Page 11 - The Clare Connection_Winter 2019 Flipbook

“I wouldn’t be here at The Clare if it hadn’t been for Chicago City Day School…
It was wonderful. I could use my talents.” —HARLAN BARTH
RESIDENT PROFILE

But Harlean found she didn’t have the resources and support Such connections between her rural upbringing and her
necessary to be successful with the students. Her approach new life in the city led to quite a successful, fulfilling life.
to teaching was criticized, as well. Even so, Harlean remains humble about her lengthy career,
Harlean Barth: Clare Resident Blends Rural After one year, she moved on to Chicago City Day School, attributing much of it to simply loving what she did.

Upbringing, City Life in Teaching Career where she remained for more than 30 years. There, her “I think I was in the right place at the right time, a lot of
creativity shone.
times, and I loved my work,” she says.
As a major Chicago Cubs fan, Harlean incorporated this Harlean loved her work so much that when the new school
passion with learning, starting a one-week camp over the year began this past fall, she felt a pang of longing to be in
summer called Brains and Baseball. Throughout the week, the classroom – even three years into retirement.
students would write letters to sports journalists at the
Chicago Tribune, read coverage of Cubs games, create “It’s such a good feeling when you see a child blossom,” she
a newspaper of their own and learn percentages through says. “As a mother, I could see it with my children. But as a
batting averages. The camp concluded with a trip to Wrigley teacher, you could see it with the whole classroom of kids.”
Field for a game.

Additionally, Harlean focused her social studies curriculum
around Chicago history and included various field trips
into her lesson plans. She brought her third-grade students
to Chinatown, Swedish Village and other locations to
understand the diversity of Chicago and its vibrant
atmosphere.
“You can’t learn anything better than going on a field trip,”
she says. “I can’t tell you about Chinatown unless I go to
Chinatown. When you go there, you eat the food. You talk
to the people. You really understand.”
When she turned 65, Harlean moved from the classroom
setting to a position where she offered remedial assistance
to students who were below grade level. Whatever the
subject might be, she would work with them to get them
up to speed.
More than anything, Harlean appreciates the way Chicago
City Day School believed in her and her teaching capabilities.

“I wouldn’t be here at The Clare if it hadn’t been for Chicago
City Day School,” she says. “It was wonderful. I could use my
talents.”
When Two Worlds Collide
Over the years, Harlean never forgot her farm roots. And
even early on in her teaching career, she saw the value in
exposing her students to city life.
“When I taught on the farm, I brought my students on a trip
to the city,” Harlean says. “They had never ridden a train.
Some had never been on an escalator.”
Her city students, on the other hand, had never seen a farm.

So, Harlean arranged a pen pal program between her third-
grade class at Chicago City Day School and students from
her former school. The country kids spent a day visiting their
pen pals in Chicago and experiencing the city, and the city
kids then headed down to explore a dairy farm, a chicken
farm and a hog farm.