Most high school students struggle to find something that they love. Granted, there are those select few who know exactly how they want their life to turn out after college, while still in high school. Mrs. Jean Attig was one of those people.
“I loved all of my business classes so much in high school and one of my favorite teachers, Mrs. Hill, told me that I should be a business teacher. When she said that, the thought never left my head. I wanted to teach something that had an impact on kids lives. I didn’t want to teach something boring and unnecessary,” Attig said.
After high school, Attig started out at Northern Illinois University as a business major. At the end of her first year she realized she didn’t really like Northern so she went to her Community College for a year to figure out where she wanted to go. At the end of her sophomore year, she came up with Western Illinois University where she ended up graduating from two years later with a degree in business education.
“I just knew that I wanted to be a teacher and I wanted to be the kind of teacher that could teach students useful life skills and knowledge.”
For the first few years out of college, Attig followed her second passion and became a typing teacher.
“I taught on typewriters and I taught kids how to type and without correction tape or anything like that. It was different to teach without computers but I loved it. The typewriters only moved into what I do now,” she said.
From typewriters to computers to business, Attig found everything useful and relatable.
“I always wanted to be in a classroom where the students wanted to be there, not where they had to be there. Looking around at some math and science classes, students often looked bored and I didn’t want that,” she said.
Attig started at Niles West in 1997. For four years before that, she was a teacher at a junior/senior high school in the middle of a cornfield.
“When I married my husband who grew up on a farm, I moved to a farm for four years which is ironic because if you know me thinking of me living on a cattle and pig farm is quite funny,” she said.
Attig lived about 14 miles out of town on a gravel road.
“It was an experience, but now I’m back in the city for obvious reasons,” Attig said.
Over the years, Attig has tried all that she could to make a difference in her student’s lives.
“My best advice for high school students is to have them find their place. Whether it’s with me or another teacher’s field, I think that it’s really important to figure out who you want to be while you’re still in high school. I feel like the kids that are in my classes and the kids that are in DECA have found their place and a potential future career and I could only wish that upon every student in the building. Find your place, figure out what you want,” Attig said.
Attig encourages all students to find out what they want as fast as they can because life will only get easier what’s you know what you love.
“You do you and nothing less. High school is a time to figure yourself out and once you do that, you’ve got the rest of your life ahead of you. Love what you do and do what you love,” she said.
