Math teacher Kennedy will be stepping down this year

GLEN RIDGE, NJ — Glen Ridge High School mathematics teacher Darlene Kennedy is retiring this month. She has been a middle school teacher for the last 13 years. Kennedy received her certification at Glassboro State College.

In a telephone interview, Kennedy said most of the changes in teaching over her years of employment have been in terms of the expectations for teachers.

“Curriculums have changed,” she said. “Testing, rules and regulations for accommodating students have changed.”

Before becoming a teacher, she spent 15 years in the business sector as an IT programmer.

“When my job went overseas, I got my certification,” she said. “Glen Ridge was a school looking for a math teacher at the time.”

A parent influenced Kennedy to consider teaching as a career when she was a girl.
“Teaching was a premier job for women then,” she said. “I had an old-fashioned father who thought that was what I should be.”

But no one in her family was a teacher.
“When I got to Glen Ridge, Dirk Phillips was the vice-principal of the middle and high schools,” she said. “He’s one of the reasons I stayed. He is very supportive. He makes sure teachers have what they need to do their job. He’s always a positive influence in the school.”

Phillips is the current superintendent of Glen Ridge schools.
Kennedy said she measures her success by the reaction she gets from former students.

“Students forget who their middle school math teacher was,” she said. “But several students said they hated math but went on to be successful in it. I always tell a student they can do math. I think every child can succeed.”

One colleague who stands out for her is current high school teacher Mayra Bachrach.

“I find her most amazing,” Kennedy said. “She has started the high school robotics program and the AP program for math. She’s a positive influence for students.”
Kennedy, before coming to Glen Ridge to teach, worked at Prudential Insurance Co. Bachrach did too, she said, but they did not know it until they were teachers.
Kennedy said she would tell anyone wanting to become a teacher that they need an extensive amount of patience.

“If they don’t have it, it’s the wrong profession,” she said. “But it wasn’t something I focused on when I began.”

More patience is needed, she said, because of the increased demands of parents, standardized tests, and the administration.
“It takes more chunks out of you time,” she said.

Kennedy is moving away the day after graduation.
“My children and grandchildren are all down South,” she said. “I’m 65 and I’m moving to North Carolina.”

In retirement, she plans to do a lot of reading, she said.
“We bought a house on the lake,” she said. “I’ll be sitting back and relaxing, doing things in town.”