EAST ALTON/WOOD RIVER - Mark Maendele has spent 30 years teaching at East Alton-Wood River High School, and as he prepares to retire, he’s following his own advice to “smell the roses.”
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
Every year, Maendele takes his students outside and gives his famous Smell the Roses speech. He tells the kids that high school will go faster than they think, and they should get involved and enjoy every part they can. As he reflects on his career, he thinks this is the most important lesson he ever taught.
“You just have one chance at it, and it’s gone so fast,” he said. “I tell the kids that I’m not the smartest teacher on campus. I have a lot of common sense. I can build things and fix things. I’m very common sense-worthy. And I tell you, this is one of them. This is a really common sense thing that you need to know about. So it’s probably my number one most important part. I don’t care if they remember this or that, but they need to remember that life goes fast. Before you know it, you’re an old man teaching shop.”
Maendele teaches graphic communications and has a shop where students can produce graphics products. His father taught in this role for 35 years before him, and then he took the job. He has “thoroughly enjoyed it.”
He started giving his speeches in the early 2000s. At the beginning of the school year, Maendele encourages students to remember this moment.
Standing outside of the football stadium, he talks directly to the football players and reminds them that the season will only last nine weeks, and they should drink it in. He usually takes the students outside once again at the end of the school year and urges them to reflect on how quickly time passed.
“I just thought that students need to understand four years in high school is just such a short time,” he said. “I tell them, get involved. Play every sport that you have any interest in at all. Get involved in the play, any extracurricular activity. Go see the band play at competitions. Just anything and everything.”
This is an important lesson for the high schoolers to learn, but one that all people could use help remembering, including Maendele. Especially as he prepares to retire, it’s shocking to Maendele how quickly his career has gone by.
“I have to make myself stop and smell the roses. It’s hard for me to take my own medicine sometimes, but I try to do that,” he said. “I mean, I’ve got grandkids now. My God, it goes so fast.”
In retirement, Maendele plans to spend time with those grandkids and the rest of his family, including his wife of 37 years. He also hopes to reopen a print shop of his own, called Creative Printing, in Roxana.
A few years ago, he created a phone cabinet where his students can store their phones during his class. Students approach him at the end of the semester and actually thank him for asking them to put up their phones, which has surprised and delighted Maendele. He has patented the cabinet, and, while he is not “a bazillionaire” quite yet, hopes it might one day help other teachers and students, too.
But the career has paid dividends in other ways. Maendele recently received a letter from a former student who thanked him for the Smell the Roses speech. In his final few months at EAWR, he has heard from many students who expressed their gratitude for his work and his determination to make sure they appreciate the time they have.
While retirement is bittersweet in some ways, Maendele is assured that his most important lesson of all will carry on.
“You need to just stop and live in the moment, because that moment passes so fast. It’s just a memory,” he added. “It just really does fly by.”
More like this:
