By Luke Frazier
Contributor
If you took a guess at how long Laura Van Horn had been teaching kids, just based on the energy and exuberant attitude that pours forth in a conversation with her, you’d be forgiven for thinking she was somewhere in her first few years, fully hitting her stride and dialed in. But you’d be way wrong.
Van Horn just started her 37th year of teaching, the last four as a second-grade teacher at Bluffton Elementary. When you hear her talk about teaching, the depth of reflection and insight on display is uplifting, one of those situations where you’re aware that you’re in the presence of a powerful alignment between the personal and the professional.
Van Horn says going to work each day remains rewarding. “I still find joy in what I do, in the student’s discovery of knowledge, helping students over the hurdles they may face.”
The alignment between passion and purpose was also obvious to the members of The Foundation for Educational Excellence Board, which just presented her with the “Above & Beyond” Award, along with a $1,000 grant for use in her classroom.
The award is given each year to the Beaufort County School District’s Teacher of the Year in honor of former Beaufort County Board of Education member Dr. Wayne Carbiener. Van Horn was named the District Teacher of the Year in September and is in the running for the State Teacher of the Year.
Van Horn, a National Board-Certified Teacher, holds a Master’s Degree in Educational Administration and a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from West Virginia University.
She says the cold sparked the move for her and husband from her native West Virginia to the Lowcountry, though she still returns there in the summer to help educate teachers, a role she takes seriously. “I believe strongly that I have to be a role model for younger teachers, and I enjoy the intellectual challenge of thinking about what kids need in order to learn.”
Van Horn says if there is a secret to teaching it is related to the alchemy of finding the right things to help specific kids learn at just the right time. She talks about constantly reshaping her lessons to reach students who are unique individuals, asking herself what she must do to make the content work for them in this moment. Van Horn says this is what makes teaching such a challenging profession.
When not in the midst of lesson plans, Van Horn says you might find her at Driessen Beach Park with a book, probably some kind of historical fiction. What Van Horn says is not fiction is how hard teachers she knows work for their students. For her personally, it is about a kind of mutuality that is established, “Kids expect me to show up and do my best, and we can’t expect them to show up and do their best if we don’t show up for them.”
Karen Van Horn’s long-term commitment to teaching demonstrates the essential beauty of that statement.
Luke Frazier is a writer and award-winning media producer who recently transplanted to the Lowcountry. He runs NOW Communications, which focuses on the needs of mission-driven organizations (nowandfuturecomms@gmail.com / (216) 633-6970).
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