Free Press – November 9, 2006

Henrietta Jahnsen Ninety Years Old

Dear Friends,

Good morning. My favorite teacher turned 90 last month. Henrietta Landis Jahnsen taught music in the Quakertown public schools for nearly 40 years…instructing and energizing students, parents and the community. And she’s still going strong…still living independently in her home near the school, which was the focus of her life. More on her in a moment.

But first, there are a few items to address.

I was saddened to read that Quakertown’s Borough Manager, Dave Woglom, has decided to call it quits. Dave is a good man and served the town very well for 20 years. In my opinion, he was hounded out of office. The unrest in Quakertown’s government does not bode well for incumbent councilmen. The municipal election will not be pleasant for them next year.

Do you think that it’s time for Quakertown, Richlandtown, and Richland Township to consolidate their governments? I do.

Quakertown council did get it right when it recently eased parking restrictions for businesses in the downtown area. Thanks to Scott Soost, the owner of Tana Kaya Boutique and leader of Quakertown Alive, the council relaxed parking rules which store keepers say is hurting downtown revitalization. The amendment eliminates off-street parking requirements for new businesses.

Last, for years, the Quakertown School administration has been at odds with some of the parents who claim that Integrated Math is not adequately preparing their children for college math. Next Monday (Nov. 13), the Bucks County Intermediate Unit will present its recommendations to the school’s Community Action Committee. The meeting starts at 7 PM at the cafeteria in the Freshman Center (Strayer School) at Ninth and Main. It’s important to be present. I will be there.

And now to the main topic.

It was love at first sight when Henrietta Jahnsen walked into my second grade class in 1941. She was my music teacher. Henrietta was 26 years old, blond, with high cheek bones and drop dead gorgeous. More important, she instinctively knew how to channel my boundless energy into something manageable.

Henrietta came from that generation of fabulous teachers, mostly women, of whom school boards across America took advantage. For the most part, prior to the mid 1950’s, women who desired a professional career had only two opportunities open to them: nursing and teaching. Because of the abundant supply of bright talent, school boards underpaid them.

For example, Henrietta’s first teaching job in Hilltown in 1939 paid $1,100 per year. She received a $100 raise in the second year. When she came to Quakertown in 1942, her yearly salary was $1,300. She told me that some of her fellow teachers in the Hilltown School had not seen an increase in 15 years! To add insult, female teachers had to promise that they would not marry.

But the 1950’s changed all that. Women began to find careers in medicine, law, and engineering. To illustrate, when I started in news papering in 1957, the only female publisher of an American daily was Katherine Graham of the Washington Post. Today, more than half of the editors and publishers are women.

I asked Henrietta whether she felt that a teaching career was still attracting the brightest and the best graduates? Henrietta is a kind person and doesn’t want to hurt feelings. I didn’t press her for an answer.

In any event, because teachers were so underpaid, they turned to union representation. Today, unions protect teachers who shouldn’t be teaching. America has paid a terrible price for its failure to compensate teachers fairly during the 1930’s, ‘40’s, and ‘50’s.

I often think about the teachers who were so influential in my childhood: Martha Moyer Ebbert, Sarah Funk, Hazel Krauss, Anna Neamand, Edna Pfaff, and of course Henrietta. My generation was so lucky to have them in our corner.

Henrietta was one of seven children. Her father, Elbert Ephraim Landis, was a Lutheran minister who presided over the Richland parish and its two churches, one in Richlandtown and the other in Trumbauersville. She spent fourth and fifth grade in the 10^th Street School that is the present home of the United Friend’s School in Quakertown.

Before the family moved to Quakertown, they lived in Leesport, near Reading. That’s where Henrietta met my mother who taught music in the Leesport School. Henrietta remembers my mother telling her older brother, Oliver, to say hello to a young man in Quakertown, whom she would later marry…my father.

At 90, Henrietta is remarkably agile. She scurried about the living room, finding books and music which she’d written. During my high school and college days, she’d write the parts for Ames Brothers recordings so my quartet could imitate them. Her choruses received standing ovations for transcriptions of tunes like the Woodpecker song.

I was a troublemaker in elementary school. “I was a very naughty kid too,” Henrietta began. “I couldn’t sit still. If I didn’t like a subject, I’d flunk it!”

She told me that it was up to her to keep the children involved. “I never had a bad kid,” she observed. “And I never had to call a student’s father [because of bad behavior]. Do I have to call your father was the magic question?”

Henrietta has good advice for all of us… “When it’s time to work, work hard…when it’s time to play, you play.

“Kids learn better from each other than they do from us,” she continued. “Real teachers turn their kids on.” She spoke about children in Special Ed classes. “I learned from my special Ed kids. Some of them had wonderful imaginations. Many of them were able to influence each other, positively.”

I felt like I was back in class when Henrietta began to sing scales. “Do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do,” she sang. And she can sing the chromatics half steps, up and down the scale as well.

Her house is a treasure trove of musical, genealogical, and Quakertown area history. “I feel sorry for whoever has to clean up this mess after I’m gone,” Henrietta laughed.

I’ll always remember this observation. “I never stood still…I never asked for a raise,” she said. Henrietta was a teacher who broke away from the patterns of what music teachers were taught at the time. And we were the beneficiaries of her knowledge and style.

Henrietta was absolutely the best…and she still is.

Sincerely,

Charles Meredith