All right Welcome back to Tell Me What Happened,
the podcast that features folks from all walks
of life telling us one childhood experience and
how that event impacted who they are today. I'm
your host, Jay Rehack, and like you, I've had
my share of childhood experiences that have impacted
who I am today. Some of those experiences were
quite painful, some were pleasurable, but I like
to think that whatever happened to me back in
the day has helped make me a better person. Tell
Me What Happened is sponsored by Sideline Ink
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Alright! Today I have as my guest a good friend
of mine, a man I've known for many years. Mark
Renz, a retired Chicago public high school history
teacher and administrator. He is married with
a wonderful wife and daughter. His journey to
his life as a history teacher began back in elementary
school. Welcome, Mark Renz. Thanks, Jay. Glad
to be with you today. I'm a lifelong Chicagoan,
and I grew up on the south side of Chicago in
the back of the yards neighborhood in the 1950s
and 60s. If the wind was blowing just the right
way, you could smell the stockyards. That's how
close we were. The stockyards were located around
43rd and Halstead, which was about two miles
from where I live. At the time, you also could
hear the scoreboard go off at Comiskey Park after
the White Sox hit a home run for their fireworks
display, because we were that close to the ballpark.
So that's kind of the area of Chicago I grew
up in. Every great journey begins with the first
step. My first step in education was September
of 1955. I went to P .M. kindergarten at Hedges
Elementary School, which is located at 4800 South
Winchester. No such thing as a charter school.
No such thing as a magnet school. They were neighborhood
schools. So you went to the school closest to
your house. My first year in school was that
September, and I'll be honest with you, I may
have some type of record here. I have gone to
school for 51 consecutive years in September.
You can add it up. Nine years of elementary school,
four years of high school, four years of college,
and 34 years as a high school teacher and assistant
principal in the Chicago Public School System.
Kindergarten? What do I remember? Only thing
I remember about kindergarten is that we took
a nap every day. My teacher was miss... Betnagle,
my progress was satisfactory. But history teachers
are born, and this was the beginning of my education.
But more about history is coming. After finishing
kindergarten year, my parents enrolled me at
St. Cyril's Catholic Elementary School, which
was located at 50th and Hermitage in the Back
of the Yards neighborhood. It was a small eight
-classroom school, grades one through eight.
The classes were very large, 40 students in each
room. All the teachers were Franciscan nuns who
lived in the convent that was right next to the
school. I never gave any thought of the teachers
all being nuns. That's just the way it was. But
that changed, and this is the beginning of my
journey. That changed when I entered third grade.
Our teacher was a lay person, not a nun. Her
name was Miss Marion Hessek, and her family's
was members of the Saint Cyril's Church Parish.
She actually lived in the family home at the
south end of the block of 50th and Hermitage,
which is where the school was located. She simply
walked out her front door, walked a half a block
north, and she was at school each and every day.
After struggling through rain, wind, and snow
to get to work for 34 years, it's impossible
to appreciate how close she lived and how nice
that was. Being eight years old in third grade,
I do remember her being a very kind and caring
teacher as the nuns at the school all went by
their religious name like Sister Ann or Sister
Louise Marie. Miss Marion Hessek was simply Miss
Marion. The school year ended and it was time
to move up to fourth grade and back to one of
the Franciscan nuns as my teacher. Uneventful
fourth grade and it was time to move up to fifth
grade. I truly do mean it was time to move up.
St. Cyril's was two floors of school classrooms,
and grades one through four were on the first
floor. Grades five through eight were on the
second floor. So in September of 1960, I moved
up to the fifth grade classroom, which was on
the second floor. Well, to my surprise, and my
good fortune, my fifth grade teacher walked into
the room, and it was Miss Marion, the seeds of
me becoming a history teacher. is now removed
from the seed packet. Ms. Marion for some reason
took a liking to me and I would become what at
the time would be referred to as a teacher's
pet. Each teacher taught all their subjects to
the class each and every year in that school.
I remember for the first time we began studying
history. Ms. Marion got me interested in studying
history. My fifth grade year coincided with the
hundredth anniversary of the beginning of the
Civil War. So Miss Marion was instrumental in
fostering my interest in history with lessons
about the United States history. I did not put
together the concept of my interest in history
and becoming a history teacher at that point,
but unbeknownst to me, the acorn that turns into
a mighty oak tree, the seed of me becoming a
history teacher was planted into the ground.
Now that planet history teacher seed needed to
be watered to take root. Enter my dad. My dad
Raymond Renz now enters the picture. He worked
for a shipping company and a printing company
called Cuneo Press. This was a company that printed
textbooks as well as general interest books.
