Sparta — For a moment, while recounting her 50 years as a teacher with Sparta Area Schools, it seems as though tears are starting to well up in Mar Higgins’ eyes.
Surely not, one thinks; this is a tough, boisterous, confident veteran educator with a half-century of experience, discussing the profession she loves more than anything. What could she possibly be sad about?
But it’s true — tears are coming, and with good reason.
“This is my last year,” Higgins says. “You can see I’m tearing up.”
She gently dabs at her eyes and gives a quick wave of the hand to dismiss any undue concern. “It’s OK,” she says. “I’m a cryer and everybody knows it. The kids know it and we joke about it. It’s just something that happens.”
Though she’s feeling her impending retirement, she knows she’s making the right decision.
“I’m 72 years old, and it’s just kinda time.”
‘I love it when they tell me I can’t reach a kid, because I will do everything in my power to make sure that I do.’
— Sparta Middle School teacher Mar Higgins
A 50-year Career
Higgins started teaching in Sparta in the 1974-75 school year. Aside from some student teaching in Lowell, she’s spent her entire professional career with the district.
She has a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from Michigan State University, and has additional graduate credits in classroom technology.
In her time with Sparta, Higgins has been a jack of many trades. She’s taught, worked with migrant students, overseen student government at the middle school, been a go-to source for questions about classroom technology and directed plays both at the high school and through the district’s unique Schools & Community Theatre program.
She is immersed in all things Sparta, and has a connection with the district that nothing — not even the layoffs that hit a few years into her career — could break. While laid off early on, Higgins continued to teach as a long-term substitute with the district.
She was called back to Sparta to work with gifted students, went on to a fifth-grade teaching position, then taught seventh-grade English and social studies.
Currently, in addition to theater and middle-school-wide student government, Higgins teaches social studies to seventh- and eighth-graders.
Getting Through to Students
Teaching wasn’t always part of Higgins’ plan. She originally wanted to be a lawyer, which her mother thought would be a good fit for her passionate, spirited personality.
Ultimately, the idea of defending guilty people didn’t sit well with her, but her mom had more suggestions.
“My mother also said, ‘You should be a teacher. You’d be awesome with kids,’” Higgins recalled, admitting she wasn’t sold on the idea at first.
But she gave it a try, and “I just loved it.”
Higgins really took to the profession, and found she had a knack for getting through to students. Sixth-grader Taylor DeBoer, and eighth-graders Evelyn Miner and Lena Ring, who all have Higgins for student government, can attest to that.
“She’s kind and helpful,” Taylor said. “She makes sure that we get stuff done, she helps us stay on topic, but she also lets us have fun sometimes.”
The three students each said Higgins is one of their favorite teachers.
“Mrs. Higgins is really good about keeping everything really organized. We’re always able to get things done on time,” Evelyn said. “I don’t have her for any core classes, but (student government) would be my favorite class for school.”
Lena said Higgins is a “really special teacher.”
“She loves us all, and she likes making school great and a fun place to be.”
What makes her such an effective educator?
“I try to meet every kid where they’re at,” Higgins said. “I also look for the kid who is maybe the worst behaved, and I challenge myself to get that kid going, to let that kid know that I care about him, that I want him to succeed.”
She doesn’t like to yell at students, but she will talk to them if they’re not engaged.
“I’m always trying to establish that rapport with the kids, and I’m pretty good at it,” Higgins said. “There’s only been a few that I haven’t been able to just get through to and crack that shell.”
Challenge Accepted
One of her biggest success stories and happiest memories involves a student with autism spectrum disorder who had difficulty working in groups. The special education department wasn’t sure Higgins would have success with the student, but she did.
“He slowly began to participate and do more things,” Higgins said. “I got more out of that kid than anybody (had) been able to do in the full eight years before I had him. So that’s the kind of thing that I really work for.”
She said the special education department was floored to see the student happily engaging in group activities within a month of being placed in her class.
“I love it when they tell me I can’t reach a kid, because I will do everything in my power to make sure that I do,” she said.
Words of Wisdom
What words of wisdom does this veteran teacher have for aspiring educators?
“I’d say if you’re cut out for it, it’ll be one of the best professions that you’ll ever do,” she said, stressing that incoming educators should also be aware that it’s a tough, sometimes all-consuming job.
“But (it’s) rewarding. When you can reach a kid that everyone said was unreachable, it’s the biggest high you could ever have.”
Once retired, Higgins and her husband of 35 years plan to do as much traveling as they can. They own a fifth wheel, and dream of visiting each of the contiguous United States. There’s only a few they haven’t hit, and they hope to remedy that soon.
Higgins is helming Sparta’s production of “Titanic: The Musical” this winter, and she plans to continue to help the district out with theater productions even after she retires.
As she looks back on her 50 years in the classroom, she said there’s nothing she’d change about the experience.
“I can’t think of any regrets whatsoever — at all,” she said. “I regret I’m not younger, then I could continue.”
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