Lincoln science teacher retiring at end of school year

Times change, and kids grow up, but for twenty-six years George Pierce, recognizable in his trademark daily ties, has remained a fixture at Lincoln Schools.

When Pierce hired on as the school's only science teacher in 1993, it was his first teaching job.

A native of Illinois, Pierce first visited Montana as a child, and decided then that he would someday make the Big Sky State his home.

"I came through Montana when I was eight years old, and I knew I was coming back as soon as I was out of high school," he remembered.

Pierce and his wife, Eleanor, relocated to Montana in the early seventies, and he worked construction jobs and drove a delivery truck until he decided to go back to school, earning a degree at the age of 40. Pierce said he chose his Alma Mater, University of Montana, by consulting a map.

"I looked at a Rand McNally map, and Missoula had more mountains around it," he said. "Not a great way, probably, to choose your college, but it worked."

After graduating U of M, Pierce applied at a handful of schools and was offered the job in Lincoln.

"I applied for four jobs around the state and when I came to Lincoln I fell in love with it," he said. "As soon as the job came open, I just stayed."

Twenty-six years later, it seems Mr. Pierce's first teaching job is also shaping up to be his last. Now in his sixties, Pierce plans to retire at the end of the 2018-2019 school year.

"I always thought I would teach until I was eighty, but then I got to be sixty-something and decided maybe that was pushing it just a touch," he said when he sat down with this BVD reporter and former student for a brief retrospective.

Pierce, who teaches all sciences included in the curriculum for grades seven through twelve, is known for hands-on projects and getting students out of doors, and said he'd have a hard time choosing a favorite amongst the subjects he teaches.

"My core subject is probably Biology. I live outside, so anytime we can get out and look at critters and learn about our area, I like it," he said. "Wildlife Biology was always fun, and the companion to that, Archaeology, was fun. I enjoy Chemistry, and I love Physics because you get to build things – you get to build catapults, and cool stuff. I like them all."

Pierce said the greatest challenges of teaching at a school as small as Lincoln School over the years have probably been budget-related.

"If you're the kind of person that needs a lot of store-bought labs, then [the greatest challenge] would be resources, obviously, in a small school," he said. "That would be the only real challenge, but if you're willing to dig into your garage and find scrap lumber, if you're willing to go to the grocery store...you don't have to buy from a supply house."

Small class sizes can also be a double-edged sword, he noted.

"If you only have two kids, like I did in Chemistry a few years ago, and one kid plays ball, it kind of makes it hard to keep it going," he said. "But that's really the only hard part. The fun part is that you get them as seventh graders, and you know what they need to get into college...you have this continuity, which I think is important. I went to a big school, 1500 kids, and the instructors were wonderful in their subject, but a lot of times there wasn't a lot if interplay between subjects."

Pierce has, of course, noted changes in the job as time passes.

"My budget is actually less now than it was when I started. Of course, we have less kids," he said. "Electronics, that's the biggest thing...good bad or indifferent, that's the biggest change. When you were here, I had a blackboard, with chalk. Of course, I had brown hair, too. The technology is the big difference. Some of it is not the way I'd do it, but it all works if you use it correctly."

"I've just had fun. I enjoyed the teaching, I enjoyed coaching I enjoyed driver's ed, even," he said of his career. "What I really like is going to the Fourth of July Parade and it's like 'oh, here's my kid, he's a freshman in high school'...I get a lot of that. Students come up and say 'oh, I got a job over in the oil fields,' or 'I'm in Denver,' that's the fun part of the whole deal, seeing them ten years later...I do enjoy the feedback."

An avid outdoorsman, after retirement Pierce plans to dedicate some time to just doing the things he loves. "I have a puppy that's coming along nicely. She's only seven and a half months, and she's retrieving. She's working wonderfully, so next fall I'll be bird hunting," he said. "I'll play around and hunt and fish for six months until I get bored, and then I'll find something to do. I don't want to work full time, but I might take on something like bowhunter's safety... something that I can do a couple weeks of the year and still use what I know how to do.

Pierce admits he'll miss teaching but said he's ready for a change of pace.

"I enjoy this. I enjoy the whole classroom back-and-forth, I always have. If I had just a little bit more stamina I'd go another ten years, but there's a lot of creeks I haven't been up yet with a fly rod in my hand."