Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 26, 1992 TAG: 9201270185
SECTION: NEW RIVER VALLEY ECONOMY PAGE: 26 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Judy Schwab
DATELINE: PEMBROKE LENGTH: Medium
TEACHER DIPS INTO OWN POCKET TO HELP COVER PUPILS' SUPPLIES
Carol Wimmer has been teaching for 20 years and remembers how she went home in the early days and made class materials for her pupils to save money.At 41, Wimmer makes more money and has less time than when she started teaching. Now she buys things for her pupils - then she goes home and makes things.
Wimmer, whose salary is about $33,000, said she spends an average of $100 a month on supplies for her second-graders at Giles County's Eastern Elementary School.
"I'm not going to slight the children just because they're out of supplies," she said. Supplies run from pipe cleaners to make reindeer for Christmas to books, paper, games, overhead projector transparencies and pens.
She also buys treats from her own pocket to reward her pupils for good behavior
Her husband, Claude, teaches at Macy McClaugherty School and they have a son, Josh, age 13. The Wimmers are naturally frugal, so they haven't been greatly harmed by the recession.
"We had a smaller Christmas this year," she said.
The Wimmers also are buying more cost-cutter items at the grocery store and she clips coupons, but she's always done that. Living in rural Giles County helps meet the budget as well, she said.
Wimmer still likes her work after two decades - which is probably why she was at the school during Christmas vacation tidying up her room. What she likes best is "June, July and August and the Christmas break. It's nice to have the summer off - I'm an outside person."
In addition to those perks, Wimmer said teaching is always interesting. What she doesn't like is the pressure put on the 7-year-olds she teaches. Children are pressured on standardized tests, and more and more subjects are added to the curriculum.
Parents also pressure their kids. "No longer is C an average grade - it's failing," she said.
If the children are something of an economic indicator for the area, Giles County is holding its own. Only one child came to school and announced that his father was laid off. That happened before Christmas.
When the children have ice cream - which they pay a quarter for - twice a week, sometimes they come in with 25 pennies, Wimmer said, which indicates to her they may have had to scrape a little to find the money.