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August 2018
VOLUME 1 | NO. 1
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Changing directions
Glessing moves from teaching elementary students to seniors
DEB COX-JOHNSON
Correspondent
Marnie Glessing has a new work life, career and pur-
pose she loves, but it wasn’t necessarily easy getting
there. She loved her former work and vocation also, but
like many in today’s world, found herself leaving her
fi eld due to circumstances beyond her control.
Glessing moved to Howard Lake from Faribault in
1978, when she got a call from the St James Lutheran
school offering her a teaching position. A graduate of
Concordia College in St. Paul, class of 1978, she was
familiar with St. James due to the fact that she had com-
pleted her student teaching requirements there. She en-
joyed that experience, and chose to accept. She made
the move from Faribault the same year, and began her
fi rst year at a school and in a community she would
grow to love.
Initially, she taught third and fourth grade in what
was called a “double room.” She also kept busy coach-
ing athletics for four seasons in that year – volleyball,
basketball, soccer, and softball. In the summer, she
added playing softball to her schedule.
She met her future husband, Neil Glessing, at St.
James Lutheran Church, where he served as an usher.
They got married in 1987.
Glessing lived with Neil and his family on the family
farm, where she discovered that she had a lot to learn.
And learn she did, as Neil gradually introduced her to
the ways of a dairy farm. Initially, she found herself
“frightened of the steers,” but her confi dence in her
farming knowledge and skills grew over the years. She
enjoyed the out-of-doors and helped out as much as her
teaching schedule allowed.
In 1991, their son, David, was born, and he has gradu-
ally taken over the management and daily operations of
the farm.
A long and rewarding teaching career
After the fi rst year, when she taught two grades in the
double room, enrollment had grown, and she taught only
third grade for several years. Later, she taught eighth
Marnie Glessing (right) spent much of her career as an elementary school teacher. She is now coordinating activities
for seniors in Dassel. She is pictured with Clari Mattson.
grade for a year. Following that, she taught seventh
grade for three years. In 1994, she moved to teaching
second grade, and this became her last and greatest love
through the remainder of her 39 years at the school.
Her favorite things about teaching second grade were
watching the students grow and achieve, and witnessing
the “light bulb” moments when something important
sank in or became clear. She also enjoyed what she de-
scribed as the “general innocence” of children that age.
Glessing fondly remembers watching over her class
in the bus line at the end of each school day. She made
it a practice to lightly touch each student’s head and say,
Senior
Connections
PHOTO BY DEB COX-JOHNSON
“God bless you,” as a way of ending their school day.
One day, one of her second-grade boys returned the ges-
ture, reaching up high to lightly touch Glessing’s head
and also saying, “God bless you.” She was very moved.
And she and the child’s parents were also surprised that
he continued this ritual for the rest of the school year.
Second-graders are uninhibited in expressing affec-
tion, and another regular joy was getting “lots of hugs.”
Over the years, she has also had the pleasure of watch-
ing students grow up, move out into the world, get mar-
More CHANGING DIRECTIONS on Pg 2
is distributed to:
Annandale | Buffalo | Cokato | Darwin | Dassel | Delano | Glencoe | Howard Lake | Hutchinson | Kimball | Lester Prairie
Litchfi eld | Loretto | Maple Lake | Maple Plain | Mayer | Montrose | Mound | New Germany | Norwood Young America
Rockford | Silver Lake | South Haven | St. Bonifacius | Waconia | Watertown | Waverly | Winsted