TEACHER'S CORNER: RAUH ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR SHAPING YOUNGSTERS' LIVES

Mary Rauh doesn't take her job as a teacher lightly.

"It is very humbling when I think that I am partly responsible for shaping young lives and future leaders," Rauh said.

She teaches fifth grade at St. Paul Lutheran School in Jackson.

"Working with children keeps me in touch with fresh, new ideas," she said, "and stimulates me to thinking creatively in order to keep pace with their inquisitive minds and endless energy."

Rauh credits her family and church for her decision to become a teacher.

"Several members of my family were teachers, and throughout my first eight years in a two-room school in Texas, I was guided by two dedicated teachers," she said.

"The thrilling prospect of playing the piano in church and singing with children led me to make music a major emphasis in preparing to become a Lutheran educator."

Rauh is a graduate of Concordia Teachers' College in Seward, Neb. She has taken additional courses at Southeast Missouri State University. She has taught at St. Paul School for 24 years.

She helps her students learn to develop the ability to organize their time and materials.

"I work with a system of merits and demerits to reward their accomplishments in reaching certain goals in completing assignments, organizing materials and behavior," she said.

The school has added the Accelerated Reading Program.

"It is a computer program that quizzes the students on selected books they have read, and offers rewards at progressive levels of attainment," Rauh said.

She remembers back in 1964 when the St. Louis Cardinals were playing the New York Yankees in the World Series.

"Another teacher had a television in his room and would periodically come to my room to report the score," Rauh said.

"At one point he reported, `Tim McCarver has just hit a home run, and the Cardinals are ahead. And, by the way, they just announced that Khruschev has just been ousted.'

"When he left the room, little Freddie turned to me and asked very innocently, `What team was he on?'"

Rauh lives with her husband, Dale, who is corporate planner at St. Francis Medical Center.

They have two daughters, Wendy, a student at Southeast Missouri State University, and Jamie, a student at Kansas State University.

Her interests include gardening, art and music. She enjoys playing the piano, singing and attending concerts. She also accompanies some of the school choirs.