Jarman to end three decades of teaching

By Barry Porterfield
Staff Writer

May 19, 2008 10:37 am

— It’s a mix of excitement and a bit of sadness in the voice of Steve Jarman when he talks about the quickly approaching time to close out his more than three decades as a teacher in Pauls Valley.
Sure to miss that close connection in his work with students, Jarman is still looking forward to that next chapter in his life.
A reception was held Friday afternoon to honor Jarman as he is set to retire at the end of the current term after working as a teacher in the Pauls Valley School District for the past 31 years.
A product of those same schools himself since Jarman grew up in PV, he is quick to show he is also a fan of the local system.
“We’ve got an excellent school system in Pauls Valley,” Jarman said.
“It’s still small town and kids can get a good education here. It’s a good place to raise a family.”
The key to keeping it that way, he said, is the continued support of parents and the community as a whole.
Another important part of Jarman’s teaching career has been his work as the high school academic team coach, in addition to serving as the instructor for the JASON Project.
“I’ve been blessed; my involvement in the JASON Project and the success that we’ve had with that program and working with the academic team the way I did,” he said.
“I’ve been working with some wonderful students doing those things. I’ll miss it.”
Jarman’s teaching career here actually began shortly after his own work in the classroom.
In a matter of a few short weeks Jarman went from his college graduation to a summer job helping a maintenance crew put a new coating on the roofs of Pauls Valley’s schools to a job at one of those same local schools.
“I started in 1976 straight out of college. My first job was as an eighth grade math teacher,” he said adding his work was at the middle school, which today is the Lee Elementary building.
“They’d been through eight eighth grade math teachers in eight years and I took that job and had it for 20.
“I spent 14 years in one classroom. The boys’ bathroom was across the hall from me and that was my office. Anybody got in trouble they went over to the office.”
Jarman has also taught various subjects over the years at the high school and alternative school.
With so much classroom time put in Jarman can easily see some differences in education when comparing then and now.
“Back then we weren’t as stressed to cover all the material. If there were 12 chapters in a book so what if we only got to chapter 10. As long as they understood it up to that point that’s fine,” he said.
“Now there’s so much material that has to be covered by the end of the school year. And testing has put such a strain on everybody. There’s so much testing (the material) has got to be covered.”
Jarman is quick to stress he’s not talking about tests given by teachers as part of the normal curriculum in their classrooms.
Instead, he’s referring to the various state tests given to students these days.
“Testing like that is actually from my point of view just a political game.
“Tests at one time were for parents to look at their child’s strengths and weaknesses. Now this is something that the public gets a hold of and if the test scores aren’t good then they’re not doing a good job up there,” he said referring to public perception of today’s schools.
Another difference comes in an area he’s very familiar with — math.
“As far as math courses are concerned now there’s no such thing as basic math or math finance,” he said about courses geared more for basic budgeting and money management.
“They don’t offer that anymore. It’s Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II and everybody has to have that. I don’t know that I agree with that.”
Looking back Jarman cites legislation nearly two decades ago — House Bill 1017 — as something that really worked to improve schools and the educational system in Oklahoma with one of the main things being smaller class sizes.
He is hoping those improvements stay in place and even continue to move forward despite what he views as some recent political efforts to take those advancements away.
What’s next for Jarman? At the top of the list is to take an older building he’s owned for several years close to the nearby Arbuckle Lake and renovate it into a convenience store and dive shop.
Also a possibility is something with his scuba diving skills in the area of ecotourism.

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