Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/229155
at the same high school in which his grandmother taught and where he attended high school. My father, Robert Taylor, was respected and loved by his students. He was Teacher of the Year several times. As a testament to the influence he had on his students, several of them became Spanish teachers, John W. Taylor Mamie Taylor and cite him as an inspiration. In fact, the current Ukiah High School Spanish department boasts four of his former students. My brother has taught Spanish in Ukiah for seven years. He My father retired in 2006. It was the same year my brother met his wife there; she is also a Spanish teacher and former (also Robert Taylor) finished up his first year teaching Spanish student of my father's. Both belong to the Ukiah Teachers at Elk Grove High School. Ukiah High School conducted an Association. My mother (Emiko Taylor) was a teacher's aide in exhaustive search for a new Spanish teacher to replace the elementary school system in Ukiah and came from a long my father. They couldn't find the right candidate until they line of educators in Japan. interviewed my brother. One Robert Taylor replaced the I have taught elementary school in Elk Grove since 2003. other. Students were confused when they received their fall I am proud to carry on the family tradition. I choose to be schedules; they still had Robert Taylor for Spanish and were called Mrs. Taylor by students (instead of my husband's last very surprised to see a young version of their name) to honor the heritage of my family and also to honor my previous teacher. great-grandmother, the original Mrs. Taylor. Jill Breslin S H A S TA U N I F I E D E L E M E N TA R Y A S S O C I AT I O N a family of teachers was fun. They talked about what happened in their classrooms. They shared happiness if one of their students made progress. They shared lesson plans, activities and stories. My great-grandmother, Hattie Findley, was a teacher. She graduated from San Francisco State Teachers College in 1899. My grandmother gave me her graduation bracelet when I graduated from Chico State in 1988. My great-grandmother worked in San Luis Obispo in 1904 at the primary school. Hattie married Ward Martin, and they had five children including Merle, my grandmother, who became a teacher. She graduated from San Jose State, where she met my grandfather, Harold Houser, who also became a teacher. They moved to Grass Valley. Grandma taught English and art, and Granddad taught shop and was the football coach and later became the principal. The football field is named after him. Merle and Harold had three children; two of them became teachers. One of them is my mother, Linda Houser, who taught elementary school in the San Juan Unified School District until she retired. Her first teaching job was at Antelope School in Red Bluff, and she was only 20 when she was hired. The first time staff went out for TGIF, she couldn't join them because she wasn't 21. My uncle Harold Houser Jr., known as Skip, taught in Grass Valley for many years and became the superintendent of schools for Nevada County. My father, Dave David, is also a teacher. He and my mom met at Chico State University, and he taught elementary school in Rio Linda Unified School District. Then there's me. I have been teaching at Shasta Elementary School for 25 years. I have two boys. They are going into petroleum engineering. But who knows? Perhaps one of their children may become a teacher one day. GROWING UP IN Merle Martin Houser Linda Houser David Jill Breslin D ECEMBER 201 3 | JANUARY 2014 Educator 12 Dec 2013 v2.0 int.indd 11 www.cta.org 11 12/14/13 3:32 PM