Allie Perison
Editor in Chief
At the end of this year, world geography teacher Rita Bauer will be sending off her students for summer and packing up her room full of text books and maps for the last time.
After 36 years in education, Bauer is retiring to teach a new set of students: her two granddaughters.
Bauer’s interest in teaching began when she was in fifth grade. Her teacher, Mrs. Adlrich, made a major impact on her with her warm personality and love for teaching. Bauer credits Adlrich for inspiring her to become a teacher.
“There is some kind of spark in all of us that there was someone who lit that fire inside of us so that we would want to purse this,” Bauer said. “We all know we aren’t in this for money. As I tell my students, it’s not going to make me rich, famous or tall. It has been worthwhile for 36 years.”
Bauer began teaching in Galveston and later moved to Garland. After spending a few years teaching in public education, Bauer decided she wanted a change of pace and opted to teach at a psychiatric hospital where she had over 78 kids ranging from grades six to 12.
“I felt like I was contributing something to making their lives normal because school is normal,” Bauer said. “School was one of the typical things they had and it is just what you had to do to make them feel normal, so I was glad to do it.”
After five years of experiencing a new kind of teaching, Bauer decided to go back to working in public education at Garland. She moved to in order to be closer to her husband’s job and accepted a teaching job at Coppell High School.
“I’ve taught in Coppell for 11 years now,” Bauer said. “I love teaching, but I feel like I have served my purpose.”
Bauer’s main reason for retiring is to spend time with her twin one year old daughters, Melina and Karina, who she calls the lights of her life. She wants to be there when they learn to walk and talk and watch as they grow.
“I want to be a full time nana,” Bauer said. “They don’t know how to say ‘nana’ yet, but we are working on it. That will be what I teach them this year.”
Bauer has been a valuable member to the Coppell High School staff and will be greatly missed by her peers. Of all her teaching jobs, she looks at her years at Coppell as her fondest.
“You can tell that Mrs. Bauer loves what she does,” senior JWAC member Prapti Pathak said. “She has a real passion for teaching and you can tell that she really cares what happens to the kids she teaches.”
Along with teaching world geography, Bauer is the current sponsor for the Junior World Affairs Council (JWAC) which puts on Heritage Day and participates in WorldQuest each year. She played a major role in making the club what it is today. Bauer is really the one who fostered the club in its early stages, turning it into the successful organization it is today.
“She has made JWAC what it is,” senior JWAC president Satvika Ananth said. “She has been such a good sponsor. We all love her so much.”
Some JWAC members fear that the club will not continue because of Bauer leaving and the amount of seniors in the club. But while a new JWAC club sponsor has not been chosen yet, Bauer has faith that the club will live on.
