After 34 wonderful years teaching at Loa Elementary School, and one year substituting in Northern Utah, Ms. MarJean Davis is retiring from teaching this year.
MarJean Davis always knew she wanted to be an elementary school teacher. Her father used to say she was knee-high to a grasshopper when she decided she wanted to be a teacher. And she never went back on that decision. As elementary school teachers often are, she is deliberate, kind and energetic.
The kids “keep you young,” she said. “They’re energetic, and you have to match their energy.”
MarJean spent half of her years teaching in 2nd grade, the grade she finished out on. Each age is unique, and she liked that the 2nd graders were able to do some things on their own.
Some of her favorite times were always the end-of-school-year projects. In 2nd grade, they spent the last days of the school year making friendship bracelets.
The other 17 years MarJean spent teaching kindergarten.
With the kindergarteners they would bake a gingerbread cookie every year in December. Just like in the beloved story, their gingerbread man would run away, and they would spend all December looking for him. The kids’ relatives would be involved sending postcards showing where they last saw the kindergarteners’ gingerbread man. Finally, right before Christmas break, their baked cookie would come back and they would talk about all the places he went.
At the end of the school year, MarJean would have the kindergarteners paper mache piggy banks. She talked fondly of these memories.
Spending your whole life in an elementary school is never boring, MarJean said. For someone who has gotten up and gone to school since she was five years old, she certainly never got tired of it.
She will often say when asked about her retirement, “What am I going to do without my daily dose of laughing and smiling?”
MarJean has loved working with the sweet, funny, well-mannered kids of Loa Elementary, and she couldn’t have asked for better faculty and staff to work with as well. She has loved working at the small school where there is so much support and comradery.
“It’ll take a year or two to figure out what retirement is all about,” she said. But it’s hard to believe MarJean won’t find a way to put her talents to use in whatever she does next.
– by Abbie Call
Feature image caption: Ms. MarJean Davis during her retirement photoshoot after 34 years teaching at Loa Elementary School. Courtesy of MarJean.
Read more about local retirements in Cheryl LeFevre and Jeff Brinkerhoff Leave Mustangs Behind, but Not in Spirit.
Abbie Call – Cannonville/Kirksville, Missouri
Abbie Call is a journalist and editor at The Byway. She graduated in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in editing and publishing from Brigham Young University. Her favorite topics to write about include anything local, Utah’s megadrought, and mental health and meaning in life. In her free time, she enjoys reading, hanging out with family, quilting and hiking.
Find Abbie on Threads @abbieb.call or contact her at [email protected].