Stewarts share joys, challenges of the classroom

Perhaps one of the biggest joys of Jane Stewart's teaching career has been getting to know her daughters on a professional level.

Jane is a second-grade teacher at North Elementary School. Her oldest daughter, Emily, is a social studies teacher at Noblesville High School, and her youngest daughter, Molly, is a third-grade teacher at Stony Creek Elementary School.

Although the three share a profession as adults, both Emily and Molly thought their careers would take them somewhere other than the classroom.

"Mom didn't teach when we were growing up - I was in college when she went back to teaching and Molly was in high school - but we always knew she was a teacher and that probably influenced us to some degree," Emily said.

Still, she said, both her interests and those of her sister were elsewhere.

"When I gave swimming lessons, Mom would point out how I enjoyed working with kids, but our career decisions were always our own."

Emily went to Indiana University to study business but decided after her freshman year that the business world was not for her. It was then that she decided to pursue teaching.

With a mother in the classroom and a sister studying education in college, Molly started her high school career determined not to be a teacher.

"I was looking at a couple different things, but I decided I really liked kids. I did my cadet teaching with Jean Lawless at North and she said I should be a teacher," Molly said.

Jane readily gives credit to Mrs. Lawless for Molly's change of heart and decision to enter the teaching profession.

"She probably was more of an influence than I was because I was at home for so long," Jane said. "They were already in school when I went back to teaching."

Jane had taught for 1 1/2 years in Rhode Island and 1 1/2 years in Noblesville before she decided to stay at home with Emily, Molly, and their brother, Tim. She was a stay-at-home mom for the biggest part of 18 years before she returned to teaching in 1989.

Mother and daughters - especially the two elementary teachers - have shared ideas and materials for their classrooms. When Jane makes something for her classroom, she often makes it for Molly's as well.

The three also look to each other for encouragement and advice.

"A lot of things you get frustrated with you find at every grade level so even though I teach high school I know I can go home and vent and they will understand," Emily said.

Having two elementary teachers in the family is advantageous to Emily when she wants to take her high school students to an elementary school to work with younger students.

"It makes scheduling easier," she said.

"And it's nice to have two people to bounce ideas off of and know they will be totally honest with me."

Jane and Molly agree.

Molly appreciated the experience and wisdom of both her mother and sister when she first started teaching.

"Even though they're not in the same building, it's nice to know they are there," Molly said.
Students at the high school are making the family connection when they walk into Emily's room and recall that their second-grade teacher shared her last name. Last year's seniors were in second grade when Jane went back to teaching.

Even at Stony Creek, the connection has been made. Molly has had one child who had Jane for a teacher at North before moving into the Stony Creek district.

The three, graduates of Nobles-ville High School, enjoy working in the school district they attended as students. For Emily and Molly, becoming reacquainted as colleagues with teachers they had in school has been a fun experience.

For Jane, getting to know her daughters as colleagues has not only been a fun experience but has enriched her teaching as well.

"I've learned so much from them," she said.