For Fed-Up Miner, It’s Elementary In District 81, 116 Women And 3 Men Teach First Grade

Guy Hirschi was a frustrated coal miner studying forestry at the University of Idaho when he discovered teaching. It happened quite by accident.

Hirschi, then 30, needed a part-time job to support his family, and the college employment office sent him to an in-house kindergarten.

“After one semester, I said, ‘Wow! This is what I want to do.”’

Hirschi’s father, also a miner, was surprised at his son’s choice, too. Even baffled. He’d tell his friends, “He’s going into education, but he’s going to coach,”’ Hirschi recalls.

“I’d say, ‘No, Dad, I’m going to teach.”’ A decade later, Hirschi rules Room 101-A at Jefferson Elementary School on the South Hill. He and the other two men who teach first grade in District 81’s 35 elementary schools are outnumbered by 116 women. No men teach kindergarten and only a few teach second grade.

Hirschi’s college professors told him there was a dire need for men in primary education.

He specialized in the field, hooked on watching little eyes light up when kids learned to sound out words. Hirschi was surprised when the first places he applied interviewed him only for grades four and higher.

“I figured it was a gender thing,” he said.

Hirschi held out and found work at Jefferson, where he darts around, dodging construction-paper holiday turkeys hanging from the ceiling. Hirschi inspects hurt fingers, reminds kids to raise their hands, explains the difference between question marks and periods. He loves it, even though he barely earns what he did in the mines 10 years ago.

“Money’s not the issue. For me, it’s the quality of life, coming home happy every night. It’s helped me be a better parent, a better father.”

At Jefferson, Hirschi has developed a following.

“A lot of parents that request me. They’re moms looking for a male role model. I realize that’s a role I play.”

He smiled. “I wish it were just because I’m a good teacher.”

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