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Well Done, Mrs. Dix!

Posted by Rebecca Teti in Just me on Monday, May 23, 2011 12:00 PM

One of the finest teachers ever to wield a chalk-stick is retiring this year.

I hope you’ll indulge me as I publicly thank one of those people who accomplish extraordinary things while tucked away in a hidden corner of the world.

Diane Dix arrived at St. Jerome’s in Hyattsville in the 1970s as a Title I teacher, joining the faculty full time in 1985. In 2009 she reduced her hours to part time, but during the interim years she taught an estimated 600 Hyattsville kids as their first grade teacher.

Her personal engagement with her students impressed me on my eldest son’s first day of school eight years ago.

I like to teach my kids to read myself, so I’ve always kept them home for pre-school and Kindergarten, starting them in school at first grade. My son entered first grade already able to read at probably a third or fourth grade level.

I recall that we first visited a neighboring school with a newer plant and better reputation, but were put off when their first grade teacher actually scoffed at the idea that my kid could already read.

Dripping condescension, she explained that he had probably just memorized the words of his favorite stories, and assured me he would need to start from the beginning with everyone else.

That was enough to put me off the extra tuition at that school; but I was anxious that attitude would be everyone’s and my son would be stuck learning his letters again when he could already read simple chapter books.

I needn’t have worried. When I picked J-P up from that first half-day of school, Mrs. Dix came right up to me, told me at what grade level she assessed his reading, placed an advanced reader in my hands for him to work from and said, “Oh, honey, please have him read from this instead of the class textbook so he’ll be challenged.”

I have no idea how she managed to take roll, assign seats, distribute books, go over class rules and accomplish all the other bureaucratic necessities of a first day with a new class and still manage to hear everyone read and give them individualized programs where necessary, but she did.

Our school principal recently remarked that Mrs. Dix has one of the purest hearts of anyone she’s ever met, and that captures her perfectly.

She just loved each and every kid, and she spread a spontaneous and innocent delight in all kinds of things.

Her love of anything related to space exploration was legendary. In lieu of her signature, she’d sign papers with a squiggly martian figure, and no child graduated her class without a thorough knowledge of the planets, the solar system, and the latest experiments at NASA.

That first year we met, the Brood X cicadas emerged and buzzed all over Washington like a plague. While everyone else had the willies, Diane Dix was fascinated and taught the kids to be not only undaunted but delighted by this bizarre bit of God’s creation. No petrified squealing from the girls in the first grade. Mrs. Dix taught them to be appreciative instead.

Is there anything as delightful as a teacher who is herself a life-long learner and who inspires initiative and intellectual curiosity in others?

Diane Dix has been such a teacher.

What I really thank her for, however, is her tender concern for the character formation of each child.

In addition to being a master teacher, adept at transmitting the basic academic skills to her charges, Mrs. Dix’ profound love of Jesus and therefore of his little ones made her keenly interested in shaping her students’ moral imaginations and their hearts. 

She taught them the basic Bible stories, always with an emphasis on God’s love for them and how they should treat others as a result. She had them commit various Psalms to memory, building up their store of inner resources. She loved to do challenging read-alouds in the afternoons: The Lion, The Witch & the Wardrobe, Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars and several other titles. Her purpose was not only to spark the children’s love of reading, but to get them thinking and dreaming about noble behavior.

Great conversations sprang from those readings, far beyond what one might expect from 6 and 7-year-olds. Her lessons stuck, too. Many times over the years I have been surprised by some morally sophisticated observation from a child in my home and been met with a nonchalant, “Oh, we learned that from Mrs. Dix.”

If there was an over-arching message from her classroom, it was the lesson to the kids that they were loved: by God, by their parents, and by their teacher. She taught them, too, to be kind and look out for one another, not just the kids in their immediate circle of friends. Early in each academic year she’d have the kids memorize the verses pertaining to Samuel’s searching for God’s anointed: “man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

At the end of each school year, Mrs. Dix entrusted to each child’s parents a sentimental but heartfelt letter written for their child to read at some future time when they’d better understand it. They are beautiful letters, a pure heart pouring out to her students her love, her prayer and her dreams for them. I’ve dutifully kept all the ones she wrote my kids.

She gave each child two other things as well: a little trinket to carry in their pockets to remind them to pray, and a geode. The latter gift was a token of her great love for the intricacies of the created world, as well as a tangible reminder that beauty is on the inside: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.

Now this dear lady who has brought so much goodness into the world simply by putting not only professional competence but her whole heart into the work of a first grade teacher—a woman who has spent her life believing in the capacity of innocent hearts to respond to Christ’s love—is retiring to a much-deserved rest.

I hope every child at least once has a teacher like that!

(The photo is of Mrs. Dix with my kids)

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