Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Retiring Redwood teachers joke with students. From left: teacher Chuck Carlson, seventh-grader Kate Loomis, teacher Frank Inderbitzen, teacher Jim Moore and seventh-grader Claire Callaghan.

Three teachers retire with a total of 92 years' experience

Looking back over years in education

By C.J. Cannino

Frank Inderbitzen remembers the early years of his teaching career fondly. A man of small stature, Inderbitzin recalls when he began teaching nearly 40 years ago in Salinas "when we used to have to wear suits." He says a group of sixth-graders mistook him for a student instead of an instructor.

"I remember them saying, 'Look at that sixth-grader; he's wearing a suit to school.' " The 59-year-old Redwood Middle School teacher doubts that would happen now, but he says it's the kids that keep him young.

Inderbitzen, a sixth-grade core teacher, and two other veteran teachers from Redwood Middle School will be retiring with a combined total of 92 years of teaching in the Saratoga Union School District.

Jim Moore teaches algebra to seventh- and eighth-graders at Redwood. He has spent 32 years solving math problems and seems to have enjoyed it all. "Even though some days are long, the career is short," Moore says. He doesn't believe that the younger generation is moving in the wrong direction. "I think the kids are nicer, and the parents are great," Moore says, reflecting on some 30 years of teaching. And while he says that very little about math has changed in that time, he occasionally regrets that some of the teaching methods have.

"New administrators sometimes want to change what has worked in the past," Moore says.

The Saratoga resident says he'll miss the faculty and students at Redwood, but he is looking forward to spending some time with his 18-month-old grandson, Jeremy.

It's the enthusiasm of the students that has kept P.E. teacher Chuck Carlson going for more than 30 years in the teaching profession. Carlson says he enjoys the challenge of the growth and development that junior high students experience in a short amount of time.

"One day they're kids, and the next day their young adults," Carlson says.

Along with physical education, Carlson also teaches art and yearbook and has coached football, baseball and track and field. He believes P.E. has evolved into a lot more than athletics over the years. "The concentration is on health and knowing your body and the importance of stretching your muscles, and that's good," Carlson says.

While it was the beautiful weather that lured the Carlsons to California from Montana more than three decades ago, they now look forward to checking out the climate in other locations. Carlson plans to continue working part time, but hopes also to spend some time traveling on the East Coast with his wife.

Inderbitzin knows that sunny, beautiful weather is not what he'll find most days in Seattle, but he looks forward to embarking on a new adventure in the Pacific Northwest. Inderbitzen will leave his home in Los Gatos for a high-rise apartment in Seattle. "I'll miss the rapport with the kids, when they come to you with their little problems," Inderbitzen says.

Principal Dick Derby says the three teachers have been a constant inspiration to Redwood students and faculty throughout the years. "They're very dedicated to the kids," Derby says, adding that former Redwood students are always returning to visit the three teachers, and that's proof of their popularity.

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