Phyllis Goodwin ‘68
After graduating from L.B. Wilson High School, in 1950, I attended L.B. City College for one year when my father was killed in an auto accident. I attended night classes, worked full time, got married and had my three children. I was therefore quite older than my fellow students, (age 35), and unable to take part in many extra-curricular activities since I was also needed at home.
I was Secretary of the Scholarship Society and helped out there in whatever way I could. I was thrilled to be attending college full time. I loved the exchange between most professors and me and my fellow students. My Senior Seminar, supposedly limited to twelve students, had to be held in a Lecture Hall because the class enrollment was well over one hundred students. What an experience that was!
As a student (1965-68) I mainly attended Scholarship meetings, teas, and seminars. Since the university was established in 1949, my husband had come home from the Korean Conflict in 1952 and enrolled as a student there. He was a Music Major and played in the orchestra. So I had played violin years ago, in 1952-55 in that very small orchestra but I was not enrolled as a student. My husband had told Dr. McGarrity I would be willing to fill a violin chair in the orchestra, so I sat in on and participated in rehearsals and programs, as needed. My schedule would not allow me to play in the orchestra in 1968, when I was, at last, a student!
The library was my “Home” away from home. It was quiet ! ! ! I could read, study, research, etc. there and that did not happen much at my home since I went home to cook, assist with schoolwork, do laundry, etc, for my husband and our three very lively and healthy children.
Dr. James (English) and Dr. Wellhouse (Biology) were very challenging yet supportive. Dr. Gold, my Student Teacher Advisor, called me one day and wanted to see me ASAP. My Master Teacher had called Dr. Gold reporting that I had dressed inappropriately. I had NOT changed clothes. I went into Dr Gold’s office wearing exactly what I had worn that morning. My blouse, buttoned from the neck to the waist and tucked into my skirt, was fine. My skirt went to my knees, trim and fashionable, but NOT a MINI skirt. I asked Dr. Gold to visit my class and see for herself what my Master Teacher looked like. (Her hair was always pulled into a bun at the back of her neck; her dress or skirt was ALWAYS ANKLE LENGTH; she wore no make-up.) Thank God Dr. Gold did not remove me from Student Teaching, but only from that Master Teacher! ! I had wanted to be a teacher all my life, and I almost didn’t make it to my goal because of that fashion difference.
With the help and inspiration of some fine professors I was able to face many different teaching experiences, knowing I could make it through ! !
I was one of very few teachers hired by Long Beach in 1968. I have taught on the West side, in the needy as well as the more affluent schools. I was a Master Teacher for 42 student teachers. I was a Mentor Teacher and Collegial Coach for Long Beach Unified School District, teaching grades four through eight. I taught in India, working with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in evaluating the success of her dream to have all Indians receive an education. At lunch one day, she told us she knew she would be assassinated for wanting to change 2,000 years of tradition. She was murdered a few years later!
I wrote curriculum used in the teaching of other cultures. I taught at Jefferson as it changed from a Junior High to a Middle School. In 1992 I was honored to be a Teacher of the Year for Los Angeles County in Math and Biology. In 1994, Long Beach Honored me as Teacher of the Year in Medieval History. Because my husband was not well, I retired in 1995 to spend more time with him.
I am currently organist at the Veterans Hospital here in Long Beach, playing every Sunday for their worship services. I volunteer as a pianist/accompanist for the Senior Chorus at OLLI (Osher Life-Long Learning Institute). My children are interested in my early years so for the past four years I have been working/writing my Memoirs.
I am trying to include materials gleaned from boxes of my in-laws, Mother and Grandmothers. I try to work-out at Curves Gym in Garden Grove three times a week. (ALL the Long Beach ones have closed down !) I miss my husband of nearly 59 years, but I keep busy with my children, ten grandchildren and soon to be seven Great- Grandchildren. I have been truly blessed.
