After 41 years of teaching, 26 of those at Shorewood, the enthusiastic, smart and beloved Barbara Lachman is retiring. From teaching any English class you could think of to running the drama department for 17 years, Lachman has left a lasting impact on Shorewood over her time here.
Believe it or not, Lachman almost did not become a teacher. When in college she had a saying that she would do, “anything but teaching,” or ABT. She went from being a linguistic major to a speech therapy major before she finally settled on teaching. “I think I always knew I wanted to do this but I was kind of in denial,” she said. “I decided in my junior year that all the things that I like to do: read, write, hang out with teenagers, drama, and theater, I could do in this one job.”
Lachman started at Shorewood in the 1997-1998 school year after starting at Cascade High School in 1982. She has taken away a lot during her time at Shorewood. “One of the things that I’ve noticed at Shorewood is that a lot of students feel comfortable being courageous and the most important thing to be courageous about is being themselves,” she said.
Lachman hopes that her impact at Shorewood has been seen. She knows how important her stable presence is for high school students. “One of the strengths I think I have as a teacher is to be a stable presence. What I want to be for students is when things are rough in their life, I’m not a person who’s going to freak out when something bad happens,” she said. “Things could be really hard in your life and you could come here in this class and know you had a teacher that cared about you and was really enthusiastic about the topic.”
With dedication to hr students and career, this decision was not taken lightly. After much time spent thinking over this Lachman knew it was time to step down. “It was really hard to make this decision. The fact that I am a grandma and I’m going to get to spend more time with my granddaughter,” she said, “And talking to other people that have retired that do things that they still love because I don’t want to stop working. They still do things that they love and they don’t have to get up at 5:00 in the morning. That sounds really, really good.”
For Mrs. Lachman, being a teacher has been a very important part of her life. She has greatly enjoyed her time working with students over the past 26 years. “Of all of the difficulties of being a teacher they weren’t ever about not liking students. Even when people were annoying I still loved working with students.”
No one has made a bigger impact on the future for Shorewood students than Marianne Stephens, Shorewood’s College and Career Counselor. She helped a countless number of students plan their life after high school through essay workshops, presentations, class visits, etc. Stephens is constantly working hard for her students to ensure that they are well prepared for their futures. Stephens will be retiring after the end of this school year and her presence at Shorewood will be missed deeply. Unfortunately Stephens was unavailable for an interview at this time due to helping seniors wrap up their year and get their graduation requirements checked off.