Cuneo Press was located on the south side of
Chicago near Halston Street and Archer Avenue.
My dad was always able to bring books home. One
book that he gave me, which I still have, was
about World War II and the Battle of Guadalcanal.
My dad was a U .S. Marine in World War II who
actually served at Guadalcanal in 1943. The seed
planted to encourage me to study history by Miss
Marion was taking root with my dad's help. Good
fortune came my way via my dad as CUNYO Press
printed the American People's Encyclopedia, all
20 volumes packed with information, everything
from A to Z. This would be the 1960s version
of Wikipedia. My dad acquired a set of encyclopedias
for our home. Now, when Miss Marion taught history,
I could go home and look it up in the encyclopedia.
I was immersed in the Civil War, as I mentioned
previously that 1961 was the 100th anniversary
of the Civil War's beginning. I learned about
Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, the Battle of
Gettysburg. Learning about history and the Civil
War was at my fingertips with the encyclopedias.
The teacher seed began to emerge from the ground
as a tiny sampling. Grade five turned into grade
six, that turned into grade seven. My interest
in history continued. As most boys did in those
days, I collected baseball cards. The current
players were my idols, but my interest in history
brought me back to the golden era of baseball.
I used the encyclopedias to learn about the all
-time greats like Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, and Cy
Young. Crazy as it sounds, At the time, there
were trading cards also available about pirates.
And that led me to learn all about people like
John Teach and Blackbeard. And that was my beginning
of learning about world history. The tiny tree
was beginning to have a leaf or two on it on
my road to becoming a history teacher. The 1960s
were a time for kids to have coin and stamp collections.
And I learned all about the world via stamps.
And I once had an 1804 large cent, which was
what we would today call a penny, but it was
the size of a quarter. As a budding historian,
I held a coin in my hand and said to myself,
wow, Thomas Jefferson could have held this coin.
My interest in history was expanding. Jumping
to eighth grade, Sister Patrona is our teacher,
but in a move that never happened before, Miss
Marion came into our classroom to be our history
teacher. We studied US history that year, and
two things stand out in my mind from that school
year. First, Friday, November 22nd, 1963. The
first Roman Catholic president, John F. Kennedy,
was assassinated. It was one of those days in
history, like 9 -11, when you remembered where
you were and what you were doing at that fateful
moment. It was after lunch and we were in our
classroom when the news came out. Miss Marion
brought in a black and white television on a
large cart so we could watch the events unfold.
It was a dramatic and heartbreaking day. Again,
this enhanced my interest in history through
her. The second event in eighth grade that steered
me toward history was part of our class's ongoing
cycle of student debates. Usually four students
on either side of a controversial topic. The
topic was proposed and this one immediately got
my attention. Should a woman be president of
the United States? This is 1964 and way before
women's lived for sure. I made a bid to be on
the team that was anti -woman for president but
failed to secure a spot on that team. There was
mega competition to be on that side of the argument.
So in true spirit of the legal profession of
being able to argue either side of an argument,
I joined the side that favored a woman being
president of the United States. Definitely a
controversial move on my part. Being in favor
of a woman president was not a popular side to
take. So getting on that side of the argument
was pretty easy. I do not remember how the debate
turned out, but again, my interest in history
was magnified by Miss Marion's tactic of getting
students involved in current events. The history
teacher and me continued to grow. We did have
a career fair when I was in eighth grade. I actually
remember going to a meeting and becoming a pharmacist,
but it really was not a career path that interested
me too much because of its math and science component.
Eighth grade graduation took place time for high
school. High school came along and went freshman
year, English, algebra, general science, Latin,
typing, no history class, sophomore year, civics,
but we didn't do much in Father Lawrence's class
than read through the textbook. But things took
a big turn in my favor in junior year. It was
time for US history. The teacher, Father Novak,
approached the subject like a college class,
thus taking lecture notes every day. My interest
in history was revived. For senior year, my schedule
was wide open for electives, so I was able to
take sociology, geography, contemporary history.
I was hooked. I remembered Miss Marion had always
encouraged me to do my best in school. And I
saw her periodically at church events, and she
was always encouraging me to give 100 % effort.
Senior year was my best year in high school.
I was finally able to take classes that interested
me. It was my high school junior year and senior
year experiences in social studies classes that
sealed the thought in my mind that Miss Mary
and my great elementary school teacher, who instilled
a love and history in me, and I decided that
I should become a history teacher. There was
a career day for seniors in my final year of
high school at St. Rita. I went to a meeting
to become an agent for the FBI. There were so
many guys that wanted to be at that meeting they
had to have it in the gym. We sat in the bleachers.
