By William Meiners
Herald Staff Writer
On occasion, a teacher comes along whose lessons extend far beyond the classroom. One such educator retired from Fulton Schools on the final day before Christmas break last month.
Jim Goodspeed told The Herald on New Year’s Eve that he “completed 40 years in public education over five decades” on December 22. He came by that accounting by recalling a career that started with his student teaching at Swan Valley High School in the winter of 1983. After that he worked out of state for a year and then at Mount Pleasant High School before sliding into Fulton High School, where he taught for 36 and a half years.
Inspired by his own teachers in St. Louis Public Schools, Goodspeed first thought about going into education in middle school. From those early days in Fulton he remembered an “endless energy to teach five different subjects, oversee the school newspaper and yearbook, and coach two sports.”
Juggling responsibilities to cover many assignments became the story of his time at Fulton.
“The difference between 1987 and this past week was my lack of energy,” Goodspeed said. “I’m just one tired teacher. However, it was nice to have many former student graduates come in during my last week to see me and say goodbye. I met several who were students when I started in 1987.”
Goodspeed not only taught history but also witnessed a great deal of it at Fulton. He provided building tours to some of those former students who showed up to say goodbye. Goodspeed was there for the addition of the media center in the early 1990s and he witnessed the major facility renovations in 2022.
Not everything ushered in by technology thrilled Goodspeed. A frequent fight to keep students off cell phones and away from surfing the web marked many of his days. “If I had my way, they would check cell phones at the front door at 8 a.m. and then pick them up when they left at the end of the day,” he said. “I used technology, and it needs to be used in the classroom, but many of these students sit and figure out ways to find games to play, even after many sites are blocked. Abuse of the cell phone and the Chromebook during teaching time was an endless battle that I am glad to leave behind.”
Though the good times far outweighed the bad for Goodspeed. After an admitted “teacher burnout,” he returned to Central Michigan University for postgraduate work in 1999. “I remained a student there until 2017,” he said. “Going to class once a week kept me sane as I encountered learning, respect, and opportunities to study history, geography, and religion with experts.”
Just as Goodspeed focused on his own lifelong learning, he encouraged his students to do the same. “I stressed that learning was more important than their GPA or test scores,” he said. “As I told students over the years, ‘Focus entirely on learning, and the test scores will largely take care of themselves.’ However, testing and test scores are what teachers and students must deal with in today’s public schools.”
Goodspeed said he will miss the “Fulton family” the most. For more than 35 years, he saw teaching colleagues looking out for and supporting each other. Beyond those many friends he will miss the sounds of the seasons — “volleyball in the gym in the fall and the sounds associated with football, bouncing basketballs in the winter, and the sounds of aluminum bats hitting baseballs and softballs in the spring.”
“Teaching us how to be better people”
Goodspeed deflects when asked about his “proudest moments,” preferring to consider himself fortunate to be involved with the initiatives in the first place. Working alongside teachers Mandy Volk and Penny Bearden, he helped get the German Exchange Program, also known as LINKS, going in 2000. In April, he’ll step away from any retirement activities to return to Germany with Fulton students on his 21st trip.
In 2003, Goodspeed became a teacher fellow with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “It helped me focus on Holocaust education in the classroom and guided my efforts to help the Wobbelin Memorial in Wobbelin, Germany,” he said.
Tom Torok, superintendent of Fulton Schools, was a junior when Goodspeed first showed up to teach in 1987. He was in his history and journalism classes. “He made learning fun and brought a passion to his work,” Torok said. “The thing that made Mr. Goodspeed a good teacher was his ability to connect with students. He truly cared about the students and went out of his way to not only teach them but value their individuality. He wasn’t teaching only English or history, he was teaching us how to be better people. How to treat people with kindness and respect.”
That kindness and respect has a way of regenerating itself. “I think that the thing that Fulton will miss most about Mr. Goodspeed is his warm smile, his great sense of humor, and his ability to genuinely make all students feel important,” Torok said. “For me personally, Jim was one of the teachers that inspired me most to pursue my lifelong commitment to a career in education. He is truly one of a kind and he has left a mark on Fulton High School that will be felt for generations.”
Telling historic stories
Much of Goodspeed’s work extended further than the Fulton campus. “Regarding doing things in the community, I wish I had started many things earlier in my career,” he said. “But, in several cases, the technology to do some of them wasn’t available then. The Understanding Service Veterans Project was an overwhelming success in building connections with the public in and out of the Fulton community and Gratiot County.”
Through that particular project, Fulton seniors researched and wrote about war veterans, making full use of the Gratiot County Historical Library and sometimes interviewing family members. With a goal of sharing 500 such stories, the project has produced around 450 to date. Goodspeed said they will publish at least 25 new stories this winter and spring. He also expects to soon complete writeups on all the names list on the All Wars Memorial in front of the Gratiot County Courthouse.
Of course retirement creates some time to get to all these projects. Still the decision to step away did not come easily. “Last summer, I sought many opinions and guidance from fellow retirees, my pastor, and some former Fulton teachers about the topic and timing of retirement,” Goodspeed said. “I knew this year would be the last. I have had some minor health problems the past two years, and I am just plain worn out. I told the administration the day before school started that it would be my last year and that I was strongly considering leaving at Christmas Break, which I did. I am very fortunate that I could plan and carry out the timing of my retirement.”
After a winter decompression that will include sleeping soundly without the standard “Sunday night panic,” Goodspeed will make the springtime trip to Germany with the Fulton students. Beyond that, he hopes to get his “first book about the Wobbelin concentration camp published,” he said. “After that, the Gratiot works will come. The first one I will probably do will be about the influenza epidemic in the county during 1918-1919. More will follow. I am glad to finally have time to do the writing that I want to do.”