Ruth Schemel (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)

In the 33 years since Special Educator Ruth Schemel began teaching in Harvard, the school has had three name changes—first the Brown Building, then Harvard Elementary, and now Hildreth Elementary. Principals and superintendents have come and gone. Yet, through it all, Schemel has remained a rock of consistency, teaching Special Education students with learning and physical disabilities, autism, visual and hearing impairments, attention deficit, emotional disabilities, and developmental delays.

Schemel knew at a very early age that she wanted to teach. Back in sixth grade, she used to visit a class of students at her school with cognitive impairments, and from then on she was hooked on teaching students with special needs. "Apart from having fleeting thoughts of being a photographer for Life or National Geographic magazines early in my career, I've always wanted to teach," she says.

Schemel grew up in Wellesley, graduated from MacMurray College in Illinois, and earned a master's degree in special education at Boston University. Today Schemel lives in Acton with her husband, Craig, and their two college-age children, Justine, a senior, and Mark, a freshman.

Her career began at the Community Education and Rehabilitation Center, now called the Fernald Developmental Center in Waltham, the oldest publicly-funded institution serving developmentally disabled people in the United States. There she taught multi-handicapped children who were cognitively impaired, and worked with an interdisciplinary team of social workers, speech and language therapists, occupational and physical therapists, and psychologists. "I learned at a very young professional age to work with and have great respect for professionals in other disciplines that were working with my students and their families," she says.

Schemel has fond memories of the Brown Building, where she began teaching in 1977. She remembers enjoying the beautiful sunsets almost every day from her classroom overlooking Old Bromfield and the pond. "The Brown Building had character and a personality all its own," she says. "If I went up the wrong set of stairs, I would miss the second floor altogether. If you plugged in a filmstrip or an overhead projector in the wrong socket, you would blow a fuse and the lights and clock would go out not only in your room, but also in the classroom next door. One needed a giant pole to open or close the huge windows."

Over the years, Special Education has changed considerably, especially with the demands of paperwork and new regulations. "When I started in Harvard, the average Individualized Educational Plan was three to four pages long," she says. "Now the average IEP is 15 pages. The most frustrating part of the job is the amount of paperwork. The most rewarding part is seeing the 'aha!' moment when a student understands something, improves his rate or accuracy in reading, makes a great connection in reading, correctly solves the math problem, or figures out how to count coins or do two-step word problems."

Schemel studies and applies the latest research and best practices to teach her students effectively. She loves the variety of groups she teaches every day. "I also love seeing a student for more than one year to get that momentum and to see that long-term growth," she says. "It is important to respect and understand how each student learns and to use it to enable them to learn to the best of their ability and be proud of that. And to listen carefully when they don't understand, and then figure out why." Her favorite children's book is The Little Engine That Could, because it expresses her strongest belief: getting students to believe in themselves and see the growth they've made which is critical for success in life.

Schemel believes a teacher's job is "never, ever finished" no matter what you teach because there is always more to learn. When she has some spare time, Schemel enjoys reading, gardening, cooking, walking, traveling, and visiting friends both near and far. When she retires, she plans to volunteer to make up for all the volunteering she couldn't do while teaching and raising a family. Her travel plans are on hold for a bit longer until the college tuition payments end. She agrees with her mother, who always said, "Give me a ticket, and I'll go anywhere."

Reesa Yarkin, a retired HES speech/language pathologist, sums up how many people feel about Schemel. "Ruth's rye sense of humor, her warmth, kindness, and her love of children … she is a dedicated professional."

Suzanne Mahoney is interim principal of Hildreth Elementary School.