Beyond The Books: The Life and Career of Mrs. Enlow
Beyond The Books: The Life and Career of Mrs. Enlow
By Jocelyn Nunez
We all have that one teacher. That teacher whose class we look forward to attending everyday and whose persona automatically brings a sense of happiness into our lives. For some people, that teacher is their fifth grade gym teacher or their college chemistry professor. But for many students including myself, that teacher is Ardith Enlow.
Mrs. Enlow, who is the chair of the English department and one of the two upper school English teachers at ODCS, is not only known for her “entertaining but informative” classes, but also for her kind heart and infectious sense of humor. The deep passion she shows for both her students and her career are just two of the many attributes that makes her such an important person in the ODCS community.
So, what inspired one of the most beloved teachers at ODCS to become the teacher she is today? She claims that it “wasn’t a big inspiration”, but was simply her love for the subject of English. “Well, English was probably the only thing I was any good at. I did start out to major in journalism, but then I thought ‘well, no I think I’ll try education.’”
She then stated that her own teachers gave her inspiration to become an educator. “Actually it was kind of an inspiration when I looked at some of the teachers I had. I’d look at them and think ‘I can do that.’”
After receiving her degree from Bowling Green, she began her teaching career in 1974 and continued through 1976. But after those two years, Mrs. Enlow made the decision to take what she described as “several gap years” from teaching to pursue other passions. During her “gap years”, Mrs. Enlow took on a career that goes beyond her English endeavors: photography. “My husband and I had a photography studio. And then I worked for David Neighbour, the son of Ralph Neighbour for whom the RNC is named.”
She described the kind of work that she did with Neighbour during her career in photography. “David Neighbour had a photo lab where we developed and printed pictures for professional photographers. So I did that for eight years. He also had a ministry going on where he sent cassettes of famous Christian speakers through the mail and I also worked in that.”
Eventually, Mrs. Enlow resumed her teaching career at ODCS. “I started working here in January of 1987. I had applied for the job, but I didn’t get it because it went to someone who could coach volleyball. But she left in October of that year, and then they had various subs until they hired me in January.”
Her inspiration in coming to ODCS? “My daughter was going to school here at the time, and she was a sophomore. It was kind of a big shock for her to have her mother suddenly become her teacher halfway through her sophomore year, especially since her mother hadn’t taught in twelve years and didn’t really know what she was doing.”
But despite the significant adjustments for both her and her family, Mrs. Enlow was able to become one of Open Door Christian School’s most well-respected teachers as time went on. As the school years passed and the classes flew by, she became someone who is admired by not only her colleagues and by the community, but also by her past and present students whom she has taught for the 30 years she has been here. In fact, her students are what she considers the most incredible thing about teaching at ODCS.
“Just getting to see how current students and even alumni have grown in the Lord over the years [has been incredible.] Being able to see the Lord work in people’s lives both as they get older each year in high school and as they mature as adults has been great.”
Another thing that she finds extremely enjoyable about her job at ODCS? Being able to apply her faith into the material that she teaches in class.
“It’s nice to be able to take works of literature and get people to understand the Christian perspective in them. I try to pick works that give us a built in Christian perspective. Like the seniors, we just finished Macbeth. It’s totally about the consequences of sin. And the sophomores are about to start To Kill A Mockingbird, which boils down to ‘what should a Christian do in situations where everybody around you is not doing the right thing?’ Atticus Finch is someone who tries to be a good Christian father, but he’s standing up against a town full of people who don’t agree with him. I try to look at works that have some sort of biblical worldview impact on how the students see life.”
Even with the satisfaction of teaching her favorite subject to some incredible students, her career does have its pros and cons. “I can tell you my least favorite part [about teaching English]: it’s grading all the papers. However, it’s fun to see kids learn and grow and pick up on new information or master new skills or improve in what they are doing.”
Although she finds her job extremely rewarding, Mrs. Enlow gets deep and real when asked to give advice to people who are interested about teaching English.
“If you want to be a high school English teacher, you have to realize that your job is going to be completely overwhelming and consuming. If you want a job where you can come home at the end of the day and do what you want, then this is not for you. When I go home, the work bag goes with me and it comes back with me. But the advice I would give to anybody looking into careers is that they need to check the future of the job market in that career. It’s kind of silly to go to college and to get a degree in something that, when you graduate, you won’t able to find a job in. So I would say [to a person who is looking into a degree in English] that you need to look into the future job market for people with English degrees and focus on that if that’s what you really want to do.”
But in spite of the trials and victories that come with her teaching career, Mrs. Enlow still has a lot to contribute to the Open Door Christian Schools community and has a few more years of teaching left in her. “I feel like I have something to contribute, and so I do plan to stick around for awhile.”
Mrs. Enlow is truly someone whose life and career is a true testament of hard work, dedication, and passion. Anyone who has ever met her can clearly see her deep love for not only her job and her students, but her love for Christ. This reason, and many more, is why Mrs. Ardith Enlow goes beyond the books.