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JACKSON NEIGHBORS: Through years of changes, Henderson remains
The first thing Bobbie Henderson did when she learned she was the longest currently-serving school employee was laugh. Then, she waxed philosophical.
“It’s gone by fast,” she told her second period science students. “It wasn’t long ago I was going to this same school as a student. The other day I looked in the mirror and I thought, “There’s so many places to go,” and it made me sad because I realized I’m not going to get to go to all those places. Don’t let the grass grow under your feet.”
Generations of Jackson County residents (including Sylva Police Chief Jeff Jamison and Herald Sports Editor Carey Phillips) have gotten a Bobbie Henderson education.
With the start of every new school year come hundreds of changes. Each year brings new students into the system; teachers and administrators leave and are replaced; buildings are torn down, remodeled and built (though not always on schedule); textbooks are rewritten. The front page of last week’s edition of The Herald carried a story of some changes at the schools this year.
Through it all, for more than 36 years now, one thing has stayed the same – students find Henderson at Smoky Mountain High School.
Henderson’s seen her share of new things in more than three decades.
“Boy, has it changed,” she said.
Record keeping has moved from roll books to computer logs. Principals have come and gone. Freshman have come in, and seniors have left. But over all that time, Henderson maintains student personalities haven’t changed all that much.
“A lot of people say the students have changed, but I’m not sure I completely buy into that. Human nature is still the same. The students are still inquisitive. They still want to do the right thing, for the most part. Basically, they’re still the same,” she said.
Henderson graduated from Sylva-Webster High School in 1966, and then continued her education at Western Carolina University. She’s been with Jackson County Schools since 1969.
“I really got into teaching because there wasn’t a nursing program at Western, but I really love it,” she said. “Most of the years I’ve liked it. There have been times, and I think everybody in any career has these times, when I thought, ‘Gee, I don’t really like this right now.’ But then the next day I love it again.”
Most people don’t stay in one job as long as Henderson has, and she knows that. She’s thought about retiring, she said, but she’s just not sure what she would do.
“I haven’t found anything I’d really like to do,” she said. “But I would really like to travel, get around the world. Maybe when my husband retires we can do that, but I know my time’s running short, I guess I won’t get to see everything.”
Maybe Henderson will never get to see the whole world herself, but she’s already helped generations of students go places they never could have without her. And that’s worth more than any passport stamp.
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