Elementary

(Photo by Jessica Stadler)

Karol Kenzy has been Silver Lake's speech/language pathologist for 29 years. Next year, Karen Lindstrom will take over the position.

Kenzy leaves education after 34 years

By Dustin Zahorsky

April 14, 2009

Karol Kenzy, speech/language pathologist, is retiring after many years of teaching. She said education has been a family tradition.

"I came from a family of teachers. My mom and both of my aunts and several older cousins were teachers, so I thought it would be interesting to get into that field as well," said Kenzy.

She said she's been in the same area of teaching her whole life.

"I've always been a speech/language pathologist, and I've stayed in that ever since I got out of high school. The students are the people who pretty much made me stay in this field. It's very rewarding when they have those 'ah-ha' moments, or they finally understand a concept or master a sound they have been working on for a while, or they say something they have not been able to say before, and it makes me smile," said Kenzy.

She said education has changed over the years.

"The amount of paper work has increased tremendously in special education," she said.

Kenzy went to undergraduate school at Northern State University in Aberdeen, S.D. She attended graduate school at Kansas State University, and she's taught in Glasgow, Mont. and Winfield, Kan.

Kenzy came to Silver Lake after teaching in other states and schools.

"I actually worked in several other facilities before I came here to SLHS. I wanted to get back into public schools, and I just knew Silver Lake would be a great place to teach.

"At first I wanted to be a classroom teacher, and when I student taught it was a team-teaching situation where I had 76 first graders. My double major was in speech pathology, so I tended to go toward that because it was more individualized," she said.

Kenzy has been teaching in Silver Lake for 29 years, and overall, she has been teaching for 34 years. She said she experienced many memorable moments in her career.

"Years after I worked with a child who had severe communication delays, I ran into the child's mother. She shared with me that the child I had worked with was doing very well and was going to college; she was very proud of that fact because at the time, we didn't think the student would ever communicate, so that was a great thing," she shared.

Kenzy shared many aspects that she would miss most about teaching.

"I would say I will miss the students and my colleagues, and I'm going to miss having a nice big room because when I first moved here, I worked in a converted hallway. I'm also going to miss talking to the kids. They do say some of the darndest things, to quote Art Linkletter.

"I will never forget the students and the staff, nor teaching here at SLHS," she said.

Kenzy said she decided to retire now to be closer to her family.

"I want to spend more time with my family and pursue other interests and have fun. I also am going to complete some family business matters in South Dakota. I'm going to work on my home, volunteer, and take some classes, and travel hopefully," said Kenzy.