Neff Retiring After 42 Years; Taught At Her Childhood School
May 16, 2019 at 11:42 p.m.
By David [email protected]
As a teacher, she spent her entire 42-year career teaching third grade at Madison except during her first five years teaching kindergarten.
“It was my dream. I wanted to teach here because this was where I went to school,” Neff said, noting that when she went to and started her career at Madison, the school was on North Union Street, Warsaw. The new Madison building was opened in 2010 on West CR 300N.
Neff has decided to retire at the end of this school year.
“I might do substitute teaching one or two days a week. ... That way I wouldn’t lose touch with the children,” Neff said.
“I?just felt it was time. ... I just felt a sense of completion. That I’m ready to go on to the next thing God has for me, the next chapter of my life, because I’m hoping they’ll be many more chapters,” she said.
Fellow teacher Terry Sims said Neff has been a big part of Madison. “When I think of her, I think of her kindness toward children and how much she cares about kids, and how dedicated she is to her job,” he said.
The only two years Neff didn’t go to Madison as a child were second and third grade. For those years, she went to Atwood.
“We were closer to Madison, but (we) just moved right there on the Tippecanoe River, and we were on the wrong side of the road in a tri-level, so I was bused to Atwood for second and third. The rest of the time, I was at Madison,” she recalled.
Neff said she wanted to become a teacher at Madison because it felt like home.
“And Bill Farrar was my principal. Of course, he’s gone, but it just felt like home. I just loved the school, the neighborhood,” she said.
“I used to walk, because we lived in the neighborhood, to school every day. On Halloween we had the Halloween parade all the way down. The people would sit in their front yards and we’d do a complete block in our costumes. It was just a home-feeling here,” Neff said.
Neff has seen many students come and go over the years, and some of those students’ children have gone through her class, too.
“I just hear that from children, that ‘you were my mom’s teacher, you were my dad’s teacher.’ It’s exciting to know that I was a part of that aspect of their life and that they remembered me,” Neff said.
She started teaching at Madison in 1977. She spent the first five years teaching kindergarten, then moved to third grade.
“I love third-graders. It’s just they’re eager to learn and they’re just the perfect age, I think,” Neff said.
In kindergarten, she had the Alpha Time people, which were inflatable people representing the different letters of the alphabet.
“That’s how we learned our sounds. We had the songs. It was just so much fun. Now I have a kindergartner, that’s a grandson, and now they’re reading books by the time they leave kindergarten. It’s unbelievable ... so advanced,” she said.
Another big change to teaching over the years, she said, is the testing.
“There’s I-READ, ILEARN and WEA, and then our Illuminate test every quarter. It’s a lot,” she said.
Neff won’t miss the testing, but she’s going to miss the children.
“I love the children, and to see the impact that you have from the beginning of the year to the end, and just to see them, like light bulbs, light up with what they’ve learned,” she said.
Principal Ben Barkey said, “Honey Neff is great. I wish I could be her principal longer than the two years I got to work with her.”
He agreed that losing her is losing a big part of the school.
“She’s not only a (former) Madison student, she’s been here for 42 years. She is a big part of Madison. It will be different. But we’re excited – anytime somebody’s put in that many years for education, we’re definitely excited for them. She’s earned it, five times over,” Barkey said.
After retiring, Neff hopes to travel and continue her mission work in Haiti. She helps at a school of 120 children in Desarmes, a remote area with no electricity and no running water.
“My mission work is very, very important to me,” she said.
It was her father, the Rev. John Reid, who got her into mission work.
“My father took me when it was my first year after I got out of college because my daughter was born and my daughter was young and I was staying home with her, and my dad said he was going to take me on a mission trip because I was a little disappointed because I really wanted to get a teaching job. But now I know God just wanted me to be subbing that year with my daughter, being 100% with her,” Neff said.
While she went on the mission trip with her dad, her mom stayed home with her daughter. They worked at an orphange her father had started in Haiti.
“And wow! I was just amazed at the need there and so it’s just kept me coming back every year. Every year. A couple of times a year. So I took my children when they were young. Every year that was a part of our summer, going to Haiti. That was every Christmas, we were in Haiti.”
Neff was involved in mission work for over 40 years, and her children – Veronica, Monica, Rochella and Lenny – have been a part of that too. There was a period when Haiti was experiencing political unrest and they couldn’t go. Veronica Helser and her husband said they needed to get back and carry the baton Reid had started. That’s when they got introduced to the Desarmes school.
“It was definitely a calling from God,” she said.
Neff’s three daughters are also involved in education, while Lenny works at Zimmer Biomet.
Lenny was adopted from Haiti and Neff said that was “such a blessing. My girls fell in love with little Lenny, and to be able to get him out of the country on an education visa and then we adopted him and he became a part of our family, that was definitely a highlight of my life.”
Neff said she hopes her three daughters got involved in education through her influence.
“I hope to think it was. I hope they just felt the calling, that God called them to that because they’re excellent,” she said.
Helser said, “I grew up in my mom's classroom. It was like a second home. I would watch her with amazement as she masterfully taught and inspired children. I remember one time as I was observing her help a little girl, I thought, she is changing lives. Even though I was a young teenager at the time, I knew I wanted to be a teacher because it was the greatest profession in the world.
“My mom taught me that getting the opportunity to speak into the lives of children every day is the greatest gift you could ever have and, if you are lucky enough to get that gift from God, you should feel honored. She has made me the teacher I am today.”
