Millie Vemer felt the calling to be a teacher at a young age.
She found that motivation in her first-grade teacher, Kathy Whicker, who taught her at Bankston Elementary.
“It’s hard to explain, but she made that kind of impact on me,” Vemer said. “I am not sure if I just fell in love with her or what she was doing, but I knew I wanted to be like her.”
Vemer, 52, now a veteran junior high math teacher at Pillow Academy, took that desire and ran with it. She graduated from Pillow in 1985 and then earned an education degree from Delta State University with a minor in math.
“That was 47 years ago, and we remain close to this day,” Vemer said of Whicker, who still lives in Greenwood.
“Another thing I treasure is all the relationships I have built with students and parents that I would have otherwise never known. It’s been a real blessing.”
Vemer isn’t the longest-tenured teacher at PA, but she figures she is close to the top five in her 25th year at the school.
“Teachers are a pretty tight group. We are really good friends,” she said.
These are tough times for all teachers, trying to educate their students via distance learning because of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Vemer said school spirit remains strong even though the doors have been closed for some time now.
She said she still spends at least two or three full days at the school since math is more of a one-on-one subject — leaving her scrambling to adjust to an entirely new world of education. She has to use her smart board at school to explain the math problems.
Vemer said even for educators who have long used online learning tools and whose students have easy access to them, it is challenging to rely solely on technology.
“We are doing the best with what we have,” she said. “The biggest problem is kids have so many different learning styles, but there is no immediate feedback from the students. It’s not easy for any of us, but we’re making the most of a bad situation.”
Her husband of 29 years, Mark Vemer, works at Bank of Commerce, and they have one son, Hardy, a freshman at Mississippi State.
Millie said teaching also provided her plenty of time with their son while he was growing up. “I had all the holidays and summers with him, so that was definitely a big plus,” she said.
•Contact Bill Burrus at 581-7237 or bburrus@gwcommonwealth.com.
