Schaap Retires From Teaching
Jill Fennema
When Chandler Christian closed its doors, Anne Schaap closed the door on 45 years of teaching.
Anne (McFall) grew up in Spring Lake, Mich. She says her fifth grade teacher, Mr. Koets, influenced her love for teaching. “He was tough, but fair,” Anne recalled. “He read the most amazing stories to us. I learned to love history and storybooks from him.”
Listening to him read was the highlight of Anne’s school day. She also did a lot of babysitting and worked with Bible School so it just seemed a natural fit to become a teacher.
Anne graduated from Calvin College in 1975. When she first moved to town, she had people tell her she was an “old maid.” She was only 22 years old at the time!
Anne started teaching at Chandler Christian School in September 1975. She taught third and fourth grades in a multi-grade setting.
After teaching for a few years, she took a year off and then taught Title 1 – working one-on-one with students who needed a little extra help – for the next five years for the Chandler-Lake Wilson school district. At that time, the public grade school was in Lake Wilson and the high school was in Chandler. However, the school district also provided Title I services for private schools, so she spent much of her time at Chandler Christian.
She later returned to the class room, this time teaching first and second grade, which she has done for the last 35 years.
Teaching a multi-grade classroom has its unique challenges. Sometimes the younger grade has to be occupied with something constructive while the teacher is actively teaching the older students.
Ann recalls that one time, while members of the school board were visiting the classroom, the younger boys in the room decided to play horsey on the carpet after they finished their work. That sounded more fun to them than the educational activity she had given them to do. Anne was embarrassed, but remembers that the board member just laughed and said, “You have your hands full, don’t you.”
She has many fond memories of her teaching career, whether that was playing baseball and kickball – students versus teachers – or sliding down the big hill. Basketball games at the gym were always interesting, too. Every class was allowed to watch because it was too loud to hold class anyway.
Ann Schaap reads a storybook to her students.
She has taught multi-generations – both parents and their children. She feels like the students, teachers, and families of Chandler Christian have always been like a large family.
The biggest challenges for her have been adapting to the changes in technology. “In college I took classes on how to thread a projector and how to run a mimeograph,” Anne said. “Computers challenge me and any new technology.”
Distance learning through the last semester of school was also a huge challenge. Anne learned how to set up Zoom meetings and that went ok. “But if I encountered something not normal, I struggled. Thankfully my daughter-in-law helped me a lot,” she said.
Anne has learned to adapt to changes all through her life – whether that be in the classroom or just moving from the city to the country.
“This city girl had a rude awakening learning all about the farming community. I was a typical gullible city person,” she said. “I learned to enjoy the rural community, because I met my husband here.”
Huck Schaap was a farmer and a butcher at Huisken Meat Center. Anne lived in Margaret Huisken’s house while Margaret was a dorm mother at Dordt College. Margaret came home on weekends, and soon she and her son conspired to set Anne and Huck up on a date. The rest, as they say, is history. Huck and Anne have three sons, all of which attended Chandler Christian and later Southwest MN Christian High School.
Kent is married to Chelsea Huenink who also taught at Chandler Christian. Kent graduated from SDSU and works for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Chelsea will be teaching at Edgerton Christian this next year.They have three children.
Jeffrey is married to Jody Schmidt. He went to Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, for two years, then came back here to farm with his father-in-law. Jody works at the State Bank of Chandler and helps on the farm. They also have three children.
Eric also graduated from Northwestern. He married Jessamy Busman and worked at First State Bank Southwest. Eric passed away in January 2016.
Now that she is retired, Anne plans to help take care of her grandchildren and enjoy more time traveling with her sisters. She enjoys camping, reading, swimming, and baking. “I’ll maybe learn some new hobbies that I have never had time for before,” she said.