But the other meeting I went to was in a classroom
and it was for becoming a teacher. My fate was
sealed. Good fortune enters the picture in my
senior year of high school. There was a gigantic
teacher shortage in the late 1960s. The state
of Illinois was awarding teacher training scholarships
to high school students. could be able to attend
a state school free of charge with a teacher
training scholarship. Each high school was awarded
one scholarship for every 100 students enrolled
in the school. Well, St. Rita at the time had
an enrollment of about 2 ,000 students, so there
were about 20 scholarships up for grabs. I heard
the PA announcement about the scholarship program,
went to the main office, put my name on the list
for students interested in obtaining one of the
scholarships. Here's an amazing part, no interview.
I believed that I had to submit a transcript
to be considered. I simply got a letter in the
mail saying, you have been awarded a teacher
training scholarship by the state of Illinois.
Amazing. Now I can go to college for free. But
where do I go to school? Easy choice for me.
I live near Chicago Teachers College, which is
located at 6900 South Stewart Avenue at that
time on the south side of Chicago. My Chicago
Teachers College application was three pages,
and it folded out. The last page was an essay.
Why do you want to become a teacher? I have no
recollection of what I wrote, but would love
to see that letter today. High school graduation
had my history teacher tree growing toward the
sunlight. While at Teachers College, I kept getting
encouragement from Miss Marion as I saw her from
time to time at church events. She was always
in my corner. There were 43 students in my eighth
grade classroom, and to my knowledge, two of
us became teachers. I think that would have made
her proud to know the career path that I chose.
Chicago Teachers College was a perfect fit for
me. I was finally in a position to take classes
that interested me, heavy on history, political
science, geography, and education, and light
on my least favorite subjects, math and science.
I did my best academic work of my life in college
and graduated with high honors. That's why I
began working in Chicago Public Schools as a
substitute teacher, eventually becoming a history
teacher at Gage Park. The history teacher in
me was beginning to be established. Then onto
teaching history at High Park High School and
eventually becoming an assistant principal at
Whitney Young Young Magnet High School. Sometimes
you have an aha moment and it's immediate and
things happen for you. But my aha moment simmered
over a long period of time before it became a
reality. I thank Miss Marion for planting a seed
in my mind to learn about history. I was able
to become a history teacher because of her nurturing
style, her example as being a superior teacher,
and her never -ending encouragement that put
me on the path to my career as a teacher. I enjoy
teaching history and always strive to keep my
students interested in learning about the past.
After 34 years at the Chicago Public Schools,
my tree was matured and it was time to leave
education to the younger trees in the forest.
It was time for retirement. And that's my story.
Well, thank you, Mark. I know you as the assistant
principal over at Whitney Young, because I work
with you. So I didn't know your story. I thank
Miss Marion for starting you on that path. And
I think that all of the experiences that you
articulated in terms of even your father working
at a printing press and bringing home books that
sort of sparked your further interest, I understand
the metaphor pretty clearly. I think I get why
know how it's impacted your life because it really
was your professional life don't you think? Very
much so. I had great role models and she was
my favorite teacher of all time. She was a great
role model and you know my dad pitched in and
helped me by bringing those encyclopedias home
and always encouraging me and here's a great
story. I have all of his memorabilia from World
War II and on his intake sheet with the United
States Marine Corps he had to answer a bunch
of questions. They asked him what his favorite
school subject was. She checked the box and wrote
down history. All right. You never mentioned
it to me, but I just learned that by reading
it. Chip off the old block. Do you know if Miss
Marion's still alive, by the way? Well, I'm going
to say she'd have to be around 90 now, so I'm
going to guess not. She did become a principal
of a Catholic school in the suburbs after St.
Cyril's school closed. All right. Big shout out
to Miss Marion Hasek, if you're out there. Thank
you so much for giving us Mark Renz, history
teacher extraordinaire. Thank you, Mark, also
for coming on the show and detailing your journey
into your profession. Thanks also to our sponsors,
Sidelining Publishing, publishers of quality
books, including Susan Seller's classic, One
Little Act of Kindness, and laughsaver .com.
Visit laughsaver .com and record your laughter
or the laughter of someone you love. You can
also download the Laugh Saver app on your Android
or Apple iPhone. All right, I'm going to end
this show a little bit differently this time.
In honor of Mark and his profession, I'm going
to end it with a song that has a little bit of
history to it. It's called When Will She Come
Down, and it tells the story of Amelia Earhart.
And we all do wonder when she'll come down. So
until next time, this is Jay Reheck asking you
all to please stay safe out there and try not
to hurt anybody.