marion and Washington counties.

He has since donned many hats at Columbia, including physics and chemistry, integrated science, earth science and history.

“Tom is the most genuine, student-centered teacher that I know,” Columbia school superintendent Dr. Gina Segobiano said. “His mission was not only to teach students a trade for future success in life, but also to develop solid students with character that represent respect, integrity, hard work and kindness to others.”

Detmer finished his tenure at CHS teaching production technology. The course builds an understanding of manufacturing and construction and focuses on safety, tools and equipment, materials and processes, and product design.

Some of the work accomplished in this class included building a shed for a meat smoker; designing a checkerboard end table and checkerboard drawers; or other types of projects they can take home.

One year, Detmer’s students built a sensory canopy for a child with cerebral palsy. In April 2015, Nicholas Eynon’s caretaker, Lisa Schmitt — the school nurse — and special education teacher Cindy Groce approached Detmer’s class about building the canopy to help the 11-year-old strengthen his motor skills.

Three students primarily designed and finished the project in two weeks. Jordan Jatho — the “self-appointed” leader of the project ­— said he and his classmates watched Eynon reach for mobiles in the canopy after a few days and were “surprised that they saw so much improvement that soon.”

Detmer oversaw another community service project in December 2013 while in charge of the high school’s work-based experience program. His students raised $450 for a donation to the Columbia Police Department’s Family Assistance Program, selling Eagles apparel as a fundraiser before the holidays. They used their business curriculum to make the most of their philanthropic efforts.

“It worked out really well and we were able to give a little bit of money to the less fortunate,” Detmer said.

Outside of the classroom, Detmer helped out in extracurricular activities such as coaching freshman football and varsity boys golf for about seven years.

He saw the golf team win many accolades under his leadership that will continue into retirement. For instance, the boys won the Monroe County Golf Tournament several years in a row, including this past season in the fall of 2015.

“I’m proud of the accomplishments,” Detmer said.

He plans to tee up at the golf course at least a few days a week in his retirement. Additionally, he will look for some kind of part-time job, possibly as an Uber driver, when he’s not spending time with family.

Detmer leaves the school with one final message to students:

“Prepare yourself and get a little better each day in whatever endeavor you are involved,” he said. “Before you know it, you get pretty good. Take ownership and responsibility for your life. Don’t make excuses or blame others.”