Published: June 06, 2008 09:03 pm      

Retirement adds up for teacher

ATTICA, Ind. — Penny Wrighthouse is looking forward to not returning to school in the fall, but she is not sure what she is going to do.

“I will take my normal summer,” said Wrighthouse, who is retiring after 35 years teaching math at Attica High School. “We will take a vacation, and then I will put a resume together. I don’t know what I might do.”

But she says it is time to quit teaching.

“The kids are changing again,” she said.

When she enrolled at Purdue University she started in computer science.

“I found it wasn’t for me,” she said. “The move to math education was easy.”

It was a math teacher in high school who developed her interest in teaching.

“I love the kids,” she said. “On any given day you see that light bulb go off. It is a good feeling. I will miss that.”

She wanted to see her students succeed.

“I enjoy seeing kids graduate from high school,” she said.

Equally, she enjoys seeing the students excel after high school. She mentioned three young men who went on to Wabash Col-lege and her own son, Phil, who will be a senior at Purdue University. He will spend seven weeks working in communications at the Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, this summer.

Wrighthouse was in her first semester of teaching at the old Attica High School when it burned during Christmas vacation.

“I hadn’t accumulated that much stuff at that time,” she said. “We were in portables for three years.”

And she has been at the current Attica High School building since opened.

Wrighthouse, who taught government her first two years at Attica, likes to include current events in her class.

“Everyone remembers 9/11,” she said. “The kids were so strong that day. They were interested in it.”

She allowed her students to watch the events on television.

“They were so mature.”

Wrighthouse looks forward to reading, doing things around the house and backing her Chicago Cubs.

Attica Principal Roy Jones praised Wrighthouse’s contribution to the school.

“She was always very active,” he said. “She was the sponsor for National Honor Society for many years and was very involved in the school improvement program. She was on the steering committee for the Indiana Student Achievement Academy.”

Wrighthouse’s advice for a young teacher:

“Don’t lose sight that it is a lot of work, the rewards offset the hard work. Don’t expect more than the best.” WRIGHTHOUSE FILE

Name: Penny Wrighthouse

Position: Seventh-grade math, Algebra I and Algebra II at Attica High School

Age: 57

Education: Graduate of North Judson High School; bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Purdue University

Experience: 35 years at Attica High School