Teacher retires after long career of shaping young lives

After teaching multiple generations of students throughout the years, long-time schoolteacher Mona Horn has built up quite the portfolio of memories.

Now, after 42 years of teaching, Horn has decided it’s time to begin her retirement.

What began as an interest in Oklahoma State University’s Family Living major became Horn’s enjoyment of the childhood care aspect of the major.

Her newfound love would quickly put her on the path toward childhood education.

Upon completing her major, Horn had also completed courses in elementary conversion as well as social work and she was ready to begin her career.

“I prayed earnestly, ‘Please give me the spot that will last me, you know, that will fulfill my purpose,’” Horn said.

After a half-year teaching at Nichols Hills, a year working half-days at Cordell’s kindergarten class alongside Opal Shinn and working at United Supermarket for the other half, Horn said she had passed Shinn’s “test” before Shinn would go on to retire.

“[Mrs. Shinn] was the last year and I was the first year and we just about wore each other out, because she wanted to do it for the last time and I wanted to do it for the first time,” Horn said. “We were just having a blast with those kids and she looked at me and she said, ‘Well, I just wanted to tell you that you passed, and I’m going to retire.’ So that half-year was really a test of whether she felt I would be able to do that [job].”

Horn, who comes from a long line of teachers, said she has always loved school as well as teaching.

“I love the little kids because teaching pre-K, I get to introduce things to them first,” Horn said. “They are like little sponges. They can absorb things that you would not believe that they can remember and absorb.”

Due to this, Horn said she adopted a developmental way of teaching students.

“The way they are developmentally is where I’m going to start with them, because some children will come in not knowing how to hold a pencil, but then I’ll have another five-year-old or four-year-old that can write all of his ABCs. So I have to work my lesson plans and objectives around all the children.”

However, throughout all of her teachings, Horn believed there was one thing that was most important that her students should experience: Playing.

“In my room when you walk in, you would think it’s just a playroom, and that’s the way I want it to be. Because I’d tell my parents at Parent Night, ``If your child comes home and you asked them what they learned at school, and they say, ‘I played’, that is a good sign for me,” Horn said. “I want them to know that learning can be fun, because I’ve always said this and I always believe it, I read it somewhere, play is the work of child hood.”

Horn also made sure to praise all the students, or her “babies” as she likes to call them. She said she’s proud of all of them.

“I’ve taught long enough to where now my babies have careers and they’re productive members of society,” she said. “I started thinking about professions, and I can’t think of one profession other than an astronaut that I haven’t had. Now, I’ve had a rocket scientist... but all kinds of scientists, and doctors, and the healthcare professions, and the maintenance, and plumbing, electricians, and beauticians, and cashiers, and daycare owners, and all the professions that you could think of.”

Due to Horn’s extensive history teaching at Cordell, which includes 16 years teaching kindergarten and the past 25 years teaching pre-k, she said she has mixed feelings over her departure.

“If you can be happy and sad at the same time, that’s how I feel right now,” Horn said.

However, looking back on her history of teaching, Horn spoke with delight in her voice as she recounted tales of Parent Night, singing at the nursing and veteran’s centers, Grandparents Day, and the countless friends she made along the way.

One thing, however, continued to ring true as she described all of these things: her thankfulness for Cordell schools and its staff, and the residents.

“I’m so thankful that I’m not in Oklahoma City, you know? Because now I’m in a small community and know people. Cordell has your back,” Horn said. “[The administration] always had my back, and I hope that they think that I always had their back too. Cordell’s just a wonderful place to teach. The people that are teaching in Cordell, they have some of the biggest hearts and they’re not there just to be on the job, that is their purpose.”

One thing Horn has kept in mind since she began her career is a piece of advice her mother, who was a school teacher herself, had given her.

“Mom always told me, ‘The only thing I regret is not writing down some things that happened in my year,’ So I took her advice and I put a folder in my desk drawer at the start of every year, and anytime the kids said something funny, or the parents wrote me a note that I thought was funny, or if something happened that was funny in the school or whatever, I’d jot down that note, you know, just a simple one word with the year on it and throw it in that folder,” Horn explained.

So for the past 42 years, Horn has collected a yearly folder that she has stored away in her home. With these memories she has stored, Horn now plans to write a book.

“I’m going to write a book and I’m going to title it what one of my first kindergarten kids in Oklahoma City said. He came in and his little glasses were all crooked, they were always crooked, he had his baseball cap on and he said, ‘Ms. Horn, Ms. Horn, I can write my ABCs to a hundred.’”

Along with writing her book, Horn said she plans to spend her newfound time with her grandchildren. “My only granddaughter was born in quarantine, and I didn’t get to spend much time with her, and I lost a year with my grandchildren. I have four- three boys and a girl. So that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to play with my babies when I want to,” Horn said.

As for why she chose to retire now, Horn said she had always planned to retire when “it’s not fun anymore,” a side effect that the pandemic brought about.

“It was not fun for me to do online learning. I did it, but I liked to be with the kids. I want to be in that room, in that craziness,” she said.

“Plus the other deciding factor was, you know, we did get through quarantine and we got back, but I was tired of getting masks out of toilets, and keeping the masks on, and sanitizing everything. It took a lot of my teaching time. It took the fun out of learning. [The students] didn’t like to wear those, but it was necessary. We had to keep them safe. And thank God none of mine got seriously ill from it, and that I didn’t get it and my aides didn’t get it. So that was good.”

Horn also said another deciding factor was a recent fall she had which caused her to need spine surgery in December of last year.

Throughout all of this, Horn said she has loved all 42 years of teaching and left a few words of wisdom for those who may have an interest in an educational career.

“Have fun. Have fun learning, and teach those children that learning is fun. That will stick with them,” Horn said.

While Horn said she will miss teaching and getting to see her students every day, she also said that she will always love each one of the students she has had.

“I want them to know that I’m happy. I’m happy to see them and that I’ll be around.”