Schools

For New Cumberland Teacher, Education is All in the Family

Margo Miller will follow in four generations of footsteps when she starts her teaching career at Cumberland School next week.

As Margo Miller set up her classroom last week preparing for her first year teaching at , she had a little help from a couple other teachers — her mother and grandmother.

Miller, who will teach first grade, will be the fourth generation of teachers in her family’s lineage. Her mother, Janann Miller, is an art teacher at , and her grandmother Helen Schultz taught first grade in Plymouth for 22 years. Schultz’ mother — Margo’s great grandmother – taught in a one-room schoolhouse in the country. Margot also has three aunts that are elementary teachers.

Janann has been a teacher for 31 years, with the last 25 years at Richards.

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“Margo kind of grew up in Whitefish Bay because she would come at least once every year out of the last 25 years and help in my classroom,” Janann said. “She always loved kids, and the kids loved her.”

Margo grew up in Cedarburg, and she recalls graduating high school with hopes of becoming a graphic designer, even though her friends always pegged her for a teacher. Whether she was helping out in her mother’s art class, helping out in elementary classes in Cedarburg, nannying or working at a day camp, Margo was always around kids.

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After her first semester at UW-Stevens Point, she stopped in to visit her second-grade teacher in Cedarburg, and within 24 hours of the conversation she had changed all of her graphic design classes to teaching classes for the second semester.

“When I went back and talked to my second-grade teacher, I thought, 'I have a passion for working with kids, and I need to be in the classroom,'” she said. “I need to be around kids all day, and that’s what I want to do with my life. It definitely clicked the second I switched.”

After five years of teaching coursework in Stevens Point, she went on to student teach in Fox Point and then substitute teach for nearly two years in Whitefish Bay.

After teaching kindergarten through seventh-grade students, she said she is excited to begin her new career with kids that are also new to the world of education.

“Third-, fourth- and fifth-grade are a lot of fun, but the younger kids have more energy,” she said. “They are still excited about school.”

From one generation to the next, Schultz said she is proud to have her granddaughter follow in the family footsteps.

“I think she’s going to be a terrific teacher. Her mother has already proven she’s a terrific teacher,” Schultz said.


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