Beloved teacher Darby Whitehill has had a long and amazing career teaching math. He has decided to retire at the end of the school year after 31 years of teaching.
Whitehill has been able to help countless students throughout the years. Whitehill focuses on not just teaching math, but teaching students the math, but making sure that the students are actually learning it.
“Probably the most important thing is to recognize that I am teaching kids mathematics and not teaching just mathematics,” Whitehill said.
Whitehill is very involved in building up his classes and his fellow teachers using various team building exercises in class and in meetings.
“A lot of the times Mr. Whitehill is the one who will lead icebreaker types of activities because it gets all of us on the same page and grounded. For example he does an activity where he has got a bucket and everybody has a rope. And you have to work together to top the bucket over and it just a cool team building activity,” Principal Robert Bach said.
With Whitehill retiring, the math department has a large void to fill and other teachers are going to have to step in to teach the classes he had.
“Mr. Whitehill has been pretty integral in teaching Algebra two concepts and a lot of our classes have multiple teachers that teach it. Mr. Whitehill is one of the only teachers who teach the Algebra concepts class. Math teachers Mr. Parker and Mr. Hamilton are going to move into the concepts course,” Bach said.
Bach also said he will miss working alongside Whitehill, especially his daily interactions with him.
“He’s just a good man and I appreciate talking with him. I appreciate seeing him on a daily basis. I think he’s just the kind of person who makes you feel good about being present and interacting with him. We need more people like that and that’s what I’ll miss most,” Bach said.
With Whitehill retiring following this school year he plans to take life easy and enjoy retirement to the fullest.
“I want to spend time with my family, learning, growing and enjoying life,” Whitehill said.
Mr. Whitehill also will miss all of the countless memories he has had over his long career.
Whitehill’s motto that he uses constantly throughout his teachings has inspired both teachers and students.
“One of his sayings that he does with his classes all the time is we don’t just go through life, we grow through life. Mr. Whitehill is constantly introducing growth and developmental concepts with kids, to help them grow and develop as humans and as people,” Bach said.
Although he may be stepping away from the classroom, his legacy of kindness, humor and dedication to education will inspire students, teachers and the community forever.
