These Arlington Teachers Have A Leg Up On Their Peers

Any grade school teacher who’s ever dodged a spitball knows it takes some mighty fancy footwork to control a herd of rambunctious little kids.

But when it comes to the real three Rs of education - readin’, writin’ and (I got) rhythm - I give you some educators who have a definite leg up on their peers:

The Tap-Dancing Teachers of Arlington Elementary.

Every Tuesday afternoon since last fall, these 10 women make a beeline from their North Side campus to the Carol Lee Studio of Dance, 6324 N. Standard.

They slip on black patent-leather tap shoes. They do a bit of stretching. They set their feet a-clattering to recorded show tunes like “Hooray for Hollywood” and “Lullaby of Broadway.”

Tappa-snap-a-snappa-tap …

The happy hoofers invited me to a recent session as they rehearsed for their first recital in the spring.

Well, they didn’t actually invite me. I sort of barged in on them after Don Rodman, one of the husbands, tattled to me during a tennis match.

Most of these tappers have never before tapped, which means they are understandably not quite ready to shuffle off to Buffalo. Or Hillyard, for that matter.

During an exercise, in fact, a woman in a Merle Haggard T-shirt nearly body-checked one of her dancing co-workers.

Tappa-snappa-oof!

Tap dancing can be a dangerous endeavor.

These teachers don’t think they’re going to dance like Ginger Rogers. What they are doing is having a great time, blowing off some of the steam that builds from their underpaid, pressure-cooker profession.

“It’s a sure cure for a headache,” says Gena Bradford, a special education teacher. “I come in here feeling stressed and just tap it away.”

I gazed at these fine ladies clacking away with such wild, joyous abandon and a thought came to mind. I wondered what some of their more impish students might pay for a videotape with such great blackmail material.

On second thought, skip the students. The biggest bidders might be the non-tapping teachers back at Arlington.

“They say they want to show a tape of us during staff meetings,” says a laughing Pat Keene, who teaches third grade.

“We get a lot of ‘Oh, you’re so silly.’ They think we’re nuts, that’s what they think.”

Aw, what do those cynics know?

Carol Lee, the studio’s founder who teaches the class, says her academic pupils are getting better and better.

“Tap dancing is every bit as good an exercise as jogging,” adds Lee, who has had 11,000 students during her 28-year teaching career. “It works the legs. It works the mind. There’s a grace to it. Dancing encompasses so much.”

The Arlington tap-dance craze began last September, when kindergarten teacher Sue Rodman was talking to Gwen Sanders (sixth grade) and Bradford. Sanders mentioned that learning to tap was something she always wanted to do as a child.

That inspired Bradford to round up enough co-workers to fill the studio. Lee says this is the first class she’s had made up entirely of one profession.

Maye the Arlington teachers will start a trend. Can’t you just imagine a group of, say, tights-wearing proctologists doing the old soft shoe? Maybe not. But Arlington Principal John Luher may be forced to give tap dancing a whirl. The tapping teachers asked me to challenge their boss man to join them.

“Absolutely. I’d be thrilled to tap with these women,” Luher told me during a telephone interview.

I think that’s what he said. It was either that or “I’d rather kiss a mule than go tap dance with these crazy women.”

We had a fuzzy connection so I decided to make up his response.

The tappers will just have to wait until next Tuesday to see if their boss has the soul of Fred Astaire or is more of a San Diego Chicken.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color Photos