Lifelong Learning

Sporting a tan and sitting in front of a broad bay window looking out to a brilliant blue pool dotted with recliners, Cathie Lenhoff was set against the backdrop of summer.

But it only looked like Lenhoff was in a state of summer repose.

In reality, the Elkton High School German teacher, who has taught for 37 years, has kept quite busy this summer.

“I have 68 days where I have all my time to myself,” said Lenhoff, who was Cecil County’s Teacher of the Year last year. “I write curriculum, I read – I read, I read, I read. I just finished a very interesting biography of Anne Boleyn, and I’m working on a book about how the big industrial pig, dairy and chicken farms are ruining our waters. I do not read fluff.”

The trip that she took to Germany this July will make this the 32nd year Lenhoff has taken students abroad.

“This time we just went Germany and Austria, but we’ve been to Venice, I’ve taken them to Hungary, to Budapest, we’ve been to the Czech Republic, to Prague. I’ve even taken kids – back when there were two Germanies – we even went to East Berlin.”

With new eras come new generations, and Lenhoff knows a thing or two about that.

“I’m on my second generation of students, taking children of children I took,” she said. “I take German students, French students, Spanish students, students who take no language, students from other schools. Everybody needs to travel; you’ll take that (experience) with you to your grave.”

Even though she’s a language teacher, Lenhoff is at a loss for words to describe just how important she believes travel is, especially for students, but for everyone else, too. She said it helps to bridge ideological differences, so she takes students to Europe to open their minds and, of course, to practice German.

“Classroom language and real-life language are very different,” she said. “I like them to go out and have their own experiences.”

For both the language and non-language students, communication can take some getting used to.

“They figure out how to communicate,” she said. “If you’re nice and friendly, people will go out of their way to help you.”

The trip is organized with ACIS, a student-travel company Lenhoff estimates she’s worked with for 30 years. Even after all this time, she still loves going to Europe with students.

“It’s an incredible experience, and that sounds so trite, but let me tell you why,” she said. “In 1969, when I was a rising senior, my sister and I went to live in Germany, and … that changed my life.”

She said the trip had a transformative effect on her, and she strives to help her students feel the same.

“What it did was show me how big and beautiful the world is,” she said. “Political ideologies don’t mean anything; people do. They want the same things for their kids as we do.”

A student as well as instructor, Lenhoff believes learning is a lifelong experience. The vehicle for her continuing education is books on a multitude of subjects, and continuing coursework.

“At Cecil County, we have an excellent system to support our new teachers and help our veteran teachers continue to stay current in pedagogy,” she said. “Teaching’s changed a lot.”

She’s always trying to stay ready for the next crop of students.

“I made a commitment long, long ago that as long as I was alive, I was going to be going to school somewhere, and I’m still going to school,” she said. “If I didn’t have any coursework, I’d still be stuck back in 1974, and that wouldn’t help anybody today.”

Lenhoff is passionate about her students and said the kids are the reason she got into teaching in the first place.

Lenhoff said teachers model much more than the curriculum, and become examples of decency.

“If you don’t like the kids, you can’t stay in this business,” she said. “We all grumble, but you’re tired of the day, not the job.”

“Sometimes I look at my colleagues walking in and they’re a little world-weary, but they’re kind of like firemen and policemen in that it needs to be done and they just go do it … there are countless heroes in classrooms every day.”

She can’t imagine herself leaving the job anytime soon.

“It’s a brand new job every year,” she said. “You walk out the door and you forget everyone’s name, but you come in and do your best every day.”