Nancy Olson, Simply “the Best”
By Patricia Mackey
“Mrs. Olson? She’s the best,” Stephanie Hodge-Green chimed-in when she heard her favorite teacher’s name. At 10, she was remembering her enriching experiences with her preschool teacher. Nancy Olson is a former teacher and chairman of the Family and Consumer Sciences Department at North High School in the Phoenix Union School District.
In 1968, she was a Michigan State University honors graduate with a degree in Home Economics Education. Her first-class training included having educator Beatrice Paolucci as an advisor, and one term at Merrill Palmer Institute in Detroit. Student teaching colleagues also strongly influenced the Traverse City, Michigan native, “I taught with three other teachers. One was strict, and dressed nicely, one had a wonderful rapport with the students, and another was a little scattered, but very nice with high school kids. . . . Each of those teachers influenced me.”
Olson landed her first job at Evanston Township High School in Illinois. In 1970, she married and toured the Orient with her husband, Ron, a high school coach. The Olsons settled in Minnesota, Ron’s home state, until the move to Arizona in 1984. Mrs. Olson’s teaching hiatus ended in 1990 when she became director of Abiding Saviour Lutheran School in Tempe.
Katrina La Rocca, a former senior at North said, “I tried every year to get into Mrs. Olson’s class after a friend told me about it.” Aaron Edwards’ mother
suggested he take the class, “I’m more comfortable with kids. At first, it was kind of scary. Now, I’ll know what to do when I have my own children,” he said.
“My marriage has been wonderful,” says Olson, 63, who retired in 2006. She used to tell students, “Marriage can be wonderful if you find that mate, and if you look for the value in choosing your mate instead of looking to who’s popular, or good looking or something.”
Twenty-seven years of teaching qualify Olson to note changes in education. “Children are the same, but one thing has changed. When I first started teaching in 1968, we had social, intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual development. Then, in the seventies, they removed spiritual development. I disagreed with that because spiritual development is important. Now, in [newer versions] of the text book, they’ve added moral development. . . . It’s the same thing. You need to give students a moral basis, some kind of guideline to refer to while growing up.”
Nancy Olson continues to pass on her pluses and positives. “I do miss the high school students and the preschoolers, but I’m enjoying golfing.” And now, the mother of three young adults is twice a grandmother who is thoroughly enjoying that experience, too. She considers it, quite simply, “the best.”
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By Patricia Mackey
“Mrs. Olson? She’s the best,” Stephanie Hodge-Green chimed-in when she heard her favorite teacher’s name. At 10, she was remembering her enriching experiences with her preschool teacher. Nancy Olson is a former teacher and chairman of the Family and Consumer Sciences Department at North High School in the Phoenix Union School District.
In 1968, she was a Michigan State University honors graduate with a degree in Home Economics Education. Her first-class training included having educator Beatrice Paolucci as an advisor, and one term at Merrill Palmer Institute in Detroit. Student teaching colleagues also strongly influenced the Traverse City, Michigan native, “I taught with three other teachers. One was strict, and dressed nicely, one had a wonderful rapport with the students, and another was a little scattered, but very nice with high school kids. . . . Each of those teachers influenced me.”
Olson landed her first job at Evanston Township High School in Illinois. In 1970, she married and toured the Orient with her husband, Ron, a high school coach. The Olsons settled in Minnesota, Ron’s home state, until the move to Arizona in 1984. Mrs. Olson’s teaching hiatus ended in 1990 when she became director of Abiding Saviour Lutheran School in Tempe.
Katrina La Rocca, a former senior at North said, “I tried every year to get into Mrs. Olson’s class after a friend told me about it.” Aaron Edwards’ mother
suggested he take the class, “I’m more comfortable with kids. At first, it was kind of scary. Now, I’ll know what to do when I have my own children,” he said.
“My marriage has been wonderful,” says Olson, 63, who retired in 2006. She used to tell students, “Marriage can be wonderful if you find that mate, and if you look for the value in choosing your mate instead of looking to who’s popular, or good looking or something.”
Twenty-seven years of teaching qualify Olson to note changes in education. “Children are the same, but one thing has changed. When I first started teaching in 1968, we had social, intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual development. Then, in the seventies, they removed spiritual development. I disagreed with that because spiritual development is important. Now, in [newer versions] of the text book, they’ve added moral development. . . . It’s the same thing. You need to give students a moral basis, some kind of guideline to refer to while growing up.”
Nancy Olson continues to pass on her pluses and positives. “I do miss the high school students and the preschoolers, but I’m enjoying golfing.” And now, the mother of three young adults is twice a grandmother who is thoroughly enjoying that experience, too. She considers it, quite simply, “the best.”
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