TEACHER'S CORNER: EXPERIENCES WITH HER OWN CHILDREN URGE PARENT TO TEACH

BENTON -- After raising two children and sending them off to school, Vera Hennemann decided she couldn't be just a parent. She wanted to teach as well.

Seeing her children interact with school friends and teachers motivated Hennemann to attend college.

"Through them I saw how important it is for teachers to work with all levels of students and to treat each one as an individual," she said.

Hennemann teaches seventh- and eighth-grade students at St. Denis School in Benton.

"It takes both teachers and parents to make it possible for children to learn and develop morals and values that will result in a better and brighter society for the future," Hennemann said.

"As a teacher and parent, I believe children should be taught right and wrong and be able to make the decision for themselves as to what is right and wrong," she said.

Being both a parent and teacher was a little difficult for Hennemann at first. She's only been teaching for three years.

"I remember the first year I taught," she said. "I wanted the students to like me, but I also wanted their respect. It bothered me when they would complain or didn't like it when I would discipline them."

But then she started treating her students like she did her own children. "They would do as I said and then get over being upset and we got along just fine," she said, adding that one of the students really was her own child -- her daughter, Crystal.

Although they learned to obey Hennemann, her students didn't understand why people obeyed Adolph Hitler during World War II.

"They couldn't understand why all the Jews didn't just flee to other countries or why anyone listened to and did what Hitler commanded," Hennemann said, adding that the class also read "The Diary of Anne Frank."

As part of their lesson on World War II, the class spent an afternoon in silence, similar to the Jews in hiding, she added.

"The students didn't mind keeping quiet a couple of hours but they didn't think they would like doing it as long as those who were living in hiding," Hennemann said.

She and her husband, Alan, have two children, Beau and Crystal.