To any new teachers coming to Madison, Neff offered one simple piece of advice: “To love the children and be the advocate for them.”
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As a teacher, she spent her entire 42-year career teaching third grade at Madison except during her first five years teaching kindergarten.
“It was my dream. I wanted to teach here because this was where I went to school,” Neff said, noting that when she went to and started her career at Madison, the school was on North Union Street, Warsaw. The new Madison building was opened in 2010 on West CR 300N.
Neff has decided to retire at the end of this school year.
“I might do substitute teaching one or two days a week. ... That way I wouldn’t lose touch with the children,” Neff said.
“I?just felt it was time. ... I just felt a sense of completion. That I’m ready to go on to the next thing God has for me, the next chapter of my life, because I’m hoping they’ll be many more chapters,” she said.
Fellow teacher Terry Sims said Neff has been a big part of Madison. “When I think of her, I think of her kindness toward children and how much she cares about kids, and how dedicated she is to her job,” he said.
The only two years Neff didn’t go to Madison as a child were second and third grade. For those years, she went to Atwood.
“We were closer to Madison, but (we) just moved right there on the Tippecanoe River, and we were on the wrong side of the road in a tri-level, so I was bused to Atwood for second and third. The rest of the time, I was at Madison,” she recalled.
Neff said she wanted to become a teacher at Madison because it felt like home.
“And Bill Farrar was my principal. Of course, he’s gone, but it just felt like home. I just loved the school, the neighborhood,” she said.
“I used to walk, because we lived in the neighborhood, to school every day. On Halloween we had the Halloween parade all the way down. The people would sit in their front yards and we’d do a complete block in our costumes. It was just a home-feeling here,” Neff said.
Neff has seen many students come and go over the years, and some of those students’ children have gone through her class, too.
“I just hear that from children, that ‘you were my mom’s teacher, you were my dad’s teacher.’ It’s exciting to know that I was a part of that aspect of their life and that they remembered me,” Neff said.
She started teaching at Madison in 1977. She spent the first five years teaching kindergarten, then moved to third grade.
“I love third-graders. It’s just they’re eager to learn and they’re just the perfect age, I think,” Neff said.
In kindergarten, she had the Alpha Time people, which were inflatable people representing the different letters of the alphabet.
“That’s how we learned our sounds. We had the songs. It was just so much fun. Now I have a kindergartner, that’s a grandson, and now they’re reading books by the time they leave kindergarten. It’s unbelievable ... so advanced,” she said.
Another big change to teaching over the years, she said, is the testing.
“There’s I-READ, ILEARN and WEA, and then our Illuminate test every quarter. It’s a lot,” she said.
Neff won’t miss the testing, but she’s going to miss the children.
“I love the children, and to see the impact that you have from the beginning of the year to the end, and just to see them, like light bulbs, light up with what they’ve learned,” she said.
Principal Ben Barkey said, “Honey Neff is great. I wish I could be her principal longer than the two years I got to work with her.”
He agreed that losing her is losing a big part of the school.
“She’s not only a (former) Madison student, she’s been here for 42 years. She is a big part of Madison. It will be different. But we’re excited – anytime somebody’s put in that many years for education, we’re definitely excited for them. She’s earned it, five times over,” Barkey said.
After retiring, Neff hopes to travel and continue her mission work in Haiti. She helps at a school of 120 children in Desarmes, a remote area with no electricity and no running water.
“My mission work is very, very important to me,” she said.
It was her father, the Rev. John Reid, who got her into mission work.
“My father took me when it was my first year after I got out of college because my daughter was born and my daughter was young and I was staying home with her, and my dad said he was going to take me on a mission trip because I was a little disappointed because I really wanted to get a teaching job. But now I know God just wanted me to be subbing that year with my daughter, being 100% with her,” Neff said.
While she went on the mission trip with her dad, her mom stayed home with her daughter. They worked at an orphange her father had started in Haiti.
“And wow! I was just amazed at the need there and so it’s just kept me coming back every year. Every year. A couple of times a year. So I took my children when they were young. Every year that was a part of our summer, going to Haiti. That was every Christmas, we were in Haiti.”
Neff was involved in mission work for over 40 years, and her children – Veronica, Monica, Rochella and Lenny – have been a part of that too. There was a period when Haiti was experiencing political unrest and they couldn’t go. Veronica Helser and her husband said they needed to get back and carry the baton Reid had started. That’s when they got introduced to the Desarmes school.
“It was definitely a calling from God,” she said.
Neff’s three daughters are also involved in education, while Lenny works at Zimmer Biomet.
Lenny was adopted from Haiti and Neff said that was “such a blessing. My girls fell in love with little Lenny, and to be able to get him out of the country on an education visa and then we adopted him and he became a part of our family, that was definitely a highlight of my life.”
Neff said she hopes her three daughters got involved in education through her influence.
“I hope to think it was. I hope they just felt the calling, that God called them to that because they’re excellent,” she said.
Helser said, “I grew up in my mom's classroom. It was like a second home. I would watch her with amazement as she masterfully taught and inspired children. I remember one time as I was observing her help a little girl, I thought, she is changing lives. Even though I was a young teenager at the time, I knew I wanted to be a teacher because it was the greatest profession in the world.
“My mom taught me that getting the opportunity to speak into the lives of children every day is the greatest gift you could ever have and, if you are lucky enough to get that gift from God, you should feel honored. She has made me the teacher I am today.”
To any new teachers coming to Madison, Neff offered one simple piece of advice: “To love the children and be the advocate for them.”
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