By Esther Davis McKenna
These are a few of Lenox students' favorite things about retiring reading teacher Eleanor Liebmann. In a list intended to mirror author Margaret Wise Brown's "Important Book," students presented Liebmann with a catalogue of her attributes at a retirement tea held in her honor on June 6.
Liebmann began at the Steele School in 1974 as a teaching assistant and moved into her current position of reading teacher and librarian at the Lenox School in September of 1976. She held that position, happily, for almost three decades.
"[The students] have given me much more than I could ever give to them," said the teary-eyed teacher who is both happy to retire and spend time on the golf and tennis courts and sad to leave the children who are such an integral part of her life.
Liebmann has been married close to 50 years and lived in Baldwin almost 40 of them. All three of her children attended schools in the Baldwin School District.
"I'm proud of the Baldwin School District," she said. "There is a myriad of cultures and ethnicities in this school system and everyone works wonderfully together. There's a terrific bond that goes beyond the differences and celebrates our similarities and richness of cultures. That's the way it should be."
School District staff, administration and co-workers extol Liebmann's virtues.
"Eleanor Liebmann is a master at her craft and loves what she does," said Tara Mintz, a first-grade teacher at Lenox. "[Liebman] is a recipe for what a wonderful teacher is."
"To the students, she shared her love of literature with healthy doses of respect sprinkled in the lessons. To her colleagues she shared her knowledge and common sense," said Lenox principal Bernice-Theresa Acevedo.
Former students over the years include newly tenured teachers, PTA members and officers and a second generation of students - children of earlier students.
She has been involved with many organizations throughout the last thirty years, both in and out of the Baldwin School District, including the Baldwin Foundation for Education - from which she has procured the largest maxi grant ever - the Baldwin Education Assembly, the Interfaith Council, the Gardening Angels and many more.
She has instituted dozens of new programs into the curriculum including the Publishing Center and Rent A Reader.
A true believer in "joyful learning," Liebmann says what she will miss most is "that sparkle in a child's eye when you know they just learned something."
After speaking with many of the little visitors to the reading room, it is apparent that they will miss her as much as she will miss them.
"She always picks out books that she knows I would like," said fifth grader Timothy Oriani. "She knows how to make us love reading and she's a really nice lady that we'll miss."
