Shortly after Joy Fett first embarked on her teaching career, she began to feel like throwing in the towel.
Fett began teaching math in a south suburban high school in the late 1960s while completing her master`s degree in teaching mathematics at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. She had earned a bachelor`s degree in math in 1966 at MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Ill.
But her education hadn`t prepared her for the racial tension and upheaval that was under way at the time on some high school and college campuses.
”It was nearly impossible trying to preserve the integrity of the classroom,” she says. ”There were race riots and student protests. There were constant outbursts in class that would send all order right out the window. It got so awful that after a couple years, I was ready to walk. At one point, I can remember thinking I`d rather do anything but what I was doing.” After teaching at one south suburban high school for three years and another for a year, Fett decided she needed a change. Before giving up on her profession altogether, she decided to look into teaching positions at the college level.
Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills, which opened in 1967, was looking for teachers to fill its classrooms. In 1970, Fett signed a one-year contract to teach classes in algebra and trigonometry.
Fett thought that teaching at the college level might be what she wanted to do, she says. Her instincts proved to be correct.
”I walked into class that first day and remember thinking how right it felt,” she says. ”I`ve been with the college 21 years now, and I really couldn`t be happier.”
Fett attributes her love of math and early interest in teaching to her high school geometry teacher. ”He was the sweetest man and an incredible teacher,” she says. ”He had so much style. Somehow he`d be able to sustain our attention for the full hour, which for any high school teacher is no easy feat. The kids really loved him, whether they liked math or not. I happened to enjoy both so I really blossomed in his class.”
She says she got A`s with very little effort. ”I think part of the reason I liked math so much was because there was always a right and a wrong. There was very little gray area. I was lucky; it just came naturally to me.
”What didn`t come so easy was learning to teach it. That I continue to work on every day.”
Nevertheless, Fett says she enjoys working with students. ”I can still see so much of myself in them,” she says. ”As long as I sense they are trying, I`ll do whatever is necessary to help them understand. Almost every student I`ve ever had at this school has been very self-motivated.”
Fett attributes this self-motivation to the atmosphere of community colleges. ”At most community colleges, student are there for one reason only: to learn. There`s not the social experience that a four-year college has to draw on. Students` goals are usually quite defined. In most cases, it`s their time, their money and their choice.”
This is not to say that students don`t sometimes try to pull a few punches. She says she is still amused and sometimes even charmed by the antics of some of her students. ”They can be amazingly creative when it comes to excuses for not having their homework,” she says, laughing.
”I just love when they`ll walk into class after being out sick for a few days and ask if they`ve missed anything important. Or when they argue for partial credit on a mathematical problem (at which) they`ve somehow managed to achieve the right answer but with worksheet calculations that make no sense whatsoever. I guess I should credit them for trying, if nothing else.”
One of Fett`s students, Bob Abrams, 36, credits her for his change in attitude toward his math studies. ”I`m taking a mathematical functions class with Joy for the second time around,” he says. ”Obviously I didn`t do all that well the first time and halfway through the course decided to just give up. Joy talked me into taking the class over again while convincing me I`d do better if I would just apply myself.
”Well, she was right. I`m doing much better now, and more importantly, I`ve proved to myself that I can do it.
”I`m very lucky to have her as a teacher,” says Abrams, who lives in a near west suburb. ”She really knows her stuff and makes every effort to see that you will too.”
Dick Fritz, mathematics department chairman, says Fett`s ability to relate to students makes her special as a teacher. ”Joy is always a student first,” he says. ”She`s curious and constantly opening her mind to new things. That`s probably why students take to her so well.”
Fett is good at gauging a student`s comprehension level and then providing what help is needed, including encouragement and praise, Fritz adds. A fellow math teacher, Donna Brann, says Fett has an unusual quality.
”She`s so dependable when it comes to the follow-through on something she`s committed to,” Brann says. ”I`ve known Joy for nearly 20 years now. When she says she`ll do something, it`s done. She takes full responsibility. She never forgets, procrastinates or finds excuses. I find that very refreshing. I think that`s probably what I respect most about her.
”She`s also one of the most totally devoted teachers I know. She`s an inspiration not only to her students but also to other teachers as well.”
Fett considers herself well suited to the college environment and says she is happy with the niche she has carved out for herself in the math department.
A resident of Evergreen Park, Fett lives with her parents in the house her family moved to when she was 4. She graduated from Evergreen Park High School in 1962.
During the summer, Fett takes long camping trips with her parents around the U.S. She has a brother living in Montana whom they plan to visit this summer. In between trips, she tends to a garden that she has been nurturing for many years.
”Nobody ever sees me while school is in session so I find myself reaquainting myself with friends and family once summer begins,” Fett says.
”The thing about teaching is that it takes a real commitment. Either you`re willing to give up a lot or your free time or you`re not. It`s not like it gets any easier the longer you`re at it.”
Fett says she believes that the future of higher education is pointing more and more in the direction of community colleges as they continue to open up to the larger population. She cites the skyrocketing cost of a college education and the cutbacks in student loans as two reasons traditional-age students are adding a community college to their list of options.
As for those who have held off entering or finishing college, for whatever reason, they also are enrolling in community colleges, she notes, as are the elderly, who are entering into degree programs more than ever.
With more than 17,000 students, including credit and non-credit, Moraine Valley is the fifth-largest community college in Illinois. The average student age is 27, Fett says. Moraine Valley offers classes in business, health care, industrial technology, liberal arts, public service and science. It was founded when a referendum was passed to establish a community college in the southwest suburbs.